The Theorization Seminar:

Doctoral Seminar on Consumption Markets and Culture Theorization

This is a five day long intensive seminar that emphasizes mid-range and contextualized theory in the socio-cultural and critical approaches to marketing and consumption. The intended audience is doctoral students and junior faculty members; however, anyone interested is welcome.

The seminar is part of the European Doctoral School on Consumer Culture Theorizing (for details see https://www.cctweb.org/doctoral-seminars). We have been running this seminar biennially since 2005 in Ankara, initially by Bilkent University and from 2017 onwards by the Middle East Technical University.

Objectives of the Seminar:

1. Participants will learn of various ways of framing and conceptualizing research in relation to the existing literature as well as of theorizing grounded in data. Speakers and participants discuss their own routes of crafting research questions and generating theoretical contributions. 
2. The readings and discussions will center on mid-range, contextualized theory in the field of consumption, markets, and marketing studies and Consumer Culture Theoretics (CCT). Participants will hear of interdisciplinary and critical perspectives in theorization, drawing on marketing, anthropology, sociology, communication, and cultural and gender studies. The speakers will emphasize the historical, socio-cultural, and political-economic dimensions and challenges of understanding consumption and markets beyond the global north.
3. With its focus on theorization towards publication and knowledge dissemination, participants will learn of the expectations of international journals and their review processes. In addition to the mentors sharing their own paths of theorization and publishing, there will be a faculty panel on "how to (conceptualize in order to) publish" research papers.