Adri A. Albert de la Bruhèze
University of Twente

Twentieth century Dutch and European mass consumption was never inevitable or self evident, but needed projection, representation, construction, and production. Mass consumption involved a lot of sustained work both of producers and consumers. By applying the concepts of mediation and mediation junction it can be shown how consumption and production in 20th century Netherlands developed in tandem with social and institutional arrangements. The Dutch consumption trajectory is also visible in other European countries: intermediate actors who sought to combine elements of mass, collective and individual models of consumption into a hybrid. The space for the mediated development of this hybrid was provided by similar state-market-society relations at approximately the same time. The Dutch ‘case’ therefore can shed more light on the emergence of the European consumer society.

The paper shows how Dutch pre- and post world war II state—market-society relations created both opportunities and constraints for the politics of consumption, i.e. the design and diffusion of new durable and non-durable consumers goods and in turning consumers into citizens. In the pre-war (social non-state corporatist) period societal consumer organisations were able to (seize) an active role in the politics of consumption. In the post-war (social state dominated corporatist) period professional groups, state institutions and corporations took over, effectively silencing social organisations that had previously played a crucial role in the politics of consumption. In the 1970s this consumption junction fell apart under the influence of international oil crises and new (national and international) organisations of (radical) consumer, feminist, environmental and third world organisations that openly contested the model of consultation of ‘social partners’.

The paper hypothesizes that the activities of mediators and processes of mediation junction building within specific state-market-society relations were of decisive importance for the shaping of twentieth century consumer society linking production and consumption in a historically specific fashion. Drawing from recent studies on the mediated manufacturing of houses, kitchens, cars, radio and tv sets, snacks, their consumption and their consumers in the Netherlands, the paper aims at disclosing the Dutch consumption trajectory that helped building the European version of consumer society.