Protest, Social Movements, and Spaces for Politically-Oriented Consumerist Actions—Nationally, Transnationally, and Locally

This chapter discusses the relationship between social movements and political consumerism. Besides traditional consumer organizations that seek to protect customers from corporate abuse (such as unsafe products, predatory lending, or false advertising), political consumer practices have become increasingly employed to achieve diverse political and social goals. Calls to citizens to take action in their role as consumers have been made by social movement organizations of various types, either to build up transnational awareness so as to step up pressure on corporations, or to facilitate the purchase of goods/services that meet specific ethical criteria. Along with large-scale boycotting and global fair -trade initiatives, market-based actions have entered the repertoire of a number of local grassroots organizations seeking bottom-up solutions for sustainable development, within which the act of shopping moves beyond a form of individuals taking responsibility to become a tool for constructing collective, citizenship-driven alternative styles of provisioning.