ABSTRACT
Critical inquiry has emerged in recent years as a practice in the marketing discipline. The theoretical and conceptual foundations of critical thinking are largely to be found in Marxist philosophy. Marketing practices are accordingly interpreted through the dual exploitation/emancipation concept. The concept of exploitation is the cornerstone of Marxist social theory and is defined as the unequal exchange of labor for goods. The concept of alienation reinforces that of exploitation and describes a social relationship characterized by a person's lack of control over the conditions of their activity. The concept of alienation is closely intertwined with the concept of exploitation, like the specific conditions of its practice, but also defines the conditions in which emancipation is possible. The possibility of consumer emancipation from alienation has been debated since the 1990s in consumer research. Emancipation has particularly focused on freedom from the totalizing constraints of the marketplace and its illusory freedom of choice.
