Abstracts
Abstract
The enlargement of Europe and globalization are reconfiguring European consumerism. In this new context, personal, local and national agency in the social and the political relations of consumption are in great flux. I will use some recent language and circulars regarding GMOs to suggest that what consumers may be gaining in active agency through the creation of supranational agencies and NGOs and the proliferation of Internet activism, they may be losing in the accountability of their local governments. Further, the means by which “European” consumers are being created, possibly a classe objet in Bourdieu’s terms, reflects an erosion of national sovereignty and its crisis, producing what may be a “consolation narrative” to the spectre of the failure of democracy.
Résumé
L’élargissement de l’Europe et la mondialisation modifient profondément le consumérisme européen. Dans ce contexte nouveau, les conditions subjectives, locales et nationales pour défendre les consommateurs au niveau social et politique connaissent des mutations importantes. Je vais recourir à certains discours et publications sur les organismes génétiquement modifiés pour suggérer que ce que les consommateurs gagnent en termes d’influence, d’une part, à travers la création d’agences internationales, d’ONG et par l’important militantisme sur Internet, ils le perdent peut-être, d’autre part, dans le sens d’une diminution de possibilités pour responsabiliser leurs gouvernements locaux. Plus encore, les moyens grâce auxquels on crée des consommateurs « européens » - probablement une « classe objet », pour le dire dans les termes de Pierre Bourdieu - ne témoignent pas seulement d’une érosion de la souveraineté nationale et de sa crise, mais produisent peut-être en même temps une espèce de « récit de la consolation » au regard de l’échec de la démocratie.
Zusammenfassung
Die Ost-Erweiterung Europas und die Globalisierung sorgen auch für einen Wandel des europäischen Verbrauchermarkts. In diesem neuen Kontext sind die individuellen, lokalen und nationalen Bedingungen für die Einwirkung auf die sozialen und politischen Aspekte des Verbrauchermarkts starken Veränderungen unterworfen. In dem vorliegenden Artikel werden einige Beispiele jüngerer Verlautbarungen zu gentechnologisch veränderten Organismen angeführt um zu zeigen, dass dasjenige, was Konsumenten an Handlungsmöglichkeiten auf der Ebene supranationaler Organisationen und NGOs sowie im Sinn der Verbreitung von Internet-Aktivismus gewinnen, möglicherweise auch wieder verloren geht auf der Ebene der Einklagbarkeit von Rechten gegenüber ihren nationalen Regierungen. Darüber spiegeln die Mittel, durch die „europäische“ Konsumenten geschaffen werden, nicht nur eine Erosion nationaler Souveränität bzw. deren Krise, sondern erzeugen möglicherweise so etwas wie ein „Trostnarrativ“ im Hinblick auf das Gespenst des Versagens der Demokratie.
Appendices
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