Macromarketing as Facilitator of Humanity's Desirable Future

Abstract

Our introductory essay to the Journal of Macromarketing special issue on futurology advances macromarketing as the discipline best positioned to facilitate humanity's preferred future. Framed by foundational assumptions about artificial intelligence, transhumanism, post-scarcity economies, and socio-ethical evolution, macromarketing must shift from predicting to inventing that future. The pertinent research-amenable problems are best resolved with future-oriented foresight tools such as scenario planning, causal layered analysis, backcasting, and immersive speculative design. Critical engagement with borrowed theories, rigorous scrutiny of underlying assumptions, contextual precision over broad generalizability, and prioritizing sustained human flourishing are vital to advancing an equitable, sustainable, inclusive, and meaningful future for all. Hence, we position macromarketing as a normative, interdisciplinary social science that can anticipate, shape, and ethically guide transformative technological and societal trajectories.

Keywords

artificial intelligence transhumanism post-scarcity economy sustainable and equitable futures scenario planning

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