Haq, Shoaib Ul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8899-290X and Abid, Muhammad (2026) Counterfeit couture: epistemic contestations through fake luxury in Pakistani bazaars. Journal of Marketing Management (JMM). pp. 1-33. ISSN 0267-257X (Print), 1472-1376 (Online) (doi:10.1080/0267257X.2026.2675345)

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Abstract

This study examines counterfeit luxury consumption in Pakistani bazaars through a postcolonial lens, asking how do market practices simultaneously reproduce and resist colonial epistemologies of authenticity? Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews, we identify three mechanisms. First, epistemic layering refers to the accumulation of dominant Western knowledge systems over local ways of knowing, creating hierarchies that bury rather than erase indigenous authentication practices. Second, stratified consciousness captures how market actors hold multiple, hierarchically organised knowledge systems and exercise epistemological mobility by strategically traversing these strata depending on context. Third, mimetic resistance describes how marginalised actors use imitation to contest economic exclusion yet inadvertently reinforce dominant brand hierarchies rooted in colonial authentication standards. These mechanisms advance authentication scholarship by showing how colonial power relations shape legitimacy, extend postcolonial consumer research by specifying cognitive effects of epistemological multiplicity, and reconceptualise resistance as potentially reinforcing what it opposes.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	counterfeit consumption, luxury brands, postcolonial theory, epistemic layering, stratified consciousness, mimetic resistance
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Greenwich Business School Greenwich Business School > Networks and Urban Systems Centre (NUSC) Greenwich Business School > School of Business, Operations and Strategy
Last Modified:	26 May 2026 13:37
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/53585

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