Disempowering Through Definition: A Dialogic Ethics for Understanding Consumer Vulnerability Through Nike's 'Mike and Spike' Advertising and African American Consumer History

Coleman, Catherine Adelaide

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/86607 Copy

Description

Title

Disempowering Through Definition: A Dialogic Ethics for Understanding Consumer Vulnerability Through Nike's 'Mike and Spike' Advertising and African American Consumer History

Author(s)

Coleman, Catherine Adelaide

Issue Date

2010

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Chambers, Jason P.

Department of Study

Communications

Discipline

Communications

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Business Administration, Marketing

Language

eng

Abstract

"I propose a dialogic ethics as a framework for understanding vulnerability and responsibility in consumer environments. Paulo Freire, in particular, helps us to understand that our humanity is bound in dialogue. Dialogue requires co-participation. The naming of groups as vulnerable through sweeping generalizations neglects to empower the oppressed by giving them voice in the encounter. When definitions of vulnerability are instituted in cultural and social structures of meaning without appropriate respect for and discourse with those so-named, then we risk instituting a culture of silence from the oppressed or ""vulnerable."" This dehumanizes the oppressed and diffuses the structures of accountability that come with liberation. Instead, we must engage in true dialogue that accepts multiple voices, presents message that enable critical consciousness and empowers the participants, acknowledges the historical circumstances of our language in discourse, and promotes our humanness, which we find in relation to others."

Graduation Semester

2010

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/86607

Owning Collections