ABSTRACT
The mundane views about market issues are contradictory. On the one hand, the market economy is often seen as a natural fact that is-or should be-affected by political regulations. On the other, the market phenomenon is often presented as a force coming from the outside that tries to penetrate and reduce the strength of our political society. Both views share the idea that market and politics are two confl icting entities. Politics may be used to fi ght market phenomena: see, for instance, the long tradition of the consumerist critique, from the denunciation of the one-dimensional realm of consumption (Marcuse 1960) to the claim for “no logo” (Klein 2000). But reversely, market behaviour may also be used as a trick to promote political values: see the idea of “political consumerism” which proposes to use market behaviour as an “individualized form of collective action”. Consumers are urged to forward some collective ideals (sustainable development, ecological concern, fair trade) through their individual market decisions, either through boycotts or buycotts (Micheletti 2003). In this chapter, I would like to revisit, along with Callon (2007), the opposition between market and politics these strategies rest on. First, I will draw on a few historical facts to show that contemporary political consumerism is strongly connected to a long-term articulation between consumer and political issues. Second, I will focus on the micro level of consumer behaviour to show that the idea of a consumers’ political “resistance” to market forces should not be reduced to the emergence of alternative forms of consumption, but rather seen as an excellent notion to encompass the growing elusiveness of shopping behaviour (Ekström and Brembeck 2004).2
