 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| PRESS RELEASES | AMERICAN BOYCOTTS |
RESEARCH ON CONSUMER ACTIVISM |
T-CAP RESEARCH |
OTHER LINKS ON CONSUMER ACTIVISM |
DR. HELDMAN'S HOMEPAGE |
HOME | |
T-CAP
The Consumer Activism Project
Peace Sign, WTO Protest in Seattle, 1999; Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk
“The real power emerging today in democratic politics is just the mass of people who are crying out against the 'high cost of living.' That is a consumer’s cry. Far from being an impotent one, it is, I believe, destined to be stronger than the interest either of labor or of capital.”
-- Walter Lippmann, 1914
|
Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, President George W. Bush made a plea to the American people to fulfill their duty as citizens and go shopping to pull America out of our economic slump (that had actually started prior to September 11, 2001). While Bush was calling upon Americans to be consumer patriots, restaurants renamed their French fries freedom fries in response to France’s opposition to U.S. military might in Iraq, including the congressional dining hall, and Americans waged their own battle against the French by boycotting their wine and other products. WHAT IS THE CONSUMER ACTIVISM PROJECT?
The
Consumer Activism Project (T-CAP) is dedicated to
research and education about consumer activism in the
United States. To these ends, T-CAP conducts on-going
research to inform contemporary public policy and
political debates. This website presents current
research on the topic, as well as other resources to
raise awareness about this important “new” form of
political activism. What is consumer activism? Consumer activism is citizen action aimed at influencing corporate decisions, corporate power, or the allocation of societal goods and values. Examples of this “new” and increasingly popular form of political participation include boycotts, buycotts (purchasing products for political reasons), socially conscious investing, a variety of politically-oriented shareholder tactics (e.g., proposing a resolution, testifying at a shareholder meeting, disrupting a shareholder meeting), protests directed at corporate or quasi-governmental organizations (e.g., chambers of commerce, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund), and protests targeting businesses directly (e.g., protests in front of stores selling animal fur, union picket lines).
Consumer activism has been around since before the
nation’s founding as evidenced by the Boston Tea Party,
but in the last two decades, rates of consumer activism
have skyrocketed, jumping about 15 percent since 1980.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans now engage in at least
one boycott on an annual basis. The rise of consumer
culture in the United States during the latter half of
the past century shifted relationships between people
and institutions in ways that both positively and
negatively affect civic life and democracy. The
citizen-consumer has replaced the citizen-producer as
the dominant mode in the United States. Instead of
asking “what can I do for my country?” we ask “what can
my country and everyone else do for me?” The values of
the citizen-consumer have lent to the erosion of
conventional political participation and weakened
democracy in that citizens are less involved in their
own governance and public accountability through formal
political channels. On the positive side, consumer
citizenship has opened new venues for civic
participation, namely, consumer activism. Furthermore,
citizen-consumers are savvy enough to know that
corporations have become influential political players,
and confident in approaching these powerful institutions
directly to press political agendas. Principle Investigator: Caroline Heldman, Ph.D |
|
|
|
|
