Researching on the edge: emancipatory praxis for social justice

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to provoke a conversation in marketing scholarship about the overlooked political nature of doing research, particularly for those who research issues of social (in)justice. It suggests a paradigmatic shift in how researchers might view and operationalise social justice work in marketing. Emancipatory praxis framework offers scholars an alternative way to think about the methodology, design and politics of researching issues of social relevance. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper drawing on critical theory to argue for a new methodological shift towards emancipatory praxis. Findings As social justice research involves a dialectical relationship between crises and critique, the concept of emancipation acts as a methodological catalyst for furthering debate about social (in)justice in marketing. This paper identifies a set of methodological troubles and challenges that may disrupt the boundaries of knowledge-making. A set of methodological responses to these issues illustrating how emancipatory research facilitates social action is outlined. Research limitations/implications Emancipatory praxis offers marketing scholars an alternative methodological direction in the hope that more impactful and useful ways of knowing can emerge. Practical implications The paper is intended to change the ways that researchers work in practical and concrete terms on issues of social (in)justice. Social implications Although this paper is theoretical, it argues for an alternative methodological approach to research that reorients researchers towards a politicised praxis with emancipatory relevancy. Originality/value Emancipatory praxis offers a new openly politicised methodological alternative for addressing problems of social relevance in marketing. As a continuous political and emancipatory task for researchers, social justice research involves empirical encounters with politics, advocacy and democratic participation, where equality is the methodological starting point for research design and decisions as much as it is the end goal.

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“…Could that behavior misalign orientations, compensate for that misalignment or moderate the EO-SO relationship? Methodologically, one could examine if the relationship between social justice initiatives (Hutton and Heath, 2020) and regulation compliance (Xu and Chen, 2020) is similar to our curvilinear effects. Can both be maximized?…”

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“…CER is relevant to this paper in that it exposed and questioned hegemony and traditional power assumptions (Msimanga, 2017) held about relationships, groups, communities, societies, and organizations to promote social change' (Hutton, 2020). The change, in this case, was to ensure that the participants are not working through imposed strategies instead they developed their pathways to mitigate challenges of learner academic performance in a grade 10 economics class.…”

“…The author positioned this paper by using critical emancipatory research (CER) as the theoretical lens (Haigh, Kemp & Bazeley, 2019), based on its ability to advocate peace, hope, equality, team spirit, and social justice (Hutton, 2020;Nkoane, 2012). CER, as used in this paper, requires being committed to enabling people to question their status and the injustices prevalent in their communities (Duckworth & Tett, 2019;Esau, 2013;Hlalele, 2014), while liberating them, meeting the needs of real-life and raising self-consciousness (Adebola, Tsotetsi & Omodan, 2020;Makoelle, 2013).…”