Critical Social Marketing Symposium 2025
WHEN
4 December 2025
Thursday
9.00am - 4.00pm Australia/Sydney
WHERE
City campus
UTS Business School (Building 8) Level 2 Room CB08.02.002
COST
Free admission
RSVP
The Critical Social Marketing Symposium, hosted by Change for Good at UTS, is an annual event designed to advance critical perspectives in social marketing and marketing for pro-social change. This year the event will run immediately following the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference (ANZMAC) which is also being held in Sydney.
About the symposium
Critical social marketing involves critically and constructively analysing social marketing theories, concepts, discourses, and practice and/or examining the deleterious impact of commercial marketing activities on social marketing problems - to generate critique, conflict and change that facilitates emancipatory social good.
Critical social marketing scholarship seeks to constructively question the normative values, ethics, morals, politics, theories, methods, principles, and practices of social marketing. There are many issues that could potentially fall within a CSM agenda, including but not limited to: critical reflexivity, power, subjectivity, ethics, morals, identity, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, culture, colonisation, post-colonialism and decolonisation, Indigenous knowledge and representation, critiques of commercial marketing, harmful consumption, nonrepresentational theory and methods, consumer vulnerability, corporate social marketing, neoliberal capitalism, unintended consequences, and bio-socio-material perspectives. These areas signpost ideas, bodies of literature and theoretical perspectives that help us think differently about the social problems that social marketing seeks to address, or to engage differently with the lived experiences of priority groups who are the focus of social marketing programs.
The symposium is designed to:
- foster connections between researchers with shared interests to pursue collaborative projects and
- enrich and strengthen critical social marketing.
The event is intended to be accessible to all, academics, practitioners, PhD students and early career researchers; and fosters a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive space to share and discuss works in progress and innovative ideas.
The 2025 symposium will convene scholars exploring projects and ideas related to critical social marketing, marketing for pro-social change and impact-oriented marketing and consumption research on the theme of: Critical Social Marketing in Troubling Times.
Symposium details
Host Organisation: Change for Good at UTS, University of Technology Sydney.
Supporting Organisations: Australian Association of Social Marketing (AASM), and European Social Marketing Association (ESMA).
Chair: Professor Ross Gordon, Director Change for Good at UTS.
Organising Committee: Ross Gordon, Celina McEwen, David Waller, Nadia Zainuddin, Nadina Luca.
Keynote speakers: Maria Raciti, Gauri Laud, Ross Gordon.
Closing panel speakers: Cheryl Leo, Nadia Zainuddin, David Waller, Rebekah Russell-Bennett and Sebastian Isbanner.
Program Overview
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:30 | Welcome & Official Opening: CB08.02.002 |
| 09:30 - 10:10 | Keynote presentation 1 and Q&A: CB08.02.002 Critical Social Marketing in Troubling Times, Professor Ross Gordon |
| 10:10 - 10:40 | Morning Tea & Networking Break: Foyer |
| 10:40 - 12:00 |
Keynote presentations 2 & 3 and Q&A: CB08.02.002 Value is Regenerative - A way forward or a thought experiment? Dr Gauri Laud |
| 12:00 - 12:45 | Networking lunch, Foyer |
| 12:45 - 14:45 | Concurrent Workshop 1: CB08.03.004 The Gender Responsive Engagement of Social Media Influencers (SMIs) to promote Social Good, Ave le Blanc (UTS) |
| Concurrent Workshop 2: CB08.04.002 Nudges Worth Implementing: Ethical, Effective, and Business-Friendly Strategies to Encourage Sustainable Meal Choices, Nathan Moore (UTS) |
|
| Concurrent Workshop 3: CB08.04.003 Small Eyes, Big Screens: Negotiating Culture, Care, and Screen Time Consumption, Nadia Zainuddin (AASM) |
|
| Concurrent Workshop 4: CB08.04.010 Wisdom in Practice: A Pluriversal Perspective on (Un)Wise Consumption, Kelis Nguyen (UOW) |
|
| Concurrent Workshop 5: CB08.04.011 Waste Not, Want Not? Critical Perspectives on Consumer Acceptance of Upcycled Foods under Cost-of-Living Pressures in Australia and Germany, Sebastian Isbanner (Technische Universität Berlin) |
|
| Concurrent Workshop 6: CB08.02.002 and online Waste Not, Want Not? Critical Perspectives on Consumer Acceptance of Upcycled Foods under Cost-of-Living Pressures in Australia and Germany, Sebastian Isbanner (Technische Universität Berlin) |
|
| 14:45 - 15:50 | Closing Panel: CB08.02.002 Challenges and Opportunities for Advancing Critical Social Marketing Theory, Research and Practice in Troubling Times Session Chair: Ross Gordon Speakers: Cheryl Leo (Murdoch University), Nadia Zainuddin (AASM), David Waller (UTS), Rebekah Russell-Bennett (University of Canberra) and Sebastian Isbanner (Technische Universität Berlin) |
| 15:50 - 16:00 | Closing remarks: CB08.02.002 |
For any questions about the event, please contact: changeforgood@uts.edu.au
Photography on the day
There will be a photographer at this event. If you wish not to be photographed, please let event staff know on the day.