Consumer rights: a co‐optation of the contemporary consumer movement
Journal of Historical Research in Marketing
ISSN: 1755-750X
Article publication date: 25 January 2013
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the relationship between the development of consumer rights and the emergence of the contemporary consumer movement. Rethinking the contemporary consumer movement as a new social movement (NSM) enables a closer examination of the actors, opponents and goals of the movement, and how governments and other political institutions responded by conceptualising and developing a set of “consumer rights”.
Design/methodology/approach
The lens of NSM theory is used to examine the historical development of, and relationship between, consumer rights and the contemporary consumer movement.
Findings
As a NSM, the goal of the contemporary consumer movement is to bring about ideological change. However, this paper argues that the development of “consumer rights” can be read as an attempt by oppositional forces to co‐opt the goals of the movement, thereby neutralising the threat of the movement and negating the opportunity for radical ideological change. Identifying that co‐optation can occur not only through the actors, but also via the “totality” or goals of a movement, broadens our understanding of how NSMs decline or are institutionalised.
Originality/value
This paper offers a critical interpretation of the origins and purpose of “consumer rights”. It suggests that rather than being read as a success of the contemporary consumer movement, consumer rights actually represent a co‐optation of the movement, which served to placate consumer activists while actually maintaining the very structures of advanced market capitalism and consumer culture the movement sought to destabilise.
Keywords
Citation
Larsen, G. and Lawson, R. (2013), "Consumer rights: a co‐optation of the contemporary consumer movement", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 97-114. https://doi.org/10.1108/17557501311293370
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited