“Self-control” and “self-knowledge”

Fashioning consumer subjectivities in late socialist Romania

Abstract

English abstract: From the 1980s, research on the history of consumption has flourished. Following Michel Foucault’s studies on governmentality, scholars have established a link between liberal political culture and a turn to the responsible, self-regulating consumer. In this paper, I suggest a more integrated look on consumption politics by including authoritarian states into the picture. Exploring the program on “rational alimentation” in late socialist Romania, I show that the authoritarian government under Nicolae Ceaușescu did not primarily use force to make people eat better. Instead, it aimed at selfcontrol and informed decision-making. Doing so, I argue that the program contributed to a “late modern” form of government that transferred social responsibilities from the state to individual consumers.