Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: Consumer Protection and Citizenship in China

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Indiana University doctoral student Erika Kuever, under the supervision of Dr. Richard Wilk, will undertake research on the relationship between consumer activism and citizenship in post-socialist countries. This will advance scholarly understandings of whether and how state-sponsored institutions can be used by citizens to challenge state power. The research will focus on state-sponsored consumer organizations in China, which, despite their origins in the state itself, serve as the primary channel for citizens seeking redress for injustices encountered in the marketplace. The researcher will employ a mixed-methods social science approach. This will include participant observer in a consumer association, where she will carry out interviews with association employees and consumers, and conduct follow-up interviews with a stratified sample of consumers who have had their complaints successfully mediated by the association. She will also interview officials in other agencies charged with consumer protection, survey and analyze media accounts, hold consumer focus groups, and follow-up key national consumer issues.This research is important because it will document how individuals interact with state resources to protect their families from dangerous products, while also contributing to social scientific understanding of the interaction between local politics and global consumer safety. Funding this research also supports the education of a social scientist.