Consumption and Resistance in the Context of Brazilian Housewives and Consumers' Movement

Abstract

The way people consume in contemporary societies has directly affected forms of citizenship. The continuous process of reframing goods, followed by a growing disbelief in representative political institutions and social rights has encouraged the proliferation of a number of institutions and alternative modes of participation. Canclini (2001, p.29) states that "men and women realize that many of the questions made by citizens are more promptly answered by private consumption of goods and mass media than by abstract rules of democracy or collective participation in public spaces. Therefore, the study of the reconfiguration of the links between consumption and citizenship is a way to glimpse new possibilities of social participation and representation of interests of civil society. Although most studies still focus on the understanding of consumer satisfaction, this work seeks to highlight the consumer as the focus of resistance to consumption. So, I used narrative analysis to identify -- between the participants of the Housewives and Consumers Movements (MDCC) -- the conditions under which some form of resistance was possible. For this, there were 16 in-depth interviews in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Minas Gerais. At the same time, I described the strategies developed by MDCC to participate in the formulation of public policies, as representative of civil society with regard to the protection of consumer rights. The observations indicate that the existence of an opponent, as well as an intention and the existence of mechanism of action around the (re)construction of collective signs show that favorable conditions for the existence of the MDCC as an institution of resistance to consumption.