Mobilizations of the Consumer

Abstract

What might people do to assure themselves that they can trust the food that they eat? Chapter 5 showed that, to a large degree, trust refers to institutional performance. However, we also found that trust may emerge from within the household and how the household copes with food issues. In principle, if uncertain about the safety, quality or value of their food, people may, as individuals, take various courses of action to establish, restore or enhance their trust. We place the activities they reported in the survey in the context of understandings of the contemporary consumer. The dominant notion sees ‘the consumer’ as an individual who freely chooses in a market situation that which they most prefer. However, ‘the consumer’ is increasingly viewed as a powerful and active agent whose powers extend beyond the point of purchase. Most accounts of the courses of action available to consumers fall into two types; one economic, the other political. Very broadly, ‘consumers’ may do one of two things. They may mobilize their economic resources, individually or collectively, to put pressure on producers and distributors to offer cheaper or better products. Alternatively, they might exercise their political powers, exerting their rights of citizenship, to try to persuade the state to intervene in relations of market exchange.