The proposed seminar series tackles the important societal issue of marketplace exclusion, for example the mechanisms through which individuals and communities are barred from the resources and opportunities provided by the marketplace to the average citizen. It explores how marketplace exclusion operates within UK society and what measures we might take to help counter it. We aim to bring together leading scholars, early career researchers, and relevant user groups that are interested in the intersections between marketplace participation and other social categories, in particular community cohesion. We aim to highlight marketplace exclusion as a serious but largely neglected issue in both academic and policy circles. The series will also establish cross disciplinary networks for future research collaboration. It is undeniable that we are living in an era of consumerism where we are increasingly encouraged to look to the marketplace to find meaning in our lives and to use products, services and brands to define ourselves in relation to others. Participation in the market, and the accompanying rights and responsibilities, is an essential aspect of social cohesion. Alongside the rise of consumerism we have seen a shift away from values of community and integrity towards those of materialism and competition. This in itself has been problematic for UK society as a whole however some groups are better equipped to thrive in this context than others. The recent riots of summer 2011 where young people targeted their frustrations at major brands (Boffey, 2012) is evidence of the alienation some groups are experiencing. Marketplace exclusion might result from a range of financial factors such as poor access to jobs and forms of credit which mean that individuals simply cannot afford to participate in the marketplace. However, we are also concerned in this seminar series to explore the failure of the marketplace in social/symbolic terms. As such the seminar series will focus on representations through which individuals are excluded from the marketplace, engaging critically with the discourse and practice of advertising, marketing research and digital marketing both in the academy and in industry. The series will also explore the ways in which individuals and communities might resist marketplace exclusion through the development of alternative channels of consumption such as community shops and Local Economic Trading Systems (LETS). It will also explore policy responses to marketplace exclusion, specifically social housing and community cohesion policies, and aims to develop new insights on these. The originality of the series lies in its cognate but cross disciplinary make-up of participants brought together to address the role of the marketplace in perpetuating exclusion for some groups in society. The organisers come from the relatively diverse fields of critical marketing, consumer research, organisation studies, housing studies and community cohesion. However, the most innovative element of the series is our collaboration with the New Vic Theatre group Borderlines, to use theatre to explore the issues emerging and work with the community to find solutions. The final seminar in the series will take the form of a theatre production with ten unemployed (NEETS) young people. Using findings from the previous five seminars the production will be designed to explore individuals' everyday experiences of alienation from the marketplace and create a response through theatre. The performance will be followed by a practitioner workshop involving the cast, local organisations and academics/practitioners from earlier seminars. The performance and workshop will uphold or challenge the issues discussed in earlier seminars. It will also allow excluded consumers to find a voice and find new and positive ways to understand themselves and their communities.