The consuming citizen as a semantic construction of new ways of participation in the Federal Republic of Germany
Final Report Abstract
The project analysed political consumption in the Federal Republic of Germany after 1970, the actors involved and their consumer images. Contemporary historical diagnoses indicate a transition to an individualised consumer society for the period after the boom from the mid- 1970s. According to this assumption, consumers have been contributing to the objectives of political consumption since the late 1970s and thus also act as citizens. The project followed on from this and enquired about the groups that have made political consumption possible in recent history. In view of the numerous possibilities of topics and consumer products, it limited itself to two core areas: ecological and alternative fair trade. The historical change around 1990 in alternative and fair trade meant that charity and solidarity were hardly used for consumer images. Consumer trust in the work of fair import organisations was now much more pronounced. Trustworthiness was indispensable in practice due to the increasingly professionalised distribution structures. The purchase of a fairly traded product no longer required a dialogue with world shop employees, but simply the knowledge of a label. This made it much easier for consumers to participate in fair trade. Knowledge and, to a lesser extent, the available budget remained in practice as thresholds for consumers in fair trade. The removal of barriers through the professionalisation of sales can also be observed in organic forms of trade in the period around 1990. It is important to note the far greater scope here: as early as 1986, the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag introduced a bill to protect organic products in the Bundestag, and at the beginning of the 1990s the success of organic labelling was also reflected at European level. The Blue Angel served as a model for the development of a European eco-label in the nonfood sector. The UBA in particular worked with a consumer image based on a sense of responsibility. Consumers are aware of the consequences of their own actions and must therefore be provided with reliable information about the available eco-logical alternatives when shopping. However, the expansion of trade was also accompanied by growing inequality in participation opportunities, as voluntary work became a less important pillar.This problem became visible in the sophisticated world shops and food co-operatives, whose images of the consumer citizen were also images of themselves.The development of political consumption towards the standardised use of labels thus led to a broadening and at the same time a flattening of the scope for political participation.
Publications
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Politischer Konsum und Solidarität: Konturen und Kontexte eines Schlüsselbegriffs im späten 20. Jahrhundert, in: Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 60.2020, S. 237- 259.
Stefan Weispfennig
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Der gewünschte Konsument. transcript Verlag.
Weispfennig, Stefan
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Konsum und Politik nach dem Boom – ein Problemaufriss. Konsum und Politik nach dem Boom, 7-34. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Reitmayer, Morten
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Konsum und Politik nach dem Boom. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Reitmayer, Morten & Weispfennig, Stefan
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Neue Akteurinnen im konsumpolitischen Feld. Der Südafrika-Boykott der Evangelischen Frauenarbeit in Deutschland. Konsum und Politik nach dem Boom, 57-90. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Reitmayer, Morten & Misamer, Julia
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»Wir nehmen Einfluss« Der sozial-ökologische Konsumentenbürger als Sozialfigur. Konsum und Politik nach dem Boom, 35-56. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Weispfennig, Stefan
