This paper forms part of a recently opened debate in consumer research, in which new theoretical and methodological questions have (re)occurred, encouraging researchers from this particular field to (re)establish their contacts with disciplines from the Human and Social Sciences, such as Philosophy, Sociology and Anthropology. The objective is to present and discuss a proposal for interpretative consumer research based on three movements - phenomenology, ethnography and the grounded theory - that are different, but not parallel, and that can be reconciled in such a way as to allow for a more wide-reaching research style. In this discussion, we try to argue that associating them seems not only to be possible, but also desirable. The work, therefore, intends to contribute to the debate on the use of complementary methodologies that allow for dealing with the ambiguities, fluidity and contradictions of real life experienced by consumers.
Consumer research; interpretivism; phenomenology; ethnography; grounded theory
