The goal of CCCP is to integrate scholarship from a range of disciplines to investigate the fluid and evolving relationships among communication, consumption, and civil society. We approach this work from a multiplicity of perspectives, focusing on topics such as political consumerism, conscientious consumption, cultural capital, political marketing, and sustainable environmentalism.

In Fall 2006, the CCCP hosted a conference on "The Politics of Consumption/The Consumption of Politics," Through this conference, we sought to foster research in this fertile area. We collected this work in a volume of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. which was published in May 2007. In the Spring of 2011, we hosted a second conference, "Communication, Consumers, and Citizens: Revisiting the Politics of Consumption." Again, we gathered leading theorists, researchers, and practitioners to discuss developments at the intersection of consumer and civic culture. A second volume of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science highlighting the work presented at this conference will be published in November 2012.