Consumer Education

Although people have been consuming goods and services in the marketplace for years, the terms consumer culture and consumer education only came into use at the beginning of the twentieth century. Transacting in the global marketplace of the twenty-first century is a complex, nuanced process necessitating special training and socialization processes, available through consumer education. Over the past fifty years, efforts to conceptualize consumer education have become more refined, progressive, and innovative. Starting with the seminal work of Rosella Bannister and Charles Monsma, conceptions of consumer education are traced up to 2009, drawing [Page 264]on work from Canada, the United States, and the European Union.

Bannister and Monsma tendered the most enduring understanding of consumer education, published in a monograph containing a classification system of 154 ...