Branding youth activism: Tobacco control and the decolonization of the lifeworld

In the 1980s, Jurgen Habermas developed communicative action theory within which the author outlines the process of colonizing the lifeworld. Accordingly, the spheres of the economy and the administrative state expand into the private world of the individual while decreasing the potency of the public sphere. Instead of the individual coordinating action for the benefit of their lifeworld, individual actions come to benefit those of the economy and the administrative state. The outcome potentially increases a loss of freedom and a loss of reason for the individual. Such an outcome also decreases the fulfillment of a democratic state. In response to this process, Habermas argues that social movements have the capacity to decolonize the lifeworld. This study questions Habermas' assertion through the examination of the tobacco control social movement organization, Fight Against Corporate Tobacco, a youth-led movement in the state of Wisconsin.;Fight Against Corporate Tobacco was constructed through state financing supported through Master Settlement Agreement funds. Its goal was to support peer-to-peer communication that reinforced a youth empowerment movement that fought against the tobacco industry's marketing tactics. An indirect outcome of FACT included a decrease in the prevalence of youth tobacco use. This study highlights the construction of this organization by the state government of Wisconsin and the marketing firm, Golin/Harris International, while situating this substantive process within Habermas' theory and social movement theory. Survey research into the organizational activity and meaning construction of Fight Against Corporate Tobacco was supplemented by an extensive socio-historical descriptive account of the discourse constructed by the tobacco industry, federal and state governments, and the tobacco control movement. Further research incorporated internal document analysis of tobacco industry reports, government reports, and documents from the tobacco control movement within the state of Wisconsin.;The results of the study suggest that the application of privatization and/or market principles (such as branding) upon movement organizations may lead to success in achieving the goals of the organization. However, results also lead to the suggestion that the same process may also assist in the expansion of the economic and administrative spheres into our everyday lives, thus rejecting Habermas' prognosis.;KEYWORDS: Colonization of the Lifeworld, Jurgen Habermas, Youth Activism, Tobacco Control, Social Movement Theory...