Subaltern

Subaltern Consumers and Material Deprivation

Subaltern consumers are characterized by extreme forms of poverty and material deprivation. The World Bank estimates show that nearly 1.5 billion people live below the poverty line, which is pegged at US$1.25 per day (Shah 2010). Accordingly, nearly half of the global population survives on less than US$2.50 per day. A vast majority of these economically marginalized consumers live in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. The problem of poverty of subaltern groups is further exacerbated by rising levels of inequality across the globe. It is estimated that the richest 20 percent of the world's population consumes 76.6 percent of the goods produced (Shah 2010). Scholars have argued that the recent neoliberal trajectory of capitalism has contributed to a greater transfer of wealth from subaltern to wealthier population groups. This has resulted in a further immiseration of subaltern consumers, who have reduced access to the basic necessities such as food, clothing, health care, and shelter. For example, neoliberal India has witnessed high growth levels since the 1990s and has a burgeoning elite class; it has also simultaneously experienced an increase in poverty and reduction in per capita consumption of food and clothing (Patnaik 2007). Such inequalities produce popular discontent and create social conflicts, as witnessed in several parts of the world in the past two decades. Traditionally, a welfare state was considered a remedial antidote to these forces of divergence and conflict. According to Giorgio Agamben, because of neoliberal adjustments, private corporations are increasingly replacing the state, and material deprivation of subaltern groups across the globe is maintained by creating more violent and authoritarian governance structures.

[Page 1392]Living under conditions of severe economic hardships, subaltern consumers are only marginal participants as buyers in consumer cultures across the world. Ronald P. Hill observes that such consumers have meager possessions and their lives are defined by restricted access to market-mediated consumption goods and services. Similarly, Rohit Varman and Ram Manohar Vikas argue that subaltern consumers lack freedom in the domain of consumption. Accordingly, disempowerment and oppression in the domain of work contribute to severe restrictions in the world of consumption. Although subaltern groups hardly participate in exchange processes as buyers, desire to buy objects of consumption has become a far more universal phenomenon among consumers with even limited purchasing power. Moreover, several corporations such as Nestlé and Unilever have designed product offerings to draw subaltern groups into circuits of consumption. These increasing consumer desires, in a world of subaltern consumption that is characterized by low buying power, often contribute to a state of turmoil or anomie. Here, Jean Baudrillard's analysis of instigation of consumer needs as a means of repression is particularly relevant. These interpretations of subaltern consumers help to revise a celebratory understanding of consumption or consumer culture that emerges from the studies based in privileged consumption settings. The totalizing and commodifying influences of capitalism in subaltern lives require a deeper systemic understanding.

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