Will Consumers Save The World? The Framing of Political Consumerism

Abstract

An active ethically conscious consumer has been acclaimed as the new hero and hope for an ethically improved capitalism. Through consumersÕ ''voting'' at the checkout, corporations are supposed to be held accountable for their conduct. In the literature on political consumerism, this has mainly been approached as political participation and governance. In this article, we do a critical review of this literature. We do so by questioning the existence of what we call a ''generic active consumer model.'' At the core of this position, there is a belief that the active consumer is a universal entity, available across nations and time. Instead we call for an approach that takes accord of the ways consumers and consumer roles are framed in interactive processes in markets, governance structures, and everyday life. Consumers in different countries assess their responsibilities and their powers as consumers differently due to different institutionalizations within distinctive contexts. We also must take into account how the inertia of ordinary consumption and the moral complexities of everyday life restrict the adoption of an active consumerist role. Hence, the debate on political consumerism should make for a more realistic notion of ethical consumer-sovereignty and its role in improving the workings of capitalism. In our view, these findings have severe implications for understanding both theories of political consumption and the dynamics of political consumption per se.

Beliefs, attitudes, and propensity to buy locally produced food

“…One can speculate that the heightened awareness of the contribution that food miles potentially make to global warming is entering into food purchasing decisions. Consumers may be moving from considering buying local as solely a pragmatic issue of getting fresher food and supporting local economies, to encompassing larger sociopolitical issues where impacts can be made through responsible consumerism (Jacobsen & Dulsrud, 2007;Vermeir & Verbeke, 2006).…”

“Consumocracia”. El consumo político como forma de participación de la ciudadanía

“…Realizar la compra en el mercado y recibir el ticket puede ser interpretado simbólicamente como el acto de votar, de tal forma que a través del "voto" de los consumidores en las cajas, las empresas sienten que tienen que rendir cuentas (Jacobsen y Dulsrud, 2007;Johnston, 2008). Así "en el momento en que se usa el mercado como forma de acción política, la empresa ha de actuar en consecuencia y asumir el papel de actor político.…”

“…La investigación futura debe identificar las conexiones entre el consumo con conciencia social y la ciudadanía democrática (Dulsrud y Jacobsen, 2007). En la actualidad, los debates teóricos giran en torno a la idea de que la búsqueda de un futuro más sostenible pasa por el "cambio de comportamiento" de un número importante de personas en la sociedad.…”

Empowering the Citizen-Consumer: Re-Regulating Consumer Information to Support the Transition to Sustainable and Health Promoting Food Systems in Canada

“…However, Jacobsen and Dulsrud [29] found that consumers do not often have enough information about the politics beyond products to make informed political consumerist choices. This is the jumping off point for the rest of our analysis.…”

“…How must consumer food information systems be redesigned to leverage the citizen-consumer phenomenon and advance government objectives around health and sustainability? Given that health and sustainability are collective good objectives, we follow Johnston's interpretation that draws a clear distinction between consumerism's "maximization of individual self-interest through commodity choice," and citizenship based on the prioritization of "the collective good," which "emphasizes responsibility to ensure the survival and wellbeing of others-human and non-human" ( [29], p. 243). This is an important distinction because a significant assumption of the current system is that individual self-optimization generates wider societal value.…”