Adversaries of Consumption: Consumer Movements, Activism, and Ideology

Abstract

This article focuses on consumer movements that seek ideological and cultural change. Building from a basis in New Social Movement (NSM) theory, we study these movements among anti-advertising, anti-Nike, and anti-GE food activists. We find activists' collective identity linked to an evangelical identity related to U.S. activism's religious roots. Our findings elucidate the value of spiritual and religious identities to gaining commitment, warn of the perils of preaching to the unconverted, and highlight movements that seek to transform the ideology and culture of consumerism. Conceiving mainstream consumers as ideological opponents inverts conventional NSM theories that view them as activists' clients.S ocial movements are intentional collective efforts by activists to transform the social order (Buechler 2000). This article focuses on consumer movements, which are particular kinds of social movements that attempt to transform various elements of the social order surrounding consumption and marketing. As consumption has come to play an increasingly central role in contemporary society, consumer movements have arisen to challenge and transform aspects of it by propagating ideologies of consumption that radicalize mainstream views.As we seek to increase our understanding of the dynamics and complexities of consumer culture, we need theory that conceptualizes consumer movements and their ideological role. As we follow the historical trajectory of a culture of consumerism that seems in many accounts to be globally ascendant and apparently unstoppable, conceptualizing consumer movements that stand in opposition to it may be viewed as increasingly important. Sklair (1995, p. 507) terms the mutually reinforcing integration of consumer culture and consumerist ideology the "culture-ideology of consumerism" and concludes that it is a "fundamental institutional support of global capitalism." The purpose of this article is to arrive at a theory-based understanding of con-*Robert V. Kozinets is assistant professor of marketing at

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