GRSJ224/neoliberal activism

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The past several decades have seen a significant rise in social activism through consumerism. As public interest grows in addressing global social justice issues such as environmental destruction, gender equity, child labour, poverty, access to education and healthcare, a form of activism has emerged where consumers can advocate for causes they believe in through their economic participation. Corporations, as well as non-profits and charities, have created consumer goods, events, and campaigns targeted at these consumers, suggesting that purchasing these specific products on participating in their campaigns, can help address pressing global problems.

Neoliberalism and activism

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism has been defined in terms of economic processes, as well as its various political and social justice implications. Neoliberal ideology includes valuing free-market competition, deregulation, free trade, and in general increasing the role of the private sector in providing goods and services in society[1]. In recent years, the term 'neoliberalism' in political and academic debate has often been used often used to critique neoliberal ideology and its impacts, including the spread of global capitalism, increased consumerism, the decline of the welfare state, and the idea that human well-being is primarily the responsibility of the individual [2] [3].

Activism in a Neoliberal Framework

Activism is action for a cause, which can take place in the form of protests, petitions, election campaigning, and other forms of individual and collective organizing[4]. Increasingly, activism also takes place through consumption practices, as consumers “vote” with their dollar. Activism through consumption is linked to neoliberal principles in that helps to blur the distinction between the roles of markets and the state. Social issues that were once the responsibility of governments increasingly incorporate solutions implemented by market actors, supported by responsible consumers [5]. Neoliberal activism contributes to the responsibilization of the consumer , by framing consumers and consumption practices as key to solving global issues.

Commodity activism

Commodity activism is the “process by which social action is increasingly understood through the ways it is mapped onto merchandising practices, market incentives, and corporate profits” [6]. Related terms include ethical consumption and conscientious consumption. 

Examples of commodity activism

Product (RED)

Commodity activism often takes place in the form of purchasing branded merchandise, of which partial or complete proceeds are donated to a charitable cause. This is particularly prevalent in causes related to international development, social reform, and other forms of aid directed to countries in the Global South. Product (RED) is a brand that partners with companies including, among many others, Coca-Cola, Nike, American Express, and Apple to deliver specially branded Product (RED) versions of the company’s goods to consumers. Companies agree to donate a portion of the proceeds from these specific products to the Global Fund, an international financing organization that attracts and invests funding to end global epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Proponents of Product (RED) and similar campaigns suggest that this form of activism allows private funding to augment public funding in addressing global health crises by tapping into previously unavailable funding sources from consumers [7]. As of late 2017, Product (RED) has raised over $500 million in funding for HIV/AIDS programs in Africa [8] . Retrieved 28 November 2017. Critics of Product (RED) have highlighted the lack of transparency in the allocation of funds raised by Red products, for encouraging the privatization of aid, and for not addressing the root causes of the AIDS epidemic and weakened health systems in African countries [7].

Alter Eco's Fair Trade Quinoa

Commodity activism is frequently encouraged by social enterprises and benefit corporations who not only donate proceeds from sales to social causes, but claim to advance these causes through their core operations. For example, Alter Eco, a certified B-Corp, operates its own Fair Trade farmer cooperative in Bolivia, also the single source of the company’s heirloom quinoa products. Throughout its branding, Alter Eco highlights the production process associated with its commodity with photos, videos, and stories from the individual farmers and families who produce this quinoa, along with blog posts and articles detailing the history and social impact of quinoa farming in the Bolivian altiplano[9]. A page entitled “Activism through food” details that Alter Eco’s contract prices are “10% to 30% higher than the local market price, with an additional Fair Trade premium” [10]. Alter Eco aims to defetishize its commodity by reducing alienation between consumption and production. At the same time, critics argue that this type of branding draws an imagined moral relationship between the consumer and producer, while failing to challenge the unequal wealth distribution and power dynamics between privileged consumers in the Global North and commodity producers in the Global South [11]. 

Commodity Fetishism

Commodity fetishism is a concept that commodities can become part of social representations and hold cultural meanings that are dissociated from the social relations between consumers and producers of commodities. Ethical consumerism and commodity activism often involves attempts by companies and organizations to ‘defetishize’ commodities by directly shedding light on production processes, as in the case of Alter Eco and many other Fair Trade products. This process of defetishizing commodities makes visible the human labour and environmental and social issues associated with consumption that often inspire commodity activism. Critics argue that in the case of ethical consumption products, rather than defetishizing commodities, consumers instead fetishize the imagined moral relationship between themselves and the producers, using the commodity as a site to displace concern for social and environmental harms [12]. Some scholars also call for an additional feminist lens in defetishizing commodities, to identify the many invisible ways women’s labour is integrated into the production of commodities, and to identify how the effects of commodity fetishism are locally constituted and mediated in both the sites of consumption as well as the sites of production [13][14].

Criticisms of commodity activism

A main critique of commodity activism, particularly that geared towards advancing social issues internationally, is that it maintains the racialized, imperial power relations between consumers, and those who are meant to benefit from the ethical consumption, often located in more economically disadvantaged communities [15].

Another criticism of commodity activism is that it may distract citizens from other forms of engagement with political and social justice issues that may be more challenging in terms of confronting their lifestyle choices and privileges, or taking more direct political action [16].

Defenses of commodity activism

Strategic consumption practices have been used by activists throughout history to challenge systemic racism, economic disenfranchisement, and unethical or unjust business practices. Strategic consumption typically includes boycotts but can also take the form of increased investment in specific businesses and services believed to be aligned with the values of the activists. For example, the civil rights movement in the United States in the 20th century involved collective investment into independent businesses, as a means to enfranchise African Americans[17][18].

Some scholars also argue that ethical consumption and commodity activism can inspire additional political engagement, and motivate consistent behavior in accordance with the values that inspired consumers’ commodity activism[19][20].

References

  1. ↑ Springer, S., Birch, K., & MacLeavy, J. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of neoliberalism. Routledge.
  2. ↑ Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, USA.
  3. ↑ 1.  Thorsen, D. E., & Amund, L. (2006). "What is Neoliberalism?“, University of Oslo.
  4. ↑ Martin, B. (2007). Activism, social and political. Encyclopedia of activism and social justice, 1, 19-27.
  5. ↑ Shamir, Ronen. 2008. “The Age of Responsibilization: On Market-Embedded Morality.” Economy and Society 37 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1080/03085140701760833.
  6. ↑ Mukherjee, R., & Banet-Weiser, S. (Eds.). (2012). Commodity activism: Cultural resistance in neoliberal times. NYU Press.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Youde, J. (2009). Ethical consumerism or reified neoliberalism? Product (RED) and private funding for public goods. New Political Science, 31(2), 201-220
  8. ↑ "Ahead of World AIDS Day 2017, (RED) announces its total of $500 million raised for the Global Fund".
  9. ↑ "Alter Eco - Visit Our Coops".
  10. ↑ "Alter Eco - Activism Through Food".
  11. ↑ Sen, D., & Majumder, S. (2011). Fair Trade and Fair Trade Certification of Food and Agricultural Commodities: Promises, Pitfalls, and Possibilities. Environment and Society, 2(1), 29.
  12. ↑ Gunderson, R. (2014). Problems with the defetishization thesis: ethical consumerism, alternative food systems, and commodity fetishism. Agriculture and human values, 31(1), 109-117.
  13. ↑ Dunaway, W. A. (Ed.). (2013). Gendered commodity chains: Seeing women's work and households in global production. Stanford University Press.
  14. ↑ Ramamurthy, P. (2004). Why Is Buying a" Madras" Cotton shirt a political act? A feminist commodity chain analysis. Feminist Studies, 734-769.
  15. ↑ Hussey, I., & Curnow, J. (2013). Fair Trade, neocolonial developmentalism, and racialized power relations. Interface: a journal for and about social movements, 5(1), 40-68.
  16. ↑ (Szasz, Andrew. 2007. Shopping Our Way to Safety: How We Changed from Protecting the Environment to Protecting Ourselves. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press)
  17. ↑ Elizabeth Chin, Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
  18. ↑ Paul R. Mullins, Race and Affluence: An Archaeology of African America and Consumer Culture (New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 1999)
  19. ↑ Lorenzen, J. A. (2012, March). Going Green: The Process of Lifestyle Change 1. In Sociological Forum (Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 94-116). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
  20. ↑ Schwartz, S. H.(2007) 'Value orientations: measurement, antecedents and consequences across nations', 169-203 in R. Jowell, C. Roberts, R. Fiztgerald & G. Eva (Eds.), Measuring Attitudes Cross-Nationally. Lessons from the European Social Survey.
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