Sessions 7 & 8: Awakening

consumers’ consciousness about

social and ecological issues
within IT I
Valeria Puga Álvarez
PhD candidate in International Relations
 Contents

✓ Images of the Consumer

✓ The (Western) History of the Consumer Movement

✓ The four consumers’ rights

✓ The new consumers’ rights

 Defining consumers
• Consumers are people or
organizations that purchase products
or services. The term also refers to
hiring goods and services. They are
individuals or other economic entities
that use a good or service.
Furthermore, they do not sell on that
item that they bought.
• They are the end users in the
distribution chain of goods and
services. In fact, sometimes the
consumer might not be the buyer.
• The ‘consumer’ has been pictured in
many different ways because the have
different kinds of relationships to
producers and the rest of society.
 Images of the consumer

The consumer as Chooser

• The most prevalent image of the consumer.

• The more choice there is for consumers the more

business there will be for producers and the better it
will be for the economy, and therefore (it goes
without saying) for society in general.

• Choose frequently.
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Communicator

• Consumers use the acts of buying

and consumption to communicate
non-verbally with others.

• It is a way of expressing one’s

feelings social status and lifestyle.

• Products and services consumed

have meanings over and above the
fulfilment of an immediate need.
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Explorer

• Shopping as an act of exploring.

• Discovering new products
• Western societies: Shopping malls
• Non-western societies: Bazaars, markets, etc…
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Identity-
Seeker

• Defining who he or she is and

what he or she values by the
goods and services he or she
buys, consumes and gives as
gifts.
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Hedonist

• Enjoying pleasure – especially physical pleasure.

• It is the antithesis of the ‘work ethic’, which emphasizes the

primacy of earning and sacrifice as the way to individual
fulfilment.
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Victim

• Since at least the 1950s it has

been argued that every
consumer, to a greater or lesser
extent, may be a victim of
manipulation and exploitation
by producers and the marketers
and advertisers who serve
them.
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Rebel

• In this role the consumer uses

products to make a critical
statement about the values of
the consumer society.

• Ex: The disfiguring of blue

jeans has been identified as a
popular act of youthful
rebellion in Western culture.
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Activist
• People who are
consciously and actively
promote the interests of
consumers as a group, in
relation to producers and
to society as a whole.
• Ex: Use consumer
boycotts as a weapon
against foreign oppression.
 Images of the consumer
The consumer as Citizen

• Citizen denotes someone who is linked

into a community and a nation-state by a
web of rights that he or she can claim
(freedom of association, for instance)
and responsibilities that he or she is
expected to discharge ( Ex: voting in an
election).

• Consumers, on this account, are

individual, self-contained units without
reference to a wider social grouping than
their household.

• It’s conscious of how the market

operates, the way producers operate and
the effects that marketing and advertising
have on buying and consumption.
 The history of the consumer
movement

• Consumer advocacy, also known as consumerism.

• Evidence of long existence:
• Book of proverbs in the Old Testament: Deals with the sins of
deceiving and defrauding the consumer.
• Roman culture: Famous legal maxim: caveat emptor (Buyer beware).
 The history of the consumer
movement

Western understanding?: It’s up to consumers to protect their

own interests while producers are entitled to treat consumers in
any way the law does not specifically forbid.
 The history of the consumer
movement
The Co-operative Movement

• The co-operative movement was set

up in 1844 in the north of England.

• This M was a response by industrial

workers to the effects of
capitalism/industrialization when it
was at its peak in Britain.

• The world of work went through a

radical transformations after the
industrial revolution: Small
workplaces run by master craftsmen
and their families were replaced by
factories
 The history of the consumer
movement

Oliver Twist, a chronicle of child labor in the Victorian Era/ Industrial

Revolution. Written by: Charles Dickens
A report on child labor in 1832 gave examples of children starting work
at the factory at 3:00 am and working until 10 pm or even later.
 The history of the consumer
movement
The Co-operative Movement

• Factories.- They increased the employers’ control over the

lives of their employees as rigidly as possible, in the interest
of maximizing their profits.

• This involved the use of impersonal forms of regulation:

imposition of a detailed system of discipline, and the close
visual supervision of each worker’s behaviour.

• CM was an attempt by groups of workers to take back from

the factory owners some control over their own lives.
 The history of the consumer
movement
The Co-operative Movement
• CM members were also the
consumers who largely propped
up that market.
• The movement began with a
single shop, in Rochdale, to sell
goods only to its members. The
profits made on these sales were
then shared out among the
members.

The co-operative ideology was thus directly opposed to that of the

prevailing market orthodoxy that prosperity could only be
achieved by fostering self-interest and the pursuit of private profit.
 The history of the consumer
movement
The Co-operative
Movement

• Local co-operatives were

very important to many
working-class consumers
throughout UK for
nearly a century after the
Rochdale pioneers.

• As the M grew in size

and influence and its
affairs have inevitably
come to be conducted by
professional managers,
its vision became more
pragmatic. Rochdale Museum (between Manchester and Leeds)
 The history of the consumer
movement
American Consumerism
• Industrialization later than in UK.
• First Consumers league: New
York, 1891.
• The movement got attention in
1906 when Upton Sinclair wrote a
novel called The Jungle
• Account on exploitation and how
rats were minced up into
hamburger meats (Chicago).
• Outcry for better food hygiene
laws.
 The history of the consumer
movement
American Consumerism
• In 1927 another book played an
important part in galvanizing
public opinion on consumer
issues: Your Money’s Worth,
which showed how consumers
were systematically exploited by
producers and deceived by
advertising.
• 1936: Consumers Union:
Consumer Reports (5 million
subscribers)
 The four consumers’ rights
American Consumerism

• In 1962 the American

consumer movement
received a major boost with
the presentation to Congress
by President John F.
Kennedy of a Consumer
Bill of Rights
 The four consumers’ rights
1. The right to safety: Protection against products hazardous to
health and life.
2.- The right to be informed: Protection against fraudulent,
deceitful or misleading information, in advertising or elsewhere, by
providing people with the facts necessary to make an informed
choice.
3.- The right to choose: The assurance of reasonable access, where
possible, to a variety of products and services at competitive prices,
or governmental regulations to assure satisfactory quality and
service at fair prices.
4.- The right to be heard: The right of redress, with the assurance
that consumer interests will receive full and sympathetic
consideration by government and fair and expeditious action.
 Other consumers’ rights
Recently or since 60’s consumer
movements had added two further rights
based on more recent commercial
developments.

1.- The right to a clean environment.-

Deep concern on sustainability.
2.- The right to privacy.- Consumers’
right to keep their personal information
private, whether biographical, medical,
financial or whatever.

Computerize personal data and social

media posse a notable challenge on this.
Questions for Oral Exam

1
Mention four ‘images of the
consumer’ and describe at least
one.
Questions for Oral Exam

2
Why are there so many different
images of ‘the consumer’?
Which ones would be the most
important for the FT movement?
Questions for Oral Exam

3
What was the first consumer
movement? When did it start? In
which country was it located?
Why did it rise?
Questions for Oral Exam

4
Do you think is there a
continuity between consumers’
movements and FT origins?
Explain it.
Questions for Oral Exam

5
What were the four consumers’
rights enlisted by John F.
Kennedy in 1962? Explain at
least one
Questions for Oral Exam

6
What are the two new
consumers’ rights? Do you think
FT could support them? How?