Poetics of consumption

This special issue explores poetics as a mode of thinking in consumer research. Moving beyond poetry as a representational device, it highlights its philosophical potential to reveal the elusive, affective, and often contradictory dimensions of consumption. Building on prior work on researcher-poets, literary theory, and poetic inquiry, the issue examines how poetics serves as a way of theorising markets. The contributions span memoir, critical reflection, methodological innovation, and empirical inquiry across diverse contexts, including algorithmic capitalism, postcolonial branding, and consumer vulnerability. All in all, they advance a poetic paradigm of consumption that engages with what resists straightforward representation and expands the horizons of consumer research.