De gré ou de force : l’entrée des travailleurs québécois dans la société de consommation

Abstract

What part did ordinary people play in the transformations that ushered in the consumer society? We study this phenomenon through the history of credit, adopting a “bottom-up” perspective that also highlights the agency of social actors. Our analysis combines a materialist approach to the consumption of urban workers between the 1940s and 1970s with a study of the policies, discourses and internal debates of the trade union organizations and cooperative movement to which large numbers of them adhered during this period. Our main field of investigation is Montréal, a major industrial city and North American metropolis. Canadian historiography has hitherto emphasized the slow pace of changes in consumer behaviour after the Second World War, and the cautiousness of Canadians in this respect. Our sources cast them in a different light. After the war, the workers and working-class households we study quickly integrate the new forms of credit available to them into their budget management. They are not content, however, to respond to the offer of new institutions, but are themselves creating credit unions or, in their capacity as members, insisting that the Desjardins cooperatives, with their rapidly expanding network, modify their lending policies. In our view, it is the pressure they exert, together with the new realities of their consumption, that are prompting their unions to defend not only the legitimacy of their aspirations to a better standard of living, but also their access to credit.