Premium
Commodity Fetishism and Consumer Senses: Turn‐of‐the‐Twentieth‐Century Consumer Activism in the United States and England
Author(s) -
Skotnicki Tad
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/johs.12114
Subject(s) - fetishism , commodity , power (physics) , league , commodity chain , consumer society , sociology , advertising , aesthetics , political science , economics , business , market economy , art , neoclassical economics , macroeconomics , physics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , production (economics) , anthropology
At the turn of the twentieth century, the National Consumers’ League, the Co‐operative Wholesale Society, and the Women's Co‐operative Guild encouraged people to become ethical consumers. I argue that we can explain their common strategies by invoking commodity fetishism. By casting their consumer activism as a practical response to the fetish of commodities, we explain: 1) activists’ use of sensory techniques – both figurative and literal – to connect producers, commodities, and consumers and 2) their commitment to the ethical power of the senses. This account reveals the virtues of commodity fetishism as a tool for understanding the dynamics of consumer activism.