Une remise en question de l’ “opulence”: le movement coopérative britannique après la Seconde Guerre mondiale [Contesting “affluence”: The British cooperative movement after the Second World War]

Despite the upsurge of academic interest over the last few decades in the history of ?consumer society?, the role of consumers? cooperation in Britain remains remarkably neglected. This is a serious omission because the cooperative movement has provided vital material benefits for working-class consumers since its 19th century origins. Its history also illuminates wider social and economic processes. This article considers how organized working-class consumers in Britain responded to the growth of mass consumerism after the Second World War. It focuses particularly on the relationship between the cooperative movement and the Labour Party in order to explain ways in which the cooperators? distinctive vision of how the market should be regulated in the interest of consumers was subordinated in the post-war period.