Call for Papers
The 2018 Heretical Consumer Research conference will be held (just prior to the ACR conference October 11-14th) Wednesday, October 10th – Friday, October 12th 2018. The conference location will be Dallas Texas with venue TBA.
The conference theme is Questioning truth, reality, and state of the art in consumer research with heretical interventions beyond this theme also welcome.
The purpose of the 2018 Heretical Consumer Research conference will be to engage in a critical and transgressive dialogue. The context of Dallas presents an opportunity to explore and experience a contentious moment in history; the JFK assassination on November 22, 1963. While Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged for JFK's murder he proclaimed his innocence but then was also shot and killed. Both of these murders are fraught with controversy and we (the consuming public) may never know the truth. Fast forward to the political climate of today and the question of truth and reality remains in the spotlight. The arrival and prominence of claims of fake news, especially on social media, enables manipulative actors a mechanism by which to market disinformation. The Pew Research Center reports that those experts forecasting an improvement with regards false and misleading narratives online will depend not only on technological fixes but also societal solutions (Anderson and Rainie 2017). Fake news is not a recent phenomenon as evident with the emergence of Yellow Journalism during the Spanish-American war (Crucible of Empire 1999). Essentially therefore, misinformation and the publication/sharing of false truths is a social condition that consumer researchers can address as a timely research topic. To that end, the HCR 2018 conference is directing the focus of heretical consumer researcher towards the questioning of truth, reality, and state of the art in consumer research.
From the 2016 US election to the Brexit vote, news of questionable validity abounds and consumers fail to adequately question informational sources, with serious political consequences. An intermittent survey conducted by Ipsos on the question of trust in news sources, shows that trust in Facebook is at 41% and Twitter 43%, with consumer trust in social media as an information source at 20% (Jackson 2017). While the war against fake news is viewed by some as the most important battle of our time (Byrnes 2018), there is a lucrative money making machine operating via fake social media profiles, accounts, and bots. Highlighting the sharing of disinformation on social media as akin to the spread of infection diseases, Kucharski (2016) (published in the journal Nature), proposes transmission models as appropriate in the study of post-truth reality. Within the realm of consumer research Dahl et al. (2017) raise the question of how do consumers determine a claim to be true? While truth might be considered the foundation of democracy, consumers tend to be more accepting of findings that align with held political beliefs and ideologies (Kidwell et al. 2013). More than that, cultural discourses shape consumers' interpretation of information (Fischer et al. 2007). As Dahl et al. (2017) assert, consumer researchers have an opportunity to examine current political happenings and offer informed insight on the underlying forces that have manifested a moment in time of "seemingly senseless outcomes."
Individuals interested in participating in the critical and transgressive dialogue at the upcoming 2018 Heretical Consumer Research conference should submit an abstract (max 500 words) by April 30, 2018 via the conference website. Abstracts are recommended to outline and summarize ideas and intended discussion topics of heretical inclinations in line with the conference theme of Questioning truth, reality, and state of the art in consumer research in order for conference organizers to propose unique tracks and groupings for the conference Proposed ideas and intentions will be further developed at the round table discussions as part of the 2018 Heretical Consumer Research Conference. At this HCR, there will be no formal presentations, but joint activities and discussions of ideas to develop toward joint or individual manuscripts to be submitted for a special issue of a journal.
Further information based on received abstracts will be sent to authors by June 25, 2018. The 2018 Heretical Consumer Research welcomes all especially participation of doctoral students as presenters or attendees as well as interested professionals and academics. Early bird conference registration closes August 31st with conference registration fees at $150 for faculty and $99 for doctoral students.
2018 HCR CONFERENCE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
- Go to: www.utrgv.edu/hereticalconsumerresearch and upload abstract submission by June 30, 2018.
- Submission max 1,000 words. Include author(s) affiliation and contact details on title page. This title page is submitted with the abstract submission as one document. This submission is not blind review.
- For multi-authored papers please identify the corresponding author and intended participants.
- The articles produced from HCR 2015 were published in special issues of the journals Arts & the Market, and Consumption, Markets & Culture. Similarly, a journal to house a special issue will be sought for the fruits of HCR 2018.
For more information contact:
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Dr. Sharon Schembri (sharon.schembri@utrgv.edu) |
Dr. A. Fuat Fırat (fuat.firat@utrgv.edu) |
#HCR2018
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hereticalcr
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/HereticalConsumerResearch
References:
Anderson, J. and Rainie, L. (2017). The future of truth and misinformation online. Pew Research Center, accessed January 30, 2018 from http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/10/19/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online/
Byrnes, S. (2018). The most important battle of our times is the war against fake news. The National Crucible of Empire (1999). Yellow Journalism. PBS Great Projects Film Company, accessed January 30, 2018 from http://www.pbs.org/crucible/frames/_journalism.html
Dahl, D. W., Fischer, E., Johar, G. V., and Morwitz, V. G. (2017). Making Sense from (Apparent) Senselessness: The JCR Lens. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(4), 719–723
Fischer, E., Otnes, C. C., & Tuncay, L. (2007). Pursuing parenthood: Integrating cultural and cognitive perspectives on persistent goal striving. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(4), 425-440.
Jackson, C. (2017). No change in trust in Facebook and Twitter despite government investigations into fake news. Ipsos, accessed January 30, 2018 from https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/trust-news-sources-2017-10-23
Kidwell, B., Farmer, A., and Hardesty, D. M. (2013). Getting Liberals and Conservatives to Go Green: Political Ideology and Congruent Appeals. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(2), 1, 350–367.
Kucharski, A. (2016). Post-truth: Study epidemiology of fake news. Nature, 540(7634), 525.