Wal-Mart Wars: Moral Populism in the Twenty-First Century

Massengill (writing program, Princeton Univ.) uses Wal-Mart as a case study in political discourse. She aims to help readers understand how the words social commentators and activists choose when framing public debates profoundly influence the sort of response their positions receive from the public. Is Wal-Mart a lifesaver offering low prices that enable working families to survive, or a greedy corporation taking advantage of its employees and citizens of the communities in which it exists? The author looks at three paired considerations—individuals and communities, thrift and benevolence, and freedom and fairness—to illustrate the importance of such moral vocabularies in understanding social debates such as the ones surrounding Wal-Mart's economic impact. Analyzing organizational documents from advocacy groups on both sides of the highly political Wal-Mart debate, Massengill allows the data to emerge from these documents to show how phraseology highlights the very moral frameworks undergirding complex social issues.