Consumo, cidadania e a construção da democracia no Brasil contemporâneoobservações e reflexões sobre a história do Idec

Resumo

This work discusses the relationship between the categories consumption and citizenship, exploring the possibilities and limits of the proposals suggesting that an approximation, or even fusion, between the roles of consumer and citizen is in course, as translated by expressions such as consumer-citizen, citizen consumption, citizen consumerism. The object of study was a broad set of publications and other documental records produced by Idec – Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defense – since it was established, in 1987, until the end of the year 2009. The context preceding and surrounding the constitution of this organization (Brazil during and after the 1964 military dictatorship) is highly considered. As a starting point, this study identifies severe controversies regarding the possibility of such approximation between citizenship and consumption, arising either from theoretical divergences or from the very meaning of those categories, both in the academic sense as well as in the common-sense. As an analytical strategy, the category democratic consumer-citizen is proposed, bringing specific meaning for the discussion, founded in a theoretical framework composed with elements from consumer movements historiography, new social movements theories, and Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action, specially the democratic public sphere and the discursive model of public space. Using such analytical category and theoretical framework, the revision and analysis of the object of study identify several situations where proposals or analyses directly or indirectly associating consumption and citizenship are presented by Idec. Such manifestations of this organization appear in a great variety of contexts, purposes and formats, allowing their confrontation and analyses considering different times, as well as in diverse situational and teleological terms. At the conclusion, it is observed that the proposals associating consumption and citizenship, identified in the broad documentation studied, present several ambivalences, being some times convergent and some times divergent, in face of the analytical category proposed, which associates citizen consumption and the contribution for strengthening democracy. The origins and implications of such ambivalences are identified, allowing the proposition of a specific typology, and indicating the possibility of its generalization, as an analytical tool for studying other organizations and proposals dealing with consumption and citizenship. Finalizing this work, a general model for analysis of the “consumer-citizen” subject (as understood in its common-sense) is proposed, taking as references, at first, the dimension where such citizenconsumption happens (ranging from the individual to the collective level) and, on the other hand, the purpose of such actions (ranging from maximization of the product/service costbenefit up to the transformation of the broader society). In the end, the author remarks that, although the conclusions and analysis of this work are found useful to understand the studies’ subject from a political perspective, the complexity of consumption and its implications on contemporary society indicates it would be necessary to complement those with studies from other theoretical perspectives, especially from the fields of culture, psychology and anthropology.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Dissertação

Ano

2010

Instituição

Fundação Getulio Vargas

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Português

Acesso

Acesso aberto

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/5374

Temas

EconomiaAdministração Pública

Palavras-chave

Governo e sociedade civil em contexto subnacionalConsumidor-cidadãoCidadãoRedemocratização no Brasil pós-64ConsumoConsumo éticoNovos movimentos sociaisConsumo conscienteIdecconsumo-cidadãoConsumidor-cidadão democráticoConsumo sustentávelMovimentos de consumidoresConsumerismoMovimentos sociaisCitizenshipDemocracyConsumerismEthical consumptionConscious consumptionSustainable consumptionCitizen consumptionConsumer-citizenSocial movementsNew social movementsConsumer movementsBrazilian Institute for Consumer DefenseRe-democratization in Brazil post-1964Administração públicaInstituto Brasileiro de Defesa do ConsumidorConsumo (Economia) - Aspectos sociaisCidadaniaDemocraciaDefesa do consumidor - BrasilConsumidores