An anthropologist, folklorist, and literary critic besides being a marketing professor, Alf H. Walle takes a refreshingly interdisciplinary look at an unexpected topic: the relation of modern social thought to marketing and consumer research. Tracing key ideas back to their intellectual roots, Walle shows how the evolution of social theory, and the controversies it has engendered can and should transform the way marketers approach consumers. He provides a theoretic underpinning for qualitative consumer research and provides the theoretical and methodological overview for qualitative methods in marketing/consumer research that others, such as Shelby Hunt have provided for scientific methods in marketing.