Overview

Citizen consumers have two significant voices in the political public sphere: one constructed by organized consumer movements, the other by opinion polls and market research. While the first can be powerful, surveyed citizen consumers remain a diffuse, powerless bulk. With comprehensive computer usage and other technical advances, the applications of survey techniques and the number of competing interests have risen. Some fear that the privacy of personal data is threatened, while others become heavily dependent on huge amounts of data to satisfy their clients. Political and economic marketing and surveying need to gather information about citizen consumers while also obeying data protection regulations. Thus knowledge, power, and agency are important in connecting consumption, consumers, citizens, market researchers, and the political. In examining these aspects, the volume brings together the history of the consumer and the history of politics in modern Europe. In particular, it focuses on two strands of research that are closely interconnected but have so far been treated in isolation: the politics of consumption and consumer organizations on the one hand, and the techniques of market research and opinion polling on the other. In concentrating on France, Britain, and Germany (and partly on the USA) this volume tells the story of the political sphere in Western consumer societies.

Full Product Details

Author:   Kerstin Brückweh (Research Fellow, The German Historical Institute London)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.10cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 22.20cm
Weight:   0.532kg
ISBN:  

9780199604029

ISBN 10:   0199604029
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   14 April 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   No Longer Our Product
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction 1: Kerstin Bruckweh: Perspectives for a History of Market Research, Consumer Movements, and the Political Public Sphere Part II. Producing Knowledge about Citizens and Consumers: Market Research and Opinion Polling 2: Stefan Schwarzkopf: A Radical Past? The Politics of Market Research in Britain, 1900-50 3: Judith G. Coffin: Between Opinion and Desire: Elle Magazine's Survey Research in 1950s France 4: Norbert Grube: Targeting and Educating Consumers in West Germany: Market Research by the Allensbach Institute up to the 1970s Part III. Acting on One's Own Initiative: Consumer Movements 5: Matthew Hilton: Consumer Activism: Rights or Duties? 6: Lawrence Black: Crosland's Consumer Politics 7: Alain Chatriot: Consumer Groups with or without the State: The History of a Misunderstanding in France, 1945-2006 8: Michael Prinz: German Co-ops in the Public Sphere, 1890-1968: A Plea for a Longer Perspective Part IV. Communicating Knowledge: Market Research, Data Protection, and the Political 9: Edward Higgs: Consumers, Citizens, and Deviants: Differing Forms of Personal Identification in England since the Victorian Period 10: Gunnar Trumbull: Between Global and Local: The Invention of Data Privacy in the United States and France 11: John Clarke: Citizen-Consumers: Hyphenation, Identification, De-Politicization? 12: Rainer Gries: Cultures of Products and Political Culture: Looking for Transfer Performances Part V. Outlook: Citizens and Consumers in the Twentieth Century 13: Heinz-Gerhard Haupt: Suggestions for Further Research

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