Hi, Stephane:

Wonderful question and a great topic of discussion---particularly Foucault''s concept of governmentality (Skålén, Fellesson, & Fougère, 2006)---what marketing seeks to govern, how marketing governs, and who we become when governed by marketing! 

Moreover, 'Foucauldian shift'  (Kasabov, 2004)---technology of power to the refined instruments of observation, inspection, and controlling are becoming the norm of modern society! Help lines and direct marketing are two familiar and prominent examples of refined disciplining. Refined discipling... how such a approach seeks to control, standardise and regulate the consumer! This is fascinating!

A recent research study (Fougère & Skålén, 2013) analyzed the managerialistic ideology of marketing theory by focusing on “customerism”—the customer-oriented managerialism that characterizes marketing. As an ideology, customerism has made it possible for marketing to discursively compete with different management fields in directing the management of organizational members.

The authors based their notion of managerialism in Foucauldian works on power and make a distinction between three forms of power/managerialism: sovereign, disciplinary, and pastoral. Their analysis displays how the forms of power underpinning the customeristic ideology inherent to marketing theory have changed over time, thereby contributing to the reproduction and extension of that ideology.

In particular, the authors show how different articulations of marketing discourse have developed the managerialism of marketing in such a way that today (1) organizational members around the world are meant to be affected by it and (2) it is meant to affect these organizational members in a deeper way!

• Fougère, M., & Skålén, P. (2013). Extension in the Subjectifying Power of Marketing Ideology in Organizations: A Foucauldian Analysis of Academic Marketing. Journal Of Macromarketing, 33(1), 13-28. 
• Skålén, P., Fellesson, M., & Fougère, M. (2006). The governmentality of marketing discourse. Scandinavian Journal Of Management, 22(4), 275-291.
• Kasabov, E. (2004). POWER AND DISCIPLINING: BRINGING FOUCAULT TO MARKETING. Irish Marketing Review, 17(1/2), 3-12.

Hope this helps!

Nadeem

hello Stéphane !

J'espère que tu vas bien :)

Besides those great references (thank you Nadeem), here are some others to widen the scope :

See the work of Shankar, Cherrier and Canniford on empowerment in a Foucauldian perspective : Shankar, A., Cherrier, H., & Canniford, R. (2006). Consumer empowerment: a Foucauldian interpretation. European Journal of Marketing, 40(9/10), 1013-1030.

Humphreys and Thompson recently wrote using the concept of "dispositif" :Ashlee Humphreys and Craig J. Thompson. “Branding Disaster: Reestablishing Trust through the Ideological Containment of Systemic Risk Anxieties.” Journal of Consumer Research: December 2014.

There is also a paper from Mardsen (2001) in European Advances for Consumer Research dealing with disciplinary power and consumer research.

Always nice to see how Foucault's work is used. I recently wrote on him and it is difficult for us (French people) because we read all his books in his/our native tongue. So, you will find very easily on the internet the book of Dreyfus and Rabinow that is widely used by american and english scholars (including translations of Foucault's seminars in the US, very useful to grasp his vocabulary in english).

I can send it to you if you do not find it, just ask me on Facebook.

Hope I helped.

See you soon

Maud

thank you folks!

there are some sources I didn't have that I will check preciously... Maud hello, you mentionned a paper that you wrote on/using Foucault ? is it visible somewhere?

thk you this is very helpful :)

S

hello Stéphane

This is recent and under review (let's keep finger crossed !). I keep you posted.

Maud

ok! finger crossed!! yes pls keep me posted... I really want to read you! :)

S