Uniting Critical Theory and Public Policy to Create the Reflexively Defiant Consumer

TLDR

Postmodern critical theory has been applied to consumer education, yet prevailing approaches that supply information and skills leave the underlying system largely unquestioned. The authors propose a new discourse that urges consumers to become reflexively defiant, using public policy to empower them to question economic, political, and social structures and define their own needs.

Abstract

Postmodern extensions of critical theory are used to explore traditional notions of consumer education. Generally, marketing researchers, consumerists, and policymakers have emphasized the importance of making the consumer critical through providing consumers with more complete information and better skills. However, this focus on improving consumers' decision making leaves the existing system virtually unquestioned and intact. An alternative vision of a critical consumer is offered. The authors suggest that consumers must become more radically critical or reflexively defiant by dropping this natural attitude toward the existing order and, instead, questioning economic, political, and social structures. This article attempts to create a new discourse for consumers and suggests that public policy can help consumers become aware of their power to define and fulfill their own needs.