13 CONSUMER RESISTANCE AND POWER RELATIONSHIPS IN THE MARKETPLACE Dominique Roux, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne Elif Izberk-Bilgin, University of Michigan–Dearborn CHAPTER OVERVIEW • Why do consumers resist? Power as the driver for resistance. • What are consumers opposing/escaping? From macro to micro targets of resistance. • How is resistance manifested? Examining overt and covert resistance. • Sketching the future of consumer resistance. INTRODUCTION The term ‘consumer resistance’ sometimes has been used interchangeably with anti- consumption and broadly applied to encompass a variety of consumer practices from voluntary simplicity, culture jamming, to boycotts. Simply put, to resist means standing up against what is perceived as a power, a pressure, an influence, or any attempt to act upon one’s conduct. In the marketing literature, Peñaloza and Price (1993: 123) semi- nally used this construct to describe ‘the way individuals and groups practice a strategy of appropriation in response to structures of domination’. The first noteworthy thing about this seminal definition is that resistance involves action, not only thought or intention. Second, it alludes to many conventional marketing practices such as market studies, 13_ARNOULD_THOMPSON_CH_13.indd 295 27/03/2018 6:17:47 PM