Mass Consumption and Political Consumerism

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relation between mass consumption and political consumerism. Mass consumption concerns the omnipresent role of consumption in contemporary societies with associated problems of excessive resource use in current practices of consumption. The late modern context and forces of mass consumption can both trigger and prevent political consumerism as well as shape its outcome. The chapter offers a literature review that addresses both examples of alternative consumption (e.g., buycotts) and various kinds of anticonsumption, which involve politically motivated ambitions to cut down on consumption. The chapter addresses how mass consumption activates political consumerist potentials, including sentiments towards anticonsumption. It furthermore shows how mass consumption makes people unable to link consumption to political considerations. Finally, the chapter analyses possibilities and difficulties in transforming niche political consumerist initiatives to the mainstream in a society that is dominated by mass consumption.