Neo-materialist movement organisations and the matter of scale: scaling through institutions as prefigurative politics?

ABSTRACT

Consumer collective action is commonly connected to individualised politics, market responsibility and local utopias. In this paper, we take an alternative point of departure and discuss the (emergence of) neo-materialist movement organisations (NMMOs) as mobilising prefigurative everyday politics in local organising and creating strategies toward alternative global futures. Our approach is threefold. First, we introduce the concept of neo-materialist movement organisations and, second, outline their organising in the everyday context and prefigurative commitments. Third, we explore different strategies of scaling toward alternative futures with particular focus on (controversial) institutional avenues. We contribute to the emerging literature on prefigurative politics in consumer movements by problematising the dominant approach to social change trapped in local inwardness. We further highlight the potential for systemic changes via local authorities, or what we call scaling through institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Prefigurative politics
• consumer collective action
• neo-materialist movement organisations
• scale of action
• scaling through

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mikko Laamanen

Mikko Laamanen is Associate Professor in Marketing at the Lifestyle Research Center of emlyon business school (France). His research focuses on everyday politics of inclusion and social change, with empirical work on consumer lifestyle movements and consumer activism, multistakeholder value creation, and community engagement in performing arts. His research has been published in Current Sociology, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Marketing Management, Marketing Theory, and the Handbook of the Sharing Economy, among others.

Francesca Forno

Francesca Forno is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Trento (Italy). Her interests include political consumerism and sustainable community movement organisations. A special focus in these areas is on the consequences of the spread of market-based forms of action for citizens’ participation and mobilisation. Her work has appeared in journals including the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Journal of Consumer Culture, the International Journal of Consumer Studies, South European Politics and Society, British Food Journal, European Societies and The Oxford Handbook of Political Consumerism.

Stefan Wahlen

Stefan Wahlen is Professor of Food Sociology at Giessen University (Germany). His research and teaching concerns food consumption practices and food cultures as well as their political, organisational, and institutional parameters. Stefan previously worked as Assistant Professor for Sociology of Consumption at Wageningen University (The Netherlands). He earned his PhD in Consumer Economics from the University of Helsinki (Finland) with a PhD thesis entitled ‘Governing Everyday Consumption’. His undergraduate degree in food and household studies is from the University of Bonn (Germany). His work is published in the Journal of Consumer Culture, Journal of Consumer Policy, International Journal of Consumer Studies, Journal of Cleaner Production, British Food Journal, and Critical Public Health, among others.