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Definition

Consumer activism is a process by which activists seek to influence the way in which goods or services are produced or delivered. Consumer activism includes both activism on behalf of consumers for consumer protection and activism by consumers themselves.

History

Historian Lawrence B. Glickman identifies the free produce movement as the beginning of consumer activism in the United States. Like members of the British abolitionist movement, free produce activists were consumers themselves, and under the idea that consumers share in the responsibility for the consequences of their purchases, boycotted goods produced with slave labor in an attempt to end slavery. Other early consumer activism included the creation of consumer cooperatives in Northwestern England in 1844 as a measure against local monopolies and high commodity prices.

Activism on the behalf of the consumer began around the 20th Century in the United States, in what scholars Tim Lang and Yiannis Gabriel term the "value-for-consumer" wave, and which sociologist Hayagreeva Rao calls the antiadulteration movement. It was during this time that consumer organizations began to emerge in the United States, starting with a Consumers League in New York in 1891 which merged with other regional branches to form the National Consumers League in 1898. One of the first consumer protection laws in the United States and worldwide, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906. More legislation around the world followed. During this time consumer-led activism like boycotts continued, largely in response to domestic and international socio-political concerns.

The publication of Unsafe at Any Speed in 1965 gave rise to a new type of legal-focused, anti-corporate activism. Whereas past activism had focused on the consequences of consumer actions and the protection of consumers, Lang and Gabriel argue the activism inspired by Ralph Nader and others is more confrontational toward the market.

Objectives and tactics

Consumer activism seeks to change some aspect of the way in which goods or services are produced in order to make the production process safer, more ethical, or environmentally friendly, or to make the products themselves safer, of better quality, or more available to consumers. As a result, consumer activism challenges existing corporate practices in order to effect a direct change in production, or attempts to modify some aspect of the behavior of consumers themselves.

Scholars Robert V. Kozinets and Jay M. Handelman find that consumer activism needs three factors: "a goal, a self-representation, and an adversary." In this model, the goal is the change consumer activists wish to effect in the way goods or services are produced or in the way consumers themselves approach consumption. Consumer activists may frame the purchase of a good or service as a moral choice, with the consumer partly responsible for aspects of the production. In this way, consumer activists attempt to influence the behavior of consumers by getting them to consider their consumption choices in an ethical light, and portray consumer activism as a movement among consumers, themselves included, for a common good. Consumer activists may also be part of various consumer organizations or portray themselves as members of a larger consumer movement.

The targets of consumer activism are often corporations that support causes or practices consumer activists find unethical. Corporations are made the recipients of consumer activism based on an aspect of the way in which they do business or because of organizations they choose to support, financially or otherwise. Consumer activism may also target the state in order to implement some form of regulation for consumer protection.

Consumer activist tactics can include boycotts, petitioning the government, media activism, and organizing interest groups. In these and other strategies, consumer activists seek to increase the exposure of their cause and to gain political support. This allows for more mobilization by supporters, both inside and outside the group, to protest and get their message heard.

Criticism

Some activists perceive the consumer public as unthinking, ignorant, and routine in their thoughts of consumption. Activist accounts describe these people as unreflective and unwilling to "consider" their habits and lifestyles. They may be believed to not insert moral or social ideas into their consumption. Other perceptions of customers are also expressed by activists, including the idea that consumers are submissive to corporations. The activists themselves may be described as dominating and oppressive to the consuming public.

Opponents of consumer activism often represent business interests. Some businesses have brought lawsuits against consumer groups for making negative comments about their products or services. Many of the suits have been successfully defended as exercises in free speech. Some cases against consumer activists have been dismissed under anti-SLAPP laws.

Notable activists and organizations

Notable consumer activists include Carol Foreman, Marc Kasky, Richard Kessel, Virginia H. Knauer, Eileen Hoats, Ralph Nader, Frances Perkins, Michael Pertschuk, and Peter A. Peyser.

Notable consumer organizations include Grahak Shakti (India), Public Citizen, Consumers Union, and Consumer Federation of America.

Potential Edits

For editing the Consumer activism article, I think it would be useful to include a new "History" section to give some background on consumer activism. This section would draw on some or all of the sources below, depending on how the actual section itself works out. The new section could incorporate a currently existing section on the periods of consumer movements already in the article; including these in a history section near the start of the article would ideally improve the overall coherence of the article. Additionally, a section on the consequences and current developments in consumer activism would be useful to include in the article, but I'm not yet sure whether the former would be better in the History section or in some "Consequences" or "Legacy" section.

Sources

The following list includes sources that may be useful in editing the Consumer activism article:

• Glickman, Lawrence B. “‘Buy for the Sake of the Slave’: Abolitionism and the Origins of American Consumer Activism.” American Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 4, 2004, pp. 889–912. www.jstor.org/stable/40068289.
• Glickman, Lawrence B. “'Make Lisle the Style': The Politics of Fashion in the Japanese Silk Boycott, 1937-1940.” Journal of Social History, vol. 38, no. 3, 2005, pp. 573–608. www.jstor.org/stable/3790646.
• Glickman, Lawrence B. “The Strike in the Temple of Consumption: Consumer Activism and Twentieth-Century American Political Culture.” The Journal of American History, vol. 88, no. 1, 2001, pp. 99–128. www.jstor.org/stable/2674920.
• Kozinets, Robert V., et al. “Adversaries of Consumption: Consumer Movements, Activism, and Ideology.” Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 31, no. 3, 2004, pp. 691–704. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/425104.
• Kurzer, Paulette, and Alice Cooper. “Consumer Activism, EU Institutions and Global Markets: The Struggle over Biotech Foods.” Journal of Public Policy, vol. 27, no. 2, 2007, pp. 103–128. www.jstor.org/stable/40072017.
• Swimberghe, Krist, et al. “Consumer Religiosity: Consequences for Consumer Activism in the United States.” Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 103, no. 3, 2011, pp. 453–467. www.jstor.org/stable/41476035.