Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Romancing the Market is a radical rethinking of marketing understanding. Marketing and consumer research are dominated by the neo-classical ideals of the Enlightenment such as rigour, dispassion and the search for scientific 'truth'. In a series of provocative essays, the contributors challenge these assumptions with reference to the individuality, innovation and imagination of the Romantic movement.
The book contains essays by an international selection of the most creative contemporary marketing scholars, including Elizabeth Hirschman, Russell Belk, Craig Thompson and Robin Wensley. Illuminating, controversial and cutting edge, this is an essential work for all those interested in new directions in marketing and consumer research.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Illustrations (p. xii)
• List of contributors (p. xiii)
• By way of a prelude: the charge of the light brigade (p. xvii)
• 1 Stoning the romance: on marketing's mind-forg'd manacles (p. 1)
• Bliss was it (p. 1)
• In that dawn (p. 4)
• To be alive (p. 6)
• But to be a marketing man (p. 9)
• Was very heaven (p. 12)
• O times, in which the meagre (p. 17)
• Notes (p. 17)
• References (p. 18)
• 2 Tore down a la Rimbaud: illuminating the marketing imaginary (p. 22)
• Into the mystic (p. 22)
• Bright side of the road (p. 23)
• Beautiful vision (p. 25)
• Whenever God shines his light (p. 28)
• Here comes the knight (p. 31)
• Piper at the gates of dawn (p. 34)
• Gloria (p. 37)
• Dweller on the threshold (p. 37)
• Days like this (p. 38)
• 3 In the arms of the overcoat: on luxury, romanticism, and consumer desire (p. 41)
• Pre-communist luxury (p. 42)
• Communist luxury (p. 45)
• Post-communist luxury (p. 46)
• The lap of luxury (p. 49)
• The role of the marketer (p. 51)
• References (p. 53)
• 4 Show me the deep masculinity: Jerry Maguire's postmodernised identity crisis and the romantic revitalisation of patriarchy (or the mythopoetic subtext of relationship marketing) (p. 56)
• Help me help you (p. 56)
• Brutal truth (p. 59)
• Stronger than oak (p. 61)
• Everybody loves you (p. 69)
• Notes (p. 72)
• References (p. 73)
• 5 Falling in love with a marketing myth: the story of segmentation and the issue of relevance (p. 74)
• The old and the new debate: progress or cycle? (p. 75)
• Elasticity and purchase behaviour models of segmentation (p. 77)
• Institutionalising the link between practical knowledge and marketing praxis (p. 79)
• The collective insecurity of marketing: the issue of practical knowledge (p. 81)
• Maintaining the relationship between marketing academe and practice (p. 82)
• Notes (p. 83)
• References (p. 84)
• 6 Illuminations, impressions, and ruminations on romanticism: some magical concepts and mystical comments from Morris the catoptric on the superiority of stereoscopy in visual representations of marketing and consumer research (p. 86)
• Introduction: (en)light(en)ing up (p. 86)
• Plain old photography (p. 91)
• Stereography: old bottle, new wine (p. 95)
• Method (p. 101)
• Illustrations: I've looked at life from both sides now (p. 105)
• Discussion: the catoptrics of Morris the Cat's photo-opp tricks (p. 114)
• Acknowledgement (p. 118)
• References (p. 118)
• 7 The rationality of 'irrational' behaviour: Georges Bataille on consuming extremities (p. 125)
• Meaning beyond utility (p. 125)
• 'A theory of love' (p. 127)
• The general economy (p. 128)
• Consuming sacredness (p. 131)
• Bataille in the marketplace (p. 134)
• References (p. 135)
• 8 What's love got to do with it?: sex, shopping and subjective personal introspection (p. 137)
• Note (p. 170)
• References (p. 170)
• 9 Romancing the utopian marketplace: dallying with Bakhtin in the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre (p. 172)
• Introduction (p. 172)
• Dallying with Bakhtin (p. 172)
• The voyage to utopia (p. 174)
• The magic kingdom (p. 175)
• The Land of Cockaigne (p. 178)
• Dream lover (p. 180)
• All the world's a stage (p. 181)
• Note (p. 184)
• References (p. 184)
• 10 In search of the lost aura: the object in the age of marketing romanticism (p. 187)
• Introduction (p. 187)
• Duchamp, du signe, du sens (p. 187)
• The object in the age of reproducibility (p. 189)
• The brand's dilemma (p. 191)
• A marketing versus an aesthetic credo (p. 191)
• The need to romanticise everyday objects (p. 193)
• Design and the re-enchantment of experience (p. 193)
• From exophoria to euphory (p. 196)
• The open object and the consumer as a reader (p. 197)
• Walter Benjamin's 'aura' and the re-illumination of objects (p. 198)
• Conclusion: proposals for a little philosophy of the toothbrush (p. 199)
• References (p. 200)
• 11 Advertising illumination: romantic roots of postmodern promises (p. 202)
• Market overview: the electronic community (p. 203)
• Close reading: postmodern themes and romantic roots (p. 204)
• Conclusion: between two worlds? (p. 212)
• References (p. 213)
• 12 Far-flung romance: the love affair between researchers, SMEs and their internationalisation process (p. 216)
• Prologue (p. 216)
• Introduction: the quest outlined (p. 216)
• Rousing the dragon (p. 217)
• Slaying the dragon (p. 218)
• The romantic offering (p. 222)
• Reading the entrails (p. 223)
• Conclusion: sacking the lair (p. 228)
• Epilogue (p. 230)
• References (p. 230)
• 13 Magical romance: commercial rafting adventures (p. 233)
• Purpose (p. 233)
• What is magic? (p. 234)
• The condition of the performer (p. 236)
• A rite (p. 239)
• A formula (p. 245)
• Discussion (p. 248)
• Note (p. 251)
• References (p. 251)
• 14 The unbearable lightness of marketing: a neo-romantic, counter-revolutionary recapitulation (p. 255)
• The pretentious 'introductory' part (p. 255)
• The 'let's-see-what-we-can-make-of-this-stuff' part (p. 256)
• The 'eternal return of the paean' part (p. 257)
• The 'time for a new section' part (p. 259)
• The 'show me the marketing' part (p. 262)
• The 'once more with feeling' part (p. 264)
• The 'humbuggery' part (p. 268)
• The 'unbearable lightness of marketing' part (p. 272)
• The 'notes' part (p. 274)
• The 'references' part (p. 275)
• Index (p. 279)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Eric J. Arnould is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of South Florida, Tampa.
Russell W. Belk is N. Eldon Tanner Professor of Marketing in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah.
Stephen Brown. Not many marketing academics can claim to have wrestled a fully-grown lion, bungee jumped from the top of Sears Tower, raced in the Indie-Car 500, discovered a cure for the common cold and circled the earth in the Mir space station. Neither can Stephen Brown. A shy and retiring, yet immensely engaging, Irishman, Stephen is modest to a fault, adored by his wife and family, and full of the milk of human kindness. But only on blue moons. The rest of the time, he is a monstrously egotistical, foul-mouthed, ill-tempered misanthrope who harangues his spouse, terrorises the kids and maltreats assorted domestic livestock (anything smaller than himself, basically) if they so much as squeak when he's trying to write. No one knows why Stephen gets so agitated since he's never been published in the principal academic journals and his books remain resolutely unsold. Some people never learn.
Bill Clarke is Head of the School of Management at the University of Ulster.
Anne Marie Doherty is Lecturer in the School of Commerce and International Business Studies at the University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland.
Benoit Heilbrunn teaches marketing and consumer behaviour at the Groupe ESC Lyons and at Universite Paris III-Sorbonne.
Morris B. Holbrook is the W.T. Dillard Professor of Marketing, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York.
Christian Jantzen is Associate Professor at the Department of Communication, Aalborg University, Denmark.
Pauline Maclaran is Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the School of Management, the Queen's University of Belfast.
Andrew McAuley is in the Department of Marketing at Stirling University.
Per Ostergaard is Associate Professor at the Department of Marketing, Odense University, Denmark.
Cele Otnes is on the faculty at the University of Illinois.
Paul Power, PhD student at Rutgers School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies is currently Vice President, Research, with King World Productions.
Linda L. Price is Professor of Marketing at the University of South Florida.
Barbara B. Stern is Professor of Marketing at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Faculty of Management, Newark.
Lorna Stevens is Lecturer in Marketing in the School of Commerce and International Business Studies at the University of Ulster, Magee.
Craig J. Thompson is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Robin Wensley is Professor of Strategic Management and Marketing at the Warwick Business School. He is also Chair of the Faculty of Social Studies.