Political Virtue and Shopping: Individuals, Consumerism and
Collective Action. By Michele Micheletti. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2003. 247p. $55.00.
Although this book is complex and multifaceted, there is one central
argument running through it. This argument consists of the claim that
consumption practices can be understood as political practices, and
that such consumption practices are significant for societal
development. For example, when a woman goes to the supermarket to buy
shampoo, she can choose to buy the one with an environmentally friendly
label, thus supporting policies of sustainability. The author sees the
phenomenon of political consumerism as a reaction to the derooting of
politics from the context of the nation-state into more microlocal as
well as more global contexts, and she develops her own concept for
defining political consumerism as political participation, namely,
individualized collective action.