Introduction to the Special Issue on Transformative Consumer Research: Creating Dialogical Spaces for Policy and Action Research

Abstract

Julie L. Ozanne is the Sonny Merryman Professor of Marketing, Virginia Tech (e-mail: jozanne@ vt. edu). The author appreciates valuable input from Laurel Anderson, Terry Cobb, Brennan Davis, Ron Hill, David Mick, and Lucie Ozanne. The essays in this special issue originated from the second Transformative Consumer Research Conference held at Villanova University in 2009 that Ron Hill, Madhu Viswanathan, and I organized. Transformative consumer research (TCR) is a new academic movement that aims to advance the well-being of consumers through research that employs rigorous theories and methods (Mick 2006). Transformative researchers study the problems most relevant and pressing for consumers and society and then disseminate usable research findings to stakeholders who are best poised for constructive action (Mick et al. 2012). Thus, it is unsurprising that a natural affinity exists between TCR and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. This journal is one of the finest academic homes for research that aims to advance consumer well-being because of its special relationship to public policy makers who are important agents of social change. In many ways, the 2009 Transformative Consumer Research Conference deviated from the traditional conference format in which scholars present relatively finished research. Instead, the task for the conference participants was to assess the current state of research and then envision future research directions to inspire work on the most important social problems of our time. Scholars who are passionate about and committed to these persistent problems led the tracks: Dipankar Chakravarti and Jose Rosa on poverty; Rohit Deshpande and Cliff Shultz on developing markets; Bill Kilbourne and Andy Prothero on sustainable consumption; Jim Burroughs and Lan Chaplin on materialism; Punam Keller and Debbie Scammon on health; Lauren Block and Sonya Grier on food and well-being; Betsy Moore and Connie Pechmann on at-risk groups; Laurie Anderson and Dave Crockett on immigration, culture, and ethnicity; and Linda Scott and Jerome Williams on social justice. In each track, we also invited either guest scholars with established research records, such as Alan Andreasen, or researchers who hail from related fields, such as Ellen Kennedy from the Center for Genocide and Holocaust Studies. Conference participants earned entrance into these tracks by submitting a bold vision for conducting impactful research on the substantive issue appropriate for their track. To facilitate meaningful exchanges, the tracks were designed to be small, containing approximately a dozen people or fewer. We welcomed more than 100 intrepid researchers to participate in a novel conference format: a dialogical conference where they engaged in a remarkable activity—deeply listening to one another. Encouraged by the gracious financial support of Halloran Philanthropies, which fully funded this conference, we were emboldened to conduct a conference so devoid of the normal trappings of an academic conference, such as formal presentations and luncheons, that this meeting barely resembled a traditional conference at all. For a day and a half, small groups of scholars engaged in dialogue on issues of shared concern. In this essay, I begin by describing this unusual gathering and how colleagues were able to meet with other researchers, in conversation, and then leverage their distributed knowledge to chart new directions for TCR. A dialogical conference was particularly well suited for the tasks facing the TCR community—building a strong social network of researchers, sharing practical wisdom among scholars who seek to translate research into action, and inspiring new scholars on the promise of social change research. I close with a challenge to rethink our traditional notion of research and envision new forms of engaged scholarship based on the premise that we have a stake in forging workable solutions to these important social problems.