The rise of mass consumption in Belgium (1945-1989): the social and political construction of affluence.

This project highlights mass consumption in the Keynesian welfare state as the outcome of negotiations. Three types of social movements are investigated: the Association des Consommateurs, the co-operative movement and new social movements such as Anders Gaan Leven. By looking at institutional structures, discourses and actions, these intermediaries between citizen and state are put in a new perspective, thereby re-evaluating the first era of presumed general affluence.