Conscientious consumer, negligent citizen?

Taking an ethnographic study at Procon Vitória as a starting point, we analyzed the relationship between consumption and citizenship, based on the following question: is being a consumer being a citizen in Brazil? We studied the complaints arising from conflicts in consumer relations, characterized as social dramas, formalized at the consumer protection institution. The aim was to identify the reasons that encouraged consumers to take their complaints to Procon Vitória. The hypothesis is that they did so more because of a moral insult than a legal right. We begin by describing the conditions in which the ethnographic material was collected and reflecting on this experience. Next, we discuss consumption as a socio-cultural process, taking it as a central aspect of contemporary Western societies, characterized as consumer societies. We also discuss citizenship in the Brazilian context, especially from the point of view of the notions of individual and person. Finally, we evaluate the relationship between consumption, the individual, the person and citizenship, suggesting differences between the categories consumer and customer.