Beyond consumer responsibilization: Slow Food’s actually existing neoliberalism

Abstract

Critics of political consumerism argue that it perpetuates a neoliberal belief that complex societal problems are best redressed through the market-coordinated choices and actions of socially responsible consumers. However, such critiques overlook how neoliberalism is actually enacted in particular socio-cultural contexts and the variegated ideological effects that result. To redress this gap, we analyze the “actually existing neoliberalism” manifest in a Slow Food network. This discursive system presents an intersection between a neoliberal discourse of passionate entrepreneurialism and a politicized therapeutic ethos that traces to the organization’s historical roots in Italian leftist politics. Through this actually existing neoliberalism, Slow Food enthusiasts constitute themselves as ethical agents who are sharing their passion and helping others gain autonomy from the corporate controlled, industrialized food system. This ideological framing buttresses the ethical authority of the Slow Food movement by countering the cultural condemnation that its politicized taste practices are elitist affectations.