Epistemological access in Marketing – a demonstration of the use of Legitimation Code Theory in Higher Education

Having epistemological access to an academic discipline means that one is able to participate effectively in its ‘Discourse’. However, understanding what such participation entails and putting this into practice is complicated as much about it is tacit and contested. This article argues that a more explicit understanding of what legitimate participation in a disciplinary Discourse involves is facilitated by using an analytical toolkit provided by Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) to bring to the surface the discipline’s underlying principles and ‘rules of the game’. To support this argument and demonstrate the efficacy of this toolkit, the article foregrounds one discipline (Marketing) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Using the LCT analytical tools to explore the ‘languages of legitimation ’ in interview data, documents and the discipline’s scholarly literature, insight is gained into what constitutes legitimate participation and achievement in Marketing