The organised consumer movement in global context

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This project traces the rise of the international consumer movement since the Second World War. Organised, comparative-testing consumerism represents one of the largest social movements of the past century. It originated in the United States in the late-1920s and proved an inspiration for European consumers embarking upon a period of affluence after the Second World War. The 1950s saw the creation of several groups in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain (e.g., the Consumers' Association). These organizations of consumers, together with older consumer groups such as co-operatives and women's groups, were important influences on the consumer protection measures introduced acrossthe developed world in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the consumer movement also became an international force. In 1960, several private testing organisations founded the International Organisation of Consumers Unions (IOCU, now Consumers International), which has spread from the comparative testing model and taken into account the interests of developing world consumers, concerned less with value for money and more with the right to enjoy a basic standard of living. Today, the IOCU is based in London, but has thriving regional offices in Africa, Asia and Latin America and has around 25 members from over 100 different countries. The purpose of this project is to uncover this politics of international consumer society by exploring the principal organisations of consumer activism since the Second World War. It is aboutthe response of consumers to the affluent society of the 1950s and the economic conditions they found themselves living in. It is about too the emergence of third world consumer activism and the questions this raises about western affluence and global economic development. The consumer movement has thrived in countries across the developing world where the vast majority of the population has not been able to have access to the fruits of affluence. Consumer politics have continued to involve questions about not only bringing more choice to those who can afford it, but ensuring that all citizens can participate in consumer society in the first place.This research builds on an exponentially expanding interest in the dynamics of consumption and consumer society, across several academic disciplines. The applicant has played a significant role in the development of this field and a number of studies have emerged which have examined the politics of consumption in various national contexts. Little, though, has been written on the growth of consumerism as an international phenomenon and it is this absence which the project seeks to correct. The aim of the project is to demonstrate the non-inevitability of the growth of consumer society. It contends that for much of the post-Second World War period, consumer society referred to increasing standards of living for everybody, not just in the west. Yet the notion of consumerism now generally used refers only to increasing choice forthose who can afford it. This, however, has been only one definition of consumer society and this project seeks to uncover the politics of choosing this particular form of 'consumerism'.