Technocratic discourse and the rhetorical constraint of local knowledge

This essay analyzes the public discourse expressed by Consumers’ Research during the 1930s. It argues that books and articles explaining and justifying the organization articulated a distinct “technocratic consumer discourse”; which implicitly constrained consumers from potential avenues of public influence. These texts reveal how technocratic discourse reinforced a distinct social hierarchy by undermining calls for political consumer activism. The study uses a 1935 labor strike at Consumers’ Research to demonstrate how the organization's rhetoric maintained dependence on a technical elite and invalidated all other agendas for consumer action.