ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the study of consumption and marketing in non-Western cultures. It traces the trajectory of research on marketplaces that fall outside the Western world and discusses the potentialities and possibilities of critical research approaches in studying these contexts. In pursuing these goals, the terms West and non-West present many challenges. The chapter utilizes the terms to refer to characteristics commonly attributed to the West and the non-West in the social sciences and primarily as analytical signposts. It discusses the emergence of international marketing as an independent field of inquiry is a relatively recent phenomenon. The chapter highlights the relationship between these two perspectives and their implications for the study of non-Western marketplaces. It argues that, despite the growing interpretive research on the topic, the potential of developing a truly critical perspective to non-Western marketplaces remains unfulfilled.
