“No Marketing on a Dead Planet”: Rethinking Marketing Education to Support a Restoration Economy

Abstract

The threat of rapid and unpredictable climate change means we must urgently transition human lifestyles into a restoration economy, with a focus on restorative development instead of new development or conservation of old modes. To support that project, marketing educators must rethink their discipline and their responsibilities, challenging legacy marketing teaching and ‘business as usual’. To assess current practice, a global survey of 200 marketing faculty identified three clusters by climate consciousness: Engaged, Conflicted, and Traditionalist. Analysis of open-ended comments identified three themes: Felt need for change, Barriers to change, and Action to take. Building on these findings, we identify anti- and pro-restoration mechanisms in our disciplinary practice at societal, university, and individual level. We present those mechanisms in a new framework highlighting the discourses that reinforce and challenge engagement and agnosis. Agnosis is a socio-cultural and psychological phenomenon underlying the current collective failure to engage with climate change. We challenge colleagues to confront agnosis and offer individual, disciplinary, and institutional actions that support transition to net-zero carbon marketing logic.