Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn 1968 Dutch activists launched a campaign focused on cane sugar as a symbol of unfair trading conditions for the global South. The history of the cane sugar campaign from 1968 to 1974 highlights how European integration provided hope for large-scale change and a common target. This led activists to establish European networks and campaigns. Its demise sheds new light on the new social movements' shift from 'grand politics', aimed at a sudden and drastic transformation through global and European politics, towards incremental change by locally targeting specific companies and countries.

AbstractDecolonization challenged people across the globe to define their place in a new postcolonial order. This challenge was felt in international political and economic affairs, but it also affected daily lives across the globe. The history of fair trade activism as seen from the Netherlands highlights how citizens in the North grappled to position themselves in a postcolonial consumer society. Interventions by fair trade activists connected debates about the morals of their society to the consequences of decolonization. They reacted to the imbalances of the global market in the wake of decolonization, joining critics from the South in demanding more equitable global relations. It was around this issue of "fair trade" that a transnational coalition of moderate and more radical activists emerged after the 1960s. This coalition held widely dissimilar views regarding the politics of the left and the use of consumer activism. The analysis of their interventions demonstrates that during the postwar era attempts at transforming the global market were inextricably interwoven with visions of a postcolonial order.

AbstractThe term "depillarization" ("ontzuiling") emerged in the Netherlands during the 1970s to proclaim the end of a society dominated by "pillarization" ("verzuiling"). In breaking away from the past, a groundbreaking renewal of religious and civic life through secularization and individualization was proclaimed or deplored. As hopes of an emancipation from the past subsided in the face of a considerable continuity, depillarization became a narrative of loss and frustration. This article shows how metaphors of disaggregation such as depillarization have produced an inability to conceptualize contemporary society, accompanied by a distortion of the past as the "other" of the present. It demonstrates how such metaphors may become dominant through their ability to incorporate competing visions of social order and the integration of scholarly and popular discourse. In conclusion, this article proposes to overcome the narratives of disaggregation by interpreting post‐war history as a gradual transformation from the ideals and practices of heavy communities to those of light communities in the domains of politics, civil society and religion.

Die gesellschaftliche Stellung der Religion hat sich im 20. Jahrhundert in den Niederlanden einschneidend verändert. Diese Veränderung lässt sich allerdings nicht schlicht wie eine fortschreitende Säkularisierung verstehen. Die Beiträge in diesem Band zeigen, dass religiöse Positionen und die gesellschaftliche Stellung der Religion ständig neu bestimmt werden: Unter Glaubenden und in Glaubensgemeinschaften, in der Zivilgesellschaft und in der Politik. So tritt Religion als Zündstoff hervor: als Inspiration für individuelles Engagement, als Orientierungspunkt für zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen und für die Politik, aber auch als Fokus für Konflikte und Ängste. Religion bleibt in diesen verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen ein ernst zu nehmender Faktor in der niederländischen Zeitgeschichte.

From the 1960s onwards, the sustainability of the modern diet became a topic of fierce discussion in industrialised societies. Vocal critics proposed radical alternatives to the prevailing modes of production, but their impact remained fairly modest. To understand how Western European countries nonetheless became 'light green societies' (Michael Bess), this article assesses the distinct interpretation of sustainable food consumption which was championed by consumer organisations since the 1960s. Tracing the steps of the Nutrition Education Bureau (Voorlichtingsbureau voor de Voeding) and the Consumers Union (Consumentenbond) in the Netherlands between 1960 and 1985, it analyses the reactions of these well-known intermediaries to the alternatives proposed by more radical environmentalists. The article demonstrates that after a period of reluctancy, the position of the two consumers organisations evolved, with both acknowledging that the health of consumers and the health of the planet were inextricably linked. Adopting long-standing consumer concerns, the two organisations popularised a definition of sustainable food consumption which took the individual's right to choose as a vantage point and prioritised concerns about health and affordability.

AbstractActivists throughout Western Europe joined Southern actors in demanding a reform of global trade during the 1960s. This forum focuses on the subsequent trajectories of fair trade activism: the initiatives which aimed to achieve equitable economic relations between the South and the North. The evolution of this movement is situated within larger debates about social movements since the 1960s. The forum demonstrates the importance of a transnational perspective, particularly the impact of the global South and European integration. It highlights fair trade's broad constituency and the contested development of its goals and repertoire. The movement's trajectories challenge us to reassess how activists attempted to shape a post-colonial world in which consumption had become a predominant fact of life. Regarding this strand of activism as part of crucial post-war developments provides a fresh perspective on the history of transnational civic activism.

The striking emergence of 'consumer society' in the Low Countries during the twentieth century came about in two waves. The first – from around 1920 until the 1960s – saw the discovery of the individual figure of the consumer. During the second, postwar wave, the notion of a society made up of consumers took hold. Commonalities between the Low Countries and other parts of the world facilitated a transnational dialogue about the place of consumers and the shaping of a society which could accommodate them. The crucial role companies, officials and civic organisations played in shaping consumer society calls attention to the limitations of a perspective focused primarily on individual consumers. This special issue highlights how a focus on the rise of consumer society yields a fruitful integration of questions of economy, politics, and citizenship, and forces us to rethink the position the Low Countries in a transnational context. This article is part of the special issue on consumption history.

AbstractThis article discusses the concept of 'religious regimes' in order to identify institutionalised arrangements regulating the social position of religion. By analysing such regimes and the views underpinning them, three visions of the societal role of religion come into focus: segmented pluralism, the Christian nation and the secular nation. Taking up Dutch post-war history as a case study, it becomes clear that religious regimes regularly result from fragile compromises. The concept thus yields insight into the gradual transitions between different institutional arrangements regarding religion and into the impact of changing views on the societal role of religion within and outside religious communities.