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Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times

This collection on how the act of consumption can be understood as a form of social activism at a time when the deregulated market dominates the power of the state is a unique addition to the recent literature that examines political consumerism and critical consumer studies. The 14 case studies included offer a broad variety of ways that consumers, celebrities, and corporations are using commodities, brands, and the media to challenge conventional standards of beauty (Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign); build communities (ABC’s Better Community campaign, Brad Pitt’s Post-Katrina Home-building efforts); raise awareness of global problems, like blood diamonds (Kayne West) and poverty in Africa (Angelina Jolie); and participate in sexual politics through purchasing sex toys from feminist retailers (Comella). Many authors engage the theory of Michel Foucault to explain how the triumph of the market does not necessarily subdue individual autonomy, but encourages personal empowerment through the freedom of choice and increased responsibility. For example, Hearn describes the self as ‘enterprising’ or ‘entrepreneurial,’ Comella focuses on the ‘care of the self’ through sex toys as ‘tools of liberation,’ Ouelette suggests that we are ‘governing ourselves’ through brands, and Littler uses the concepts of ‘responsibilization’ and ‘green governmentality’ in her analysis of green consumerism. However, while the exclusive theoretical framework of neoliberalism provides a strong cohesiveness between all of the case studies, it leaves the reader with numerous tensions and contradictions, which the editors and several contributing authors readily admit. Perhaps the most imperative tension of commodity activism is that between citizen and consumer, especially in relation to ‘how we “do” citizenship’ and ‘what counts as “politics” in neoliberal times’ (Mukherjee and Banet-Weiser, p. 195). If corporations and celebrities are the most powerful actors shaping commodity activism, what role, if any, can traditional social movements and grassroots community actors play? Does walking for a cure for breast cancer in a corporate-sponsored ‘thon’ or signing up for Verizon wireless service because it supports programs that help victims of domestic violence constitute civic action? The idea of voting for a brand at the store counter or through the television network we watch is attractive at first glance. After all, we can vote with our so-called consumer ‘power’ on a daily basis compared to the ballot box. But, there is a certain resignation to commodity activism – if we cannot fight the dominance of the market, we might as well just join it. This is related to the tension surrounding what constitutes Social Movement Studies, 2015 Vol. 14, No. 6, 745–750