Synonyms
Introduction
What do tuna, grapes, salt, and Starbucks coffee have in common? All these foods have been subject to consumer boycotts. A boycott can be understood as a refusal to purchase goods or services with the intent of changing some aspect of the good or service. For example, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on the bus and was subsequently arrested and jailed, the citizens of Montgomery boycotted the Montgomery bus system to challenge the laws and practice of the system. Boycotts are “an attempt by one or more parties to achieve certain objectives by urging individual consumers to refrain from making selected purchases in the marketplace” (Friedman 1985, p. 97).
This entry begins with the origin of the term boycott and the role of boycotts as a political strategy in contemporary society. Drawing from Consumer Boycotts: Effecting Change Through the Marketplace and the Media by Monroe Friedman (1999),...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Bauman, Z. (2007). Collateral casualties of consumerism. Journal of Consumer Culture, 7, 25–56.
Bittman, M. (2011, September 20). Opinionator. Retrieved from The New York Times: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/time-to-boycott-tuna-again/
Brown, W. (2003). Neo-liberalism and the end of liberal democracy. Theory and Event. Accessed at http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/theory_and_event/v007/7.1brown.html
Chatterjee, M. (2001). 1930: Turning point in the participation of women in the freedom struggle. Social Scientist, 29, 39–47.
Ethical Consumer. http://www.ethicalconsumer.org
Frank, D. (2003). Where are the workers in consumer alliances? Class dynamics and the history of the consumer-labor campaigns. Politics and Society, 31, 363–379.
Friedman, M. (1985). Consumer boycotts in the United States, 1970–1980: Contemporary events in historical perspective. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 19, 96–117.
Friedman, M. (1999). Consumer boycotts: Effecting change through the marketplace and the media. New York: Routledge.
Friedman, M. (2001). Ethical Dilemmas Associated with Consumer Boycotts. Journal of Social Philosophy, 32, 232–240.
Garrett, D. E. (2001). Consumer boycotts: Are targets always the bad guys? Business and Society Review, 58, 17–21.
Graham, S. (2012). The Salt March to Dandi. Retrieved from Emory University: http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Dandi.html
Klein, J. G., Smith, N. C., & John, A. (2004). Why we boycott: Consumer motivations for boycott participation. Journal of Marketing, 68, 92–109.
PETA’s Campaign Against KFC: Kentucky Fried Cruelty. (2012). http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/index.asp
Press Releases: New Gallo Boycott Kickoff Media Packet. (2005, June 14). Retrieved from United Farm Workers: http://www.ufw.org/_board.php?mode=view&b_code=news_press&b_no=263&page=19&field=&key=&n=381
Simon, B. (2011). Not going to Starbucks: Boycotts and the out-sourcing of politics in the branded world. Journal of Consumer Culture, 11, 145–167.
Tucker, T. (2012, June 25). Eyes on trade. Retrieved from Public Citizen: http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2011/09/flipper-again-on-the-wto-chopping-block.html
Why We are Fasting. (2018, February 8). Retrieved from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers: http://ciw-online.org/blog/2018/02/why-we-are-fasting-2/
Zukin, S. (2004). Point of purchase: How shopping changed American culture. New York/London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hahn, L.K. (2019). Food Boycotts. In: Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1178-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1179-9
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities