Vive la révolution animal! Using storytelling to explore prefigurative practices in consumer activism

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how a consumer social movement employs prefigurative practices to resist a dominant market logic and drive market changes in the here and now. We based our research on one year of ethnographic fieldwork with vegetarian and animal welfare activists embedded in a cultural milieu that predominantly supports the consumption of animal products. We used the storytelling method for the description and data analysis. Our findings reveal that activists challenge the market logic of animal abuse in three ways. First, they work to revolutionise the so-called meat culture. Second, they pro-actively demand laws that protect animal rights. Third, they establish singular modes of community-based exchange that detach themselves from the doxa of the consumption of animal products. By opposing the mainstream culture, the mainstream policy and the mainstream marketplace, these activists develop influential arenas of consumption that resemble their ideal world and impact the market as a whole.

KEYWORDS:

• Activism
• prefiguration
• consumer social movement
• vegetarianism
• storytelling
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) [2014/06250-1].

Notes on contributors

Renata Andreoni Barboza

Renata Andreoni Barboza is a Lecturer of Consumer Behaviour and Marketing in the Department of Management at Centro Universitário Ibmec, Brazil. She obtained her PhD at FGV EAESP, Brazil. Her research activity is predominantly in the area of consumer culture theory, with a focus on improving consumer welfare and wellbeing.

Tânia M. Veludo-de-Oliveira

Tânia Veludo-de-Oliveira is Associate Professor of Marketing and Leader of the Marketing Research Group of FGV EAESP, Brazil. Her research area is Transformative Consumer Research. She studies a range of consumption phenomena related to personal and collective well-being. She has published in journals such as European Journal of Marketing; Consumption, Markets and Culture; and International Journal of Advertising.