Non-western contexts: The invisible half

Abstract

Consumption is an inherently cultural activity and actual evidence about it is strongly influenced
\nby both the cultural orientation of scholars and the cultural settings in which such evidence has
\nbeen studied. A long tradition in consumption studies has developed in Western, economically
\ndeveloped, societies by scholars whose backgrounds are rooted in the Western tradition of thought.
\nApart from some exceptions, some of which will be reviewed hereafter, consumption studies
\ngenerally present this sort of Western bias in epistemological and ontological terms. The purpose
\nof this special issue is that of highlighting the importance of and the need for considering theoretical
\nand ideological approaches to the studies of consumption that do not necessarily belong to
\nthe Western tradition. As such, non-Western contexts that have been observed from a Western
\nperspective need to be reconsidered under a different light. In so doing, scholars need to interpret
\nconsumption in the light of theoretical categories and constructs that are compatible with the cultural
\ncontext under scrutiny (Venkatesh, 1995; Meamber and Venkatesh, 2000).