A critical spatial approach to marketplace exclusion and inclusion

Abstract

The authors apply insights from critical spatial theory to explore how space can be reimagined to be more inclusive. The meaning of spaces includes (1) objective physical space, (2) subjective imagined space, and (3) lived space used by consumers. The authors discuss several cases in which different social actors (i.e., consumers, marketers, businesses, and policy makers) exert various forms of agency to achieve power and control in the social space and maximize different goals. They also highlight how critical spatial theories can be extended by marketing researchers. Businesses sometimes have more diverse interests than merely profit maximization and can consider a wider array of other sta..