Abstract:

This presentation addresses several significant questions: To what extent do consumers in emerging markets like Brazil and Argentina face the marketplace as a new voting arena to express identities and interests, as well as beliefs about the common good? How has political consumerism and CSR in this region feed backed each other to legitimate ethics and sustainability as the center stage of business relationships between individual consumers, products and corporations, and what limits and constraints does that mean for corporate cutbacks in private social spending in times of crisis? How much tolerance does the public, living in unstable social mobility conditions, have for sudden reversals in socially responsible behaviour by companies and what threats and opportunities might that imply for corporate Latin America?