Doing Good Work by Selling Good Food: Balancing Political Consumerist Projects and Profit-Seeking

• In Event: 365 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtables. Table 01. Consumer Studies Network

Abstract

In the US and throughout its history, consumers have used their purchasing power not (merely) for self-indulgence but rather, or also, to be ethical, politically responsible citizens. Some consumer activists have pursued government regulation; others have mobilized boycotts, “buycotts,” and other forms of consumer-driven citizen action on behalf of social justice movements. More recently, emerging forms of “ethical capitalism” and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs have become increasingly prominent within such political consumerist projects. Given this social and economic trend, one vital question is how we should theorize political consumption when when the political consumerist actor is a business, rather than an individual or non-commercial activist group.

At a time when philanthropy and social activism are being grafted onto merchandizing practices and corporate mission statements, my research explores how and why a profit-seeking enterprise might encourage politicized forms of consumption. This paper examines two such businesses. For the past four years, I have been doing research on two businesses which both work with Indonesian farming communities to create markets for their food products in the US. Both of these businesses are negotiating with the notion that profit-seeking companies, alongside specific kinds of politically motivated consumers, can “do good work.” My paper explores how such companies negotiate the tension between profit and social value.

Author

• Amy Elisabeth Singer, Franklin and Marshall College