Marketing Scholars Who Fight for Enslaved Lives
- Ceyda Sinag
- Apr 30
- 7 min read
Written By Ceyda Sinağ, Post-Doc at Sabancı University, Turkey
This assignment was one I will never forget.
Two moments stand out for me.
The first was reading "Frames of consumer mobilization and modern slavery," published in IJRM (In Press) by Professors Rohit Varman, Michal Carrington, Andreas Chatzidakis, and Deirdre Shaw. While reading the lines describing modern slavery, I felt moral discomfort: vulnerable people losing agency to others through violence; being economically exploited; and being stripped of free will. As consumers, albeit unwillingly, we become part of the problem, as slavery afflicts many supply chains. Nevertheless, our role as consumers in restricting modern slavery is emphasized in State interventions, such as the Australian Modern Slavery Act, the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, and the UK Modern Slavery Act, as well as in anti-slavery NGO campaigns. However, since modern slavery persists globally despite such efforts, the authors find it crucial to critically analyze how NGOs mobilize consumers to resist modern slavery and assess its effectiveness.
Using philosopher Judith Butler's 'framing of frames' approach to communication, the authors critically examined NGO communications and revealed key conflicts and contradictions that lead to the following outcomes. Firstly, NGOs responsibilize consumers as buyers and citizens to combat modern slavery while overlooking corporate accountability. Further, NGOs blame the State for weak legislation and enforcement as the primary facilitator of modern slavery, whereas they obscure the role of corporations’ globalized supply chains and pursuit of cost efficiencies in perpetuating it. Hence, these frames lead to the obfuscation of corporations' responsibility in contributing to modern slavery. Also, through othering, that is, treating enslaved people as intrinsically different from us, NGOs dehumanize enslaved workers. This fosters systemic alterity, a kind of structural social distance, which inadvertently sustains modern slavery.
The second memorable moment was my interview with the authors.
The interview made me reflect on the power of a purpose-driven life and whether this could be a turning point in channeling my research toward critical marketing. As I reflect, I share my take on this remarkable interview.
A shared concern
Being critical is a conscious choice for Rohit. He changed his career path from corporate to academia, driven by a wilful rejection of the status quo in the capitalist economy. He found that growing up in India, modern slavery was impossible to ignore; the observable structural injustices in society were devastating to him. Consequently, he conducts interdisciplinary research on corporate violence, exploitation, and unfree labor and works toward impactful change.
Andreas was always critical of the world around him and engaged in movement politics. He is interested in the intersection of consumption with ethics and politics. He revealed a critical realization concerning structural dehumanization that came from an incident in the Peloponnese (Greece) when farm owners shot migrant strawberry workers protesting unpaid wages. Deirdre has been researching consumer ethics since her PhD studies. She states that modern slavery is rooted in flawed systems, which then raises critical questions about the ethics of consumption.
So, how did the team get together? Deirdre and her colleagues had a funded ESRC seminar series exploring consumption ethics from interdisciplinary perspectives. Rohit was invited to speak on 'Modern Day Slavery, Violence, and Consumer Sovereignty.' at the 10th seminar in 2017. Deirdre explains why they decided to cover this topic in the seminar series:
“Michal and I were at an industry event celebrating the launch of the UK Modern Slavery Act. We were surprised by the lack of understanding of the consumer perspective, despite the responsibilization of consumer citizens as part of this legislation. So, we decided to explore that by hosting an event where we looked at trying to understand different perspectives of modern slavery.”
- Deirdre
Working on a sensitive topic
Andreas highlights how the team’s diverse viewpoints were crucial to the success of their collaboration.
“We come from different perspectives, and in many ways, we have complementary inputs to add these. That is what almost always makes a collaboration more meaningful and generates new insights.”
- Andreas
Rohit underlines the importance of trust among team members when working on such a serious issue. The team does not come together merely to write another paper; Rohit sincerely and passionately asserts that they are genuinely concerned about modern slavery and believe in eradicating it.
Yet, this serious research topic was not without challenges. According to Deirdre, one challenge is balancing representing stakeholders fairly by acknowledging the systemic and infrastructural obstacles they face, while maintaining a critical stance that supports progress and change. Andreas and Rohit underline that they engage in a broader systemic critique and are not directing their criticism to individuals. Rohit also points out that critical assessment is a must to uncover the root causes of modern slavery.
Publication journey
The team submitted their paper to IJRM in 2021; their initial focus and theoretical framework differed.
They initially focused on understanding the discourse of modern slavery created by the State, the communication of NGOs, and how consumers responded to them. At this point, reviewers demanded clarification yet provided conflicting feedback. Both the AE and the editor stepped in with guidance. As the team mentioned, the AE resolved the conflict by providing a specific direction. In that way, they followed one reviewer’s suggestion to focus on NGO communication, which helped the team to channel their research and focus on key aspects.
IJRM welcomes a critical approach
Andreas draws our attention to the fact that the publication of such a burning topic and bringing a critical approach to a top academic journal like IJRM is significant. As he further offers, IJRM editors' support and contributions to such research are essential. Rohit considers their support a pleasant surprise:
“I always thought IJRM was a very mainstream managerial outlet that did not really have too many critical pieces. It was a very pleasant surprise and experience despite all the challenges, and the fact that a team backing us believed in this project. I give a lot of credit to the AE and editor for making that happen.”
- Rohit
Read the paper
"Frames of consumer mobilization and modern slavery" Read the paper here.
Want to cite the paper?
Varman, R., Carrington, M., Chatzidakis, A., & Shaw, D. (2024). Frames of consumer mobilization and modern slavery. International Journal of Research in Marketing.
Meet the Authors
Rohit Varman
Professor of Marketing and Consumption at the University of Birmingham
How does your personal life intersect with your professional life?
I don't see a divide between personal and professional in that sense because this is an aspect that one embraces in totality. This is something you breathe every moment, and you live with it. And then it manifests in the groups you're part of, the solidarities you extend, and various activities you undertake. Just two days back I was a part of an anti-fascist demonstration. So, this becomes your way of life.
If you would not be a marketing researcher, what would you be?
Full-time activist, independent of any NGO.
Who is the researcher, from any field you would like to sit to lunch with, what would you say to him/her?
Prabhat Patnaik, a retired professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, is a political economist and Marxist theorist. I would love to learn more about the political economy, what neoliberalism is doing, and his theoretical analysis. Also, I would like to know more about the rise of the far right and its connection and his Marxist analysis of that through the lens of political economy. Finally, I would also like to know more about how we could overcome this moment.
Andreas Chatzidakis
Professor of Marketing at Royal Holloway University of London
How does your personal life intersect with your professional life?
From the outset, I've also been trying to be political in my daily life. The personal is political as well. And in that sense, personally, I am involved in some projects of consumer activism outside of academia. And, of course, I will demonstrate and do whatever else I can as an individual to mobilize again, in a however limited way, with what is against what, the various negative forces currently overwhelming the world.
If you would not be a marketing researcher, what would you be?
Definitely something around ethics.
Who is the researcher, from any field you would like to sit to lunch with, what would you say to him/her?
Judith Butler. She has been a very bold thinker in trying to build bridges and deconstruct some of the generalizations and misconceptions systematically reproduced by authoritarian and fascistic forces. I would like to know how we engage with what she identifies as fascistic passions, and the politics of affect to reify politics of toxicity, division, and resentment, as opposed to the politics of care, humanism, and social, eco-socialist justice. How do we engage with politics at that level to try to rescue whatever can be rescued from this current political crisis that we are in?
Deirdre Shaw
Professor of Consumer Ethics and Sustainability at the University of Glasgow
How does your personal life intersect with your professional life?
I consider myself a concerned consumer and citizen, both professionally and personally.
If you would not be a marketing researcher, what would you be?
Time is a massive thing, and when you allow people time, they can become more active citizens in their community. If you can work less, you are able to participate more in local or global issues and get more involved in some of those issues. But in reality, I guess for a lot of things, I get more involved through the work that I do and engage in the kind of research that is impact-related.
Who is the researcher, from any field you would like to sit to lunch with, what would you say to him/her?
It depends on when you ask and what I’m working on, but a key challenge for me right now is thinking about the intersections of this bigger picture, these systemic issues, and how as a society, members of the society, we can mobilize the changes needed to make things better. I see this as a collective conversation around a table.
This article was written by
Post-Doc at the Sabancı University (Turkey)
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