Consumer sovereignty in the digital society

Alexandre Chirat ()
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Alexandre Chirat: EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: Do uses of digital technologies in the framework of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce the expression of consumer sovereignty ? This paper addresses this question through the lens of John Kenneth Galbraith's theory of consumption. First, I recall the main stakes of his theory. Second, I highlight the main differences between traditional advertising and online behavioral advertising. Third, I explain how online behavioral advertising strengthens the "dependence effect" and "revised sequence" depicted by Galbraith within the context of the industrial society. Fourth, I discuss some normative challenges raised by digital platform corporations to individual sovereignty. Lastly, I argue that platform capitalism appear as a mature form of the "new industrial state", one important difference being that digital platform corporations, rather than traditional industrial corporations, largely preside over the allocation of resources in the economy.

Keywords: Consumer; sovereignty; –; online; behavioral; advertising; -; digital; economics; –; platform; capitalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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