Has consumerism replaced citizenship as the mode of making ones voice heard?
NOREENA: We’re seeing a shift away from citizenship towards a sense of identity derived from what we consume I shop therefore I am. People are realizing that we can use our shopping power as a political tool. In the United States, for example, there has been a fifty percent increase over the past ten years in people’s willingness to boycott a product for ethical or environmental reasons. The politicization of shopping has definitely had an effect on corporations’ behavior, but to a limited degree. It’s a form of political expression that only the rich can participate in, so it’s not at all democratic. It fails desperately on that account. ARIANA: I’ve started to think much more about where and how the products I buy are made. How do you personally deal with that? NOREENA: It’s very hard. When I went to the protests in Geneva last summer, I had to buy a new pair of sneakers. I went to a sporting goods shop, and I thought, “I don’t want to buy Nike, because I’ve read about what happens i
