Proposal for a european joint master in consumer affairs “EMICA”

Proposal for a european joint master in consumer affairs “EMICA”

Victor Dordio

Évoraconta – Gabinete de Consultores de Gestão de Empresas, Lda., Évora, Portugal

This proposal for a Master course is the result of strong recommendations issued from the Consumer Citizenship Network (CCN), that recognized the necessity for higher education studies in consumer matters as described in the publication Consumer Citizenship Education – Guidelines (Vol. 1 Higher Education¹⁹,. Among the 123 institutions that belong to this Network, a significant number of them are expect to participate actively by several ways and this includes a great number of higher education institutions (HEI’s). This Master Course is intended to be a contribution to the citizen consumer’s education viewed as broader issue of Consumer Science, especially on the consumer protection and involvement by the consumer’s point of view, emphasizing the ethical and ecological aspects of consumerism.

The institutional and political framework of the European Joint Master in Consumer Citizenship (EMICA) lies on the content of successive declarations about the construction of the EHEA – European Higher Education Area and in the sprit that prevails from them, since the launch of the so called Bologna Process.

The main subject of EMICA studies is the Consumer Citizenship, a matter that is gaining importance in the fields of sustainable development and in the European construction, just to mention the most relevant. Consumer citizenship, like societies and business, is dynamic. It must continually evolve in such a manner as to accommodate and satisfy a variety of interests including government, business, society and industry, as well as students.

It is our intention to start the programme in September 2010, with most of the course being taught on-line. This is a very special time for us, as the Bologna Process completes 10 years since the signature of its Declaration and also because the year 2010 is the deadline foreseen to establish the EHEA – European Higher Education Area.
Sustainable development and consumer citizenship
To be able to achieve the balance between personal interests and social welfare is, at the end, to contribute to the generative foundations of the principles of sustainable development, a concept that is increasing its number of supporters among consumers.

CCN has adopted an “official” definition of consumer citizen which is as follows: “a consumer citizen is an individual who makes choices base on ethical, social, ethical and ecological considerations. The consumer citizen actively contributes to the maintenance of just and sustainable development by caring and acting responsibly on family, national and global levels”.²⁰

On other hand, sustainable development requires always the concurrence of three main domains of civil society: the social, the environmental and the economic. The task is carried at a global scale and requires the involvement of international institutions. The United Nations, aware of this problematic, have declared back in 2005, the need for a “Decade for Education for Sustainable Development”,”.

Consumer citizenship education as proposed and, in some way, implemented by CCN trough its numerous partners, “is a way of supporting and contributing to the UN Decade and to process of transforming «sustainable development» from a concept into concrete behaviour”.²¹

In fact, we fully agree that “education for sustainable development is a life-wide and lifelong endeavour which challenges individuals, institutions and societies to view tomorrow as a day that belongs to all of us, or will not belong to anyone”.²² Our proposal for a European Joint Master in Consumer Citizenship, in the framework of CCN activities, bears in mind the institutional propose from the UN. It offers some disciplines dealing with the main issues that concern or is related with the sustainable development process, especially those related with environment and development aspects.

The next figure illustrates the development and independence of multiple sub domains of education, in particular,in the parallel education, which help to explain the urgency of taking into account different approaches of the education agents towards the citizen. The challenge in the education field is to connect all this different contexts to every day practices, in order to implement the life skill education.

The main question is how to empower the consumer as a stakeholder in a proactive perspective, especially when we know that everyone are consumers and behaves as a consumer, but not everyone is a citizen or is able to practice citizenship, fully understanding all the implications of his/her attitudes and consequences. So, in order to consider the consumer citizenship approach, it’s fundamental to discuss different ways of action, not only promoting the reaction to problems, but emphasizing the prevention in a proactive attitude, taking in consideration not only the individual needs but the needs from the community, in it’s multiple aspects: social, economical, environmental,…

Developing active citizenship requires the exercise of dialogue and the civic participation in the democratic process and public activities of our modern and European societies. This may imply the belonging to a particular political community, but mainly and the equitable access to the social goods, like information. How can a consumer become an emancipated citizen? If teachers are readers of non-explicit curricula, what values should they teach? Is the consumer’s education the best way to follow?

Since 2003 the Consumer Citizenship Network ) is promoting the dialogue between researchers, educators and civil society as well as strengthens cooperation in relation to education, civic training and environmental concerns towards the development of consumer education.

Sustainable development is one of major CCN’s activities outcomes, very well expressed in the topics of its annual conferences: “using, choosing or creating the future?”, “taking responsibility” and “building bridges”. All of these expressions presume an active attitude and behaviour of consumers citizens in contributing for a sustainable development, i.e., for a better world for the coming generations.

The cultural diversity of European citizens reflected in different habits and patterns of consumption must be emphasized, studied, understood and promoted in a way that it will positively contribute to the European construction.

This concern is recognized widely and some recent press articles and academic studies emphasized the need for higher education courses in consumerism. We must refer, particularly, the study carried three years ago by the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA) and the Gesellschaft für Empirische Studien (GES) entitled “The need for Postgraduate Education in Consumer Affairs in the European Union”.

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  The so called “Bologna Process” and the “Lisbon Agenda” will provide the philosophical, instrumental guidelines and framework for the Master Course which main subject is the Integrated Consumer Affairs, taking the individual consumer and his/her life and choices as a central point of departure both at the micro and macro levels of economy. As a particular European point of view, the master course must focus on EU consumer policy, concept and practices of citizenship and recent concerns about sustainability.
  

To achieve this goal, EMICA will contemplate four integral themes of study:

1. 
   the role of European citizens in a global world;
   
2. 
   models of sustainable consumption;
   
3. 
   cultural diversity and interdependence;
   
4. 
   social responsibility and citizenship.
   

From an institutional point of view, the EMICA will congregate a consortium of some²³ European high education institutions whom will “supply” the essential of all teaching staff, integrated bybeing the other ones, “guest lecturers” from institutions outside of the consortium, including in this group specialists from the business and public administration sectors and also from consumer associations.

The duration of the proposed Master will be three semesters, where the first one – called General Module - will provide a generic knowledge and competences in consumer studies, and the next semester will provide specialized knowledge and skills to students enrolled in. This semester will propose two specialized modules, and the student must elect one of them: module A – Consumer Protection and Quality Management; module B – Consumer Involvement and Innovation. Finally, the third semester will be dedicated to an internship, to an applied project or to an academic research presented as a thesis.