A post-colonial perspective on consumerist Organizations in Brazil

摘要

This study aims to present, from the postcolonial perspective, a point of view of the consumerist movement in Brazil that is not discussed in the literature on consumerism. Analyzes was performed on how and why Eurocentric patterns of consumer protection were incorporated into the movement and how the adoption of this model resulted in limited advances in consumer protection in the country. The cases of important Brazilian consumer organizations, namely Procon-SP, Idec and Proteste, are presented, discussing their association with international consumerist organizations, with special attention to Consumers International, and how they imitated their consumer protection practices. From the perspective adopted, it is possible to see how the Eurocentric influence is present in campaigns, research, events, comparative tests of products, lectures and exchanges of such Brazilian organizations, revealing how the adoption of mimetic behavior perpetuates post-colonial domination that does not result in improvements to consumer protection in Brazil. There is little literature on consumerism that discusses such geopolitical aspects of the consumer movement, making it difficult to recognize, therefore, that the Eurocentric model of consumerism has more than consumer protection as its priority, since it is aligned with the interests of the Global North, in particular the US, of perpetuating its global hegemony.