Researchers Wanted at Utrecht for ‘Consumers on the March: Civic Activism and Political Representation in Europe, 1970s to 1990s’

The Department of History and Art History at Utrecht are seeking to appoint a postdoctoral research and a PhD Candidate for the project ‘Consumers on the March: Civic Activism and Political Representation in Europe, 1970s to 1990s’, funded by means of a VIDI Research Grant awarded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) to Dr Liesbeth van de Grift.

From the 1970s, the European Community became increasingly focused on consumer protection. This change allowed transnational NGOs, such as consumer organisations, to enter the European political arena and influence cross-border issues like product safety, environmental protection, and public health. This project will analyse the arguments and political strategies by which consumer organisations and other political actors in the field of consumer politics sought to present themselves as experts on/representatives of consumers, and seeks to explain their different degrees of success. On the meta-level, the Postdoctoral Researcher will analyse how the European model of decision-making and the role of civil society actors therein shifted over time beginning in the 1970s. The Postdoc will study archival records and the publications of institutional platforms where interest groups were able to influence policy-making, such as the Economic and Social Committee, the Consumer Consultative Committee and the European Parliament; she or he will also conduct interviews with key players in the field of consumer politics. This project is part of ‘Consumers on the March: Civic Activism and Political Representation in Europe, 1970s to 1990s’, a project that seeks to assess the impact of consumer organisations on changing conceptions and practices of interest representation in European governance since the 1970s.