RM&C - T6 consumer resistance and activism

consumer resistance, power & the market as a political space

CR: opposition to marketplace practices perceived as unethical/coercive/misaligned with personal beliefs, can be active/passive, individual/collective, forms: complains & advocacy/brand avoidance/boycotts/anti-consumption/ethical & sustainable consumption/sharing or access-based consumption; C power as political power: economic actions function as political actors, consumers framed as moral & political actors, neoliberal C culture resistance occurs through consumption or non-consumption publicly (Portwood-Stacer 2013), people vote with their wallets more than ballot box (Rössel & Schenk 2018); responsibilisation & PACT logic: responsibility shifts from states & corporations - individual C, consumption becomes social & political sphere, C positioned at centre of moral marketplace, responsibility shifted via marketing through: personalisation, authorisation, capabilisation; consumer power not new: consumption tied to identity/legitimacy/resistance

from individual advocacy to collective consumer activism

consumer advocacy (micro-level resistance): dissatisfaction publicly to warm others & pressure firms, individualised but amplified (social media), functions: 1 warn others 2 force firms to respond real time; consumer activism (collective action): organised collective consumption/non aimed at public sphere, targets corporate/governmental behaviour, tactics: protests/boycotts/petitions/legal challenges/whistleblowing; social media in collective action: deployable resource, enables: rapid mobilisation/solidarity across time & space/community formation, media use itself is political

consumer boycotts: mechanisms, impacts & limits

CB: consumers stop purchases for change, collective, target: corporate practices/industries/broader political systems; drivers: perceived participation of others, credibility or organisers, involvement in cause, perceived likelihood of success, brand commitment, availability of substitutes; benefits & costs to C: B = impact/moral signalling/self-esteem & identity reinforcement/guilt avoidance/express anger & punishment, C = missing out on products/free-rider problem/doubts about effectiveness/fear of unintended harm; effects on companies: sales decline/brand switching/negative brand attitudes/reputation damage, e.g. Bud Light collaboration Dylan Mulvaney: backlash, 28% sales decline, stronger in Republican areas, effects lasted 8m; brands with close substitutes easier to boycott, high visibility of consumption strengthens impact; limitations of C power: economic (relies: spending power, requires mass coordination, smaller more vulnerable), temporal (activism fades over time, attention shifts away), practical (legal intimidation, gov restricts protests

anti-consumption as market resistance

AC: resistance to ideological primacy of consumption (distaste/resentment), forms: anti-globalisation protests/voluntary simplicity/culture jamming/utopian communities; VS: choosing to limit material consumption to pursue non-material well-being (Etzioni 1998), more meaning, motivations: ethics/family life/personal growth, still involves market interaction (local, ethical, small scale), 5 values of voluntary simplifiers: 1 material simplicity 2 self-determination 3 ecological-awareness 4 human scale 5 personal growth; CJ: symbolic resistance to ads/dominant brand narratives, subverts logos & media messages, cultural resistance (not economic)

from solid ownership to liquid consumption

shift in C culture: move away from solid C (ownership, long-term, identity-linked, material) & towards liquid/access-based C (access, temporary, lower identity attachments, dematerialised); characteristics of LC: ephemerality (short-lived relationships with goods), access-based C (ABC: renting/sharing), dematerialisation (digital goods/services), e.g. fashion rental, car sharing, Airbnb, toy & appliance rental; barriers to ABC: hygiene & contamination/careless use/burden of care & time constraints/rebound effects/desire for control through ownership; renting: elevation (experimentation, access to extravagant/expensive), advocacy (telling others, sustainability advocates), surrogacy (care, pride to pass items on responsibly); implications of sustainable consumption: environmental (extended product life, reduce waste & resource extraction), consumers (access, flexibility, ethical self-identity, reduced burden of possession), companies/marketers (competitive advantage, brand trust & transparency, loyalty & advocacy, alignment with regulation)

consumer resistance and activism

consumer resistance, power & the market as a political space; from individual advocacy to collective consumer activism; consumer boycotts: mechanisms, impacts & limits; anti-consumption as market resistance; from solid ownership to liquid consumption