New insights on consumer activism: advancing a prefigurative framing of alternative consumption

Introduction

Bauman (2012) argues that we are currently amid an ‘interregnum’ - a time of significant instability, turmoil and general social anxiety coupled with a sense of hope and fervour for possible futures (Gramsci, 1996). Vast socio-economic inequalities, emphasised by COVID, coupled with escalating living costs and rapid ecological degradation, feed a growing consciousness that capitalism is neither equipped nor inclined to address society’s multiple social, political and ecological crises. Marketing scholars are responding to these ‘wicked problems’. For example, Fitchett and Cronin (2022, p. 9) call for the deromanticisation of the market – ‘an ideological break with market-centrism and capitalist realism’. While Lloveras et al. (2022) suggest that scholars work ‘towards a future in which the only type of marketing possible is one that is coherent with the deep, radical transformations’ (p. 17) associated with a degrowth approach to the market. Similarly, this special section called for an exploration of transformative counterhegemonic spaces and movements that draw on prefigurative politics. The prefigurative turn has swept through the social sciences, originating in political science (Boggs, 1977) and migrating to psychology (Trott, 2016), anthropology (Graeber, 2014), geography (Jeffrey & Dyson, 2021), and increasingly, marketing (Casey et al., 2020; Chatzidakis et al., 2012)

Prefigurative politics are typically associated with radical political movements like anarchism (Franks, 2019), feminism (Hamouda, 2022), alter-globalisation (L. S. Yates, 2020) and, to some degree, Marxism (Törnberg, 2021). These movements are often embodied in counter-hegemonic social, political or economic projects or via an alternative, creative means of resistance (L. S. Yates, 2015). The concept captures a variety of social experiments which critique the status quo (Cornish et al., 2016) whilst constructing ‘alternative or utopian social relations in the present either in parallel with or in the course of, adversarial social movement protest’ (L. S. Yates, 2015, p. 236). The term ‘prefigurative politics’ is often attributed to Carl Boggs. However, the theory and practice pre-existed his commentary. Day (2005) traces its roots as far back as Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825) and credits Gustav Landauer (1870–1919) with the insight that we can construct a desired world in the shell of the old ‘if mutual aid is always with us a principle, then socialism can be created, for those who choose it, at the time and place of their choosing’ (p. 89). This kind of action is typified by rejecting the ‘politics of waiting’ and embracing ‘the immanent possibilities of the here and now’ (Springer, 2014, p. 3), using these alternatives as ‘theatrical spectacles that publicly represent political ideologies and convince others of their correctness’ (Portwood-Stacer, 2012, p. 99). Thus, activists literally live their ideals, establish organisations and create spaces which reflect their desired end-state. There is no ‘clear qualitative difference between means and ends: both are, so to speak, mirrored in the practice concerned’ (van de Sande, 2013, p. 232). For instance, during the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Black Panther Party created ‘survival programmes’ to provision for individuals beyond the market, state or federal systems. These doomed programmes mirrored the self-determination the Panthers hoped to scale across Black communities in the United States. Unfortunately, these initiatives were violently repressed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (Törnberg, 2021).

Nonetheless, the dissolution of the means/end distinction affords prefigurative politics a flexibility which is complemented by its accessibility. As cases in point, squatters dumpster dive to decommodify exchange (L. S. Yates, 2015), artists create alternative visions of the future to defamiliarise the world and invent ‘a sense of new political and social possibilities’ (Tucker, 2010, p. 7), music festivals become spaces in which dominant ideologies are interrogated and rejected (Sharpe, 2008), cooperatives offer alternative ownership and provisioning models (Sekulova et al., 2017) and alternative food networks create oppositional production/consumption relationships (Schlosberg, 2019). Such experiments are demarcated by a commitment to radical democracy, a diversity of ownership models and decentralised modes of organisation. They are designed to end domination, challenge the status quo, promote equality and decentralise power (Mattern, 2019).

Recent years have seen a global increase in prefigurative projects as collectivities embody and enact social, political or economic change (Deflorian, 2020). Prefiguration is the ‘embodied process of reimagining all of society – and as such, the specific practice of prefiguration is different every time and in each place it is enacted’ (Maeckelbergh, 2016, p. 122). This quality assures a diversity of approaches, many of which centre provisioning and critique market centrism along with the dominant narrative that the capitalist pursuit of infinite growth can solve the global problematique (Davoudi, 2023). As such, prefiguration is an appropriate lens through which to explore (collective) consumer activism (Chatzidakis et al., 2012), and related projects (cooperatives, commons) or political expressions.

Prefigurative projects are experimental, experiential and transformative (van de Sande, 2015). Gibson-Graham (2008) posits that alternative economies oppose neoliberal discourses and ‘generate spaces of economic alterity that sit within, against and beyond capitalist economies’ (Hall & Ince, 2017, p. 2). Indeed, many prefigured spaces produce alternative ways of living, including ecovillages which reshape their members' lives, along with envisioning and promoting replacements for embedded practices through constant experimentation and outreach. There are community gardens that foster sociality and well-being as well as groups like Occupy and the Zapatista Movement with their grassroots organising and horizontal decision-making (Anderson & Springer, 2018; Stahler-Sholk, 2019). These new ethico-political realities challenge the central narrative of capitalist realism (Fisher, 2009), namely, that there is no alternative to this mode of economic organisation. Crucially, these models of workable alternatives enliven new radical imaginaries. Since social imaginaries define what is possible, and therefore bear ‘real consequences for our collective ability to act in the present’ (Komporozos- Athanasiou & Bottici, 2022, p. 65), Preece et al. (2022) argue that marketing scholarship should explore imaginaries as tools to unpick sedimented narratives.

Escobar (2022) quite rightly contends that every area of contemporary social (and political) life urgently requires a radical re-imagining. The articles submitted to this special section are bound by a common desire to deliver that rethinking. Laamanen et al. (2022) begin by highlighting the role of materiality (and consumption) as a vehicle of social change and then introduce the concept of neo-materialist movement organisations (NMMOs). These are defined as ‘experimental local initiatives that mobilise in inclusive, reflexive practice with a particular focus on material dimensions of collective action’. Given the proliferation of prefigurative politics both in practice and theory, Laamanen et al. (2022) also stress the well-recognised importance of anchoring prefigurative politics in anti-authoritarianism, anti-capitalism, anti-oppression and anti-imperialism (Dixon, 2014), avoiding the inclusion of regressive political action in an already expansive definition. However, the backbone of their paper is a compelling discussion on how prefigurative politics and NMMO’s shape action via various political processes and a rejection of authority. The authors ask ‘what is the scale [of] action needed to achieve structural change or how do prefigurative politics allow [us] to escalate action towards social change?’. Their answer is a well-considered exploration of scaling up, scaling out, scaling deep and scaling through. It is subsequently argued that considering the urgency of contemporary crises, activists should consider scaling through (institutions), an often-rejected strategy, as local authorities are viewed as bastions of the status quo. Ultimately this paper moves beyond merely building local utopias and considers how prefigurative politics could bring broader transformational change.

Barboza and Veludo de Oliveira (2022) explore consumer activism through the lens of prefiguration, attribute alternative consumption to a transformational impulse and offer a conceptual model. Their account begins with a discussion of New Social Movements (NSM), consumer activism and consumer resistance. An ethnographic study of Brazilian vegetarian activism is the focus and the researchers engaged in events, actions, visited vegan restaurants and collected 33 interviews with vegetarians and vegans. Findings revealed resistance against a dominant culture that normalises animal consumption, problematic policies which ignore animal welfare, and an unresponsive marketplace failing to provide plant-based alternatives. Participants work to prefigure alternatives by raising awareness around animal cruelty, propose new legislation, and establish their own companies to provide plant-based offerings. Barboza and Veludo de Oliveira (2022) suggest that performative projects may contribute to market transformation. Overall, their paper connects with a growing body of transformation-focused consumer research informed by prefigurative politics (e.g. Casey et al., 2020; L. Yates, 2022).

Finally, Parker (2021) captures a critical perspective on prefigurative politics, highlighting the pitfalls of changing our present conditions to affect societal change, the difficulties around making consistently sound choices, the breadth of the term, and the scaling issues around prefigurative action. These are important warnings which should be heeded.