Marketing Transitions: Narratives, Conflicts, and Legitimation at the Narse de Nouvialle

Mettre en marché les transitions: Récits, conflits et légitimation à la Narse de Nouvialle

Gilbert Kientega ()
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Gilbert Kientega: IRG - Institut de Recherche en Gestion - UPEC UP12 - Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 - Université Gustave Eiffel

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Abstract: Ecological transition is most often conceptualized, in marketing and management literature, as a consensual horizon toward which organizations should orient themselves through responsible innovation strategies, impact certification, or hybrid governance. This presentation proposes to shift this perspective by demonstrating that transitions are first and foremost fields of cultural conflict in which competing narratives, figures of the citizen-consumer, and communication devices clash to define what it means to "inhabit well" and "consume well" a territory. Drawing on Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) and the Market System Dynamics approach (Giesler and Fischer, 2017), we analyze the case of the Collectif pour la Narse de Nouvialle, opposed to the diatomite extraction project led by the multinational Imerys in the heart of a Natura 2000 wetland in the Cantal region (Auvergne, France). Based on in-depth ethnographic research (interviews, participant observation, analysis of communication materials), we develop three theoretical contributions: (1) the concept of situated transition narratives, referring to the competing narratives through which conflict actors articulate consumption, territorial justice, and environmental futures; (2) a typology of citizen-consumer figures in transition, constructed from the positions adopted by residents, farmers, activists, and economic actors in the territory; and (3) the concept of conflictual transition marketing, demonstrating how the collective refuses the pacification of disagreement and maintains visible the power asymmetries and vulnerabilities. Doing so, this presentation offers a critical mirror for思考ing how impact organizations define, stage, and govern "impact" in contexts of uncertainty, and it reveals the blind spots of a managerial conception of mission that obscures the framing conflicts inherent to any territorial transition.

Keywords: Consumer Culture Theory; ecological transition; conflictual marketing; extractivism; wetland; impact organizations; Market System Dynamics; territorial justice.; organisations à impact; transition écologique; marketing conflictuel; extractivisme; zone humide; justice territoriale. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05-11
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Published in 8th edition Entrepreneurship Innovation and Governance Conference, EDC Paris Business School, May 2026, Paris, France

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