Shopping for Change

Louis Hyman & Joseph Tohill

Description

Consuming with a conscience is one of the fastest growing forms of political participation worldwide. Every day we make decisions about how to spend our money and, for the socially conscious, these decisions matter. Political consumers "buy green" for the environment or they "buy pink" to combat breast cancer. They boycott Taco Bell to support migrant workers or Burger King to save the rainforest.But can we overcome the limitations of consumer identity, the conservative pull of consumer choice, co-optation by corporate marketers, and other pitfalls of consumer activism in order to marshal the possibilities of consumer power? Can we, quite literally, shop for change? Shopping for Change brings together the historical and contemporary perspectives of academics and activists to show readers what has been possible for consumer activists in the past and what might be possible for today's consumer activists.ContributorsKyle Asquith, University of Windsor; Dawson Barrett, Del Mar College; Lawrence Black, University of York; Madeline Brambilla, Northeastern University; Joshua Carreiro, Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, MA; H. Louise Davis, Miami University; Jeffrey Demsky, San Bernardino Valley College; Tracey Deutsch, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; Mara Einstein, Queens College, CUNY; Bart Elmore, University of Alabama; Sarah Elvins, University of Manitoba; Daniel Faber, Northeastern University; Julie Guard, University of Manitoba; Louis Hyman, ILR School, Cornell University; Meredith Katz, Virginia Commonwealth University; Randall Kaufman, Miami Dade College-Homestead Campus; Larry Kirsh, IMR Health Economics, Portland, OR; Katrina Lacher, University of Central Oklahoma; Bettina Liverant, University of Calgary; Amy Lubitow, Portland State University; Robert N. Mayer, University of Utah; Michelle McDonald, Stockton University; Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy, John Carroll University; Mark W. Robbins, Del Mar College;Jessica Stewart, Cornell University;Joseph Tohill, York University and Ryerson University; Allison Ward, Queen's University and McMaster University; Philip Wight, Brandeis University

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Advocacy group
• Sociology
• Behavioral economics
• Consumerism
• Activism

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 juin 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501712630
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

“Hyman and Tohill have produced a valuable collection, both wide ranging and coherent, that belongs on the short shelf of essential his tories of North American consumer cultures. By examining politicized consumption over two centuries and in the United States and Canada, by including studies of local and national movements, by examining grassroots and legislative struggles, the contributors to this volume have given us an excellent framework for understanding continuities and ruptures in the nature of the politics of shopping. By paying spe cial attention to inequality and class, the volume helps place two seem ingly separate contemporary movements—Occupy Wall Street and consumer boycotting—into broad historical context and into produc tive dialogue with each other. This book will become a goto resource for scholars and activists alike.”

—Lawrence Glickman, author ofBuying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America

“Shopping for Changewrestles impressively with the possibilities and obstacles for consumer activism over time. This is important history, but it is also a compelling call to harness the full potential of the con sumer marketplace to create a more equitable, democratic society.”

— Lizabeth Cohen, author ofA Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

“Is consumer activism a worthwhile endeavour? And, if so, how should it be pursued? The contributors to this volume grapple creatively with these, and many other, important questions. Hyman and Tohill have assembled a wonderful array of engaging and insightful essays that mine the distant and recent past to show us what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why.”

— Michael Dawson, Department of History,  St. Thomas University

“This book could not be more timely. We see in many nations a large number of people reacting badly to their inability to maintain a stan dard of living they believe they need. Smarter, more active, and more restrained buying is what is called for. This book provides an outstand ingly detailed guide for how to proceed.”

— Amitai Etizoni, author ofThe New Normal

S H O P P I N G F O R C H A N G E

Consumer Activism and the Possibilities of Purchasing Power

Edited by Louis Hyman & Joseph Tohill

ILR Press an imprint of Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2017 by Louis Hyman and Joseph Tohill

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published in Canada in 2017 by Between the Lines, Toronto, Canada www.btlbooks.com

First published in the United States of America in 2017 by Cornell University Press

First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2017

Printed in the United States of America

Cover and text design by Gordon Robertson Cover photo by Denis Mikheev

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Hyman, Louis, 1977– editor. | Tohill, Joseph, editor. Title: Shopping for change : consumer activism and the possibilities of  purchasing power / edited by Louis Hyman and Joseph Tohill. Description: Ithaca : ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press,  2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016049424 (print) | LCCN 2016057112 (ebook) | ISBN  9781501709258 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781501712623 (epub/mobi) | ISBN  9781501712630 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Consumer movements—North America. | Consumption  (Economics)—Political aspects—North America. | Social action—North  America. Classification: LCC HC95.Z9 C67 2017 (print) | LCC HC95.Z9 (ebook) | DDC  381.3/2097—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049424

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

C O N T E N T S

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction Shopping for Change Louis Hyman and Joseph Tohill 1

1. Consuming with a Conscience The Free Produce Movement in Early America Michelle Craig McDonald 17

2. Boycotts, Buycotts, and Legislation Tactical Lessons from Workers and Consumers during the Progressive Era Wendy Wiedenhoft Murphy 29

3. Making a Market for Consumers The Calgary Consumers League and the High Cost of Living Bettina Liverant 41 4. Making a Middle-Class “Public” MiddleClass Consumer Activism in Post–First World War America Mark Robbins 53

5. You Are Purchasing Prosperity! Local Buying Initiatives and Women as Conscious Consumers in the Great Depression Allison Ward 65

6. Making Money in Hard Times Scrip and Grassroots Efforts to Solve the Great Depression Sarah Elvins 75

7. Protecting the “Guinea Pig Children” Resisting Children’s Food Advertising in the 1930s Kyle Asquith 85

8. Our Economic Way Out Black American Consumers’ Cooperation in the First Half of the Twentieth Century Joshua L. Carreiro 97 9. Not Buying It Reconsidering American Consumer Opposition to Nazi AntiSemitism Jeffrey Scott Demsky and Randall Kaufman 109 10. Canada’s Citizen Housewives Cold War AntiCommunism and the Limits of Maternalism Julie Guard 123

11. “The Consumer Goes to War” Consumer Politics in the United States and Canada during the Second World War Joseph Tohill 137

12. From the Great Society to Giant Esther Peterson and the Politics of Shopping Lawrence Black 151

13. The Countercultural Roots of Green Consumerism Philip A. Wight 161 14. Purchasing Change The (Un)Intended Consequences of Biofuel Consumption on the World’s Poor H. Louise Davis 173 15. Buying a Better World From Cause Marketing to Social Innovation, Can Consumption Create Positive Social Change? Mara Einstein 183

16. What about the Cause? The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and the Pinkwashing of Breast Cancer Activism Daniel Faber, Amy Lubitow, and Madeline Brambilla 193

17. The Making of a Coke CAN CocaCola’s Civic Action Network (CAN) and the Seeding of Corporate Astroturf Campaigns, 1995–2015 Bartow Elmore 207

18. Boot the Bell Solidarity as Strategy in the Neoliberal Era Dawson Barrett 221

19. Where’s the Beef . . . From? Boycotting Burger King to Protect Central American Rainforests Katrina Lacher 231

20. The Sweatshop Effect Consumer Activism and the AntiSweatshop Movement on College Campuses Meredith Katz 243