Critical Sustainable Marketing: For What It’s Worth

Many marketing organisations consider sustainable development important, but especially the domain of food and agribusiness rapidly is becoming less sustainable rather than more. It appears that the dominant governance system that coordinates mainstream food and agribusiness markets fails with respect to sustainable development. Alternative market systems, that may be more compatible with sustainable development of food and agribusiness, could be based on distinct socio-economic worldviews and governance arrangements.
A content analysis of a mainstream and an alternative compendium on agricultural marketing demonstrates the feasibility of distinguishing underlying conventions and/or governance systems in markets. Mainstream marketing texts are dominated by (late capitalist) industrial project worldviews in Western contexts, and (early capitalist) industry worldviews in non-Western contexts. The texts on alternative food markets are dominated by patrimonial worldviews, complemented by inspired and civil worldviews, but mostly by an, as yet undefined, system of autonomous collaboration or social anarchy. Whether market is part of the solution or part of the problem depends on how the market is governed and what counts as success or failure in market performance.