Search Results (19)

Political consumerism is frequently celebrated as an expansion of youth political participation or critiqued for its structural ineffectiveness to advance young people’s political contestations. Moving beyond this evaluative binary, this article investigates its underexplored cultural and affective implications. It defines the paradox of political consumerism as a condition in which young people’s political intent is channelled through consumer choice, only to be pre-emptively neutralised by the very neoliberal ‘business ontology’ it seeks to resist. This article interrogates this paradox through a series of focus groups in the United Kingdom and Greece among ‘neoliberal natives’; a unique generational unit whose entire civic socialisation has occurred within a totalised market logic, anchored by the historic, unfulfilled promises of the Brexit and Grexit moments. Informed by Critical and Cultural theory, the analysis explores how political consumption functions simultaneously as a meaningful political gesture and an ideological constraint. Rather than dismissing youth commitments as superficial, the article situates them within a broader political economy that individualises responsibility, commodifies dissent, and constrains their political imagination. What emerges is an ambivalent subjectivity: a generation that knows very well the limits of their market-based engagement—yet continues to participate in it. Full article

Citizens increasingly engage in private politics—market-based actions such as boycotts and buycotts—alongside or instead of public politics aimed at government institutions. This study examines how perceptions of efficacy and institutional trust, shaped by digital media environments, influence individuals’ choice between these modes of participation. A laboratory experiment tested how efficacy cues and governance frames affect engagement preferences in the United States (N = 395). Participants were asked to sign an e-petition directed at either a government agency (NOAA) or a private corporation (BP). Experimental treatments varied by portraying government as either pluralist or business-like and by emphasizing governmental versus corporate efficacy. Results show that efficacy cues, rather than ideological beliefs about how government should operate, primarily drive behavior. Messages enhancing perceived governmental efficacy increased public political action, while messages emphasizing business efficacy shifted respondents toward private politics. These findings indicate that perceptions of efficacy, as filtered through digital and algorithmic environments, shape how citizens direct their participation. Understanding how these cues operate is essential for anticipating whether civic engagement will gravitate toward public institutions or market channels in an increasingly mediated political landscape. Full article

The article addresses the question of the relative importance of human population size and growth in relation to the environmental problems of planetary heating and biodiversity loss in the current, Anthropocene era. To what extent could policies to encourage lower fertility be justified, while observing that this subject is an inherently contested one. It is proposed that a helpful distinction can be made between specific threats to habitats and biodiversity, as opposed to those related to global energy use and warming. Pressures of over-population can be important in relation to the former. But with regard to the latter—rising per capita energy usage—reduced fertility has historically been positively, not negatively correlated. A case can be made that the high-fertility nations of sub-Saharan Africa could benefit from culturally respectful fertility reduction policies. However, where planetary heating is concerned, it is the hydrocarbon-based, per capita energy-consumption patterns of already low-fertility populations on the other five inhabited continents that is rather more critical. While it will be helpful to stabilise global human population, this cannot be viewed as a solution to the climate crisis problem of this century. That requires relentless focus on reducing hydrocarbon use and confronting the rising inequality since c.1980 that has been exacerbating competitive materialist consumerism. This involves the ideological negotiation of values to promote a culture change that understands and politically embraces a new economics of both human and planetary balance, equity, and distribution. Students of populations can contribute by re-assessing what can be the appropriate demographic units and measures for policies engaging with the challenges of the Anthropocene. Full article

The increasing avoidance of international fast-food chains is a widespread phenomenon influenced by economic, social, and political factors. This study examines the risks and implications of restaurant boycotts, focusing on their role in social justice movements and economic shifts. The authors employed the qualitative approach; using an exploratory case study and a critical discourse analysis, we investigated consumer motivations for avoidance, the financial and reputational risks businesses face, and how corporate responses shape brand perception. By integrating political consumerism and social justice theory, we provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the psychological, ethical, and economic drivers of boycotts. The findings highlight that boycott behavior significantly impacted declining sales and profits for McDonald’s and Starbucks and forced the closure of outlets, as well as leading to the loss of consumer trust and long-term brand loyalty. Thus, it forced companies to create strategies for protecting their reputation. Consumer activism, which draws from social justice and ethical consumerism, demonstrates its capability to affect corporate policy choices and business practices in sensitive political situations to fight injustices. This research offers valuable insights for business leaders navigating consumer activism, emphasizing the need for proactive corporate responsibility strategies to mitigate the risks of reputational damage and declining consumer trust. Full article

Research on climate activism has predominantly focused on affluent regions of the Global North, often emphasizing public participation and protest while overlooking the experiences of youth in other contexts. This study addresses this gap by exploring everyday environmental activism and eco-literacy among young people in Bulgaria, a post-communist society. It challenges the prevailing top-down political frameworks that marginalize diverse forms of political participation. This study argues that young people’s environmental awareness, shaped by their lived experiences, reflects their engagement with consumerism and climate change and is expressed through various modes of participation, including the victim, voter, rejecter, and interpreter forms of agency. Drawing on ethnographic data from interviews, mapping activities, and short essays, this research examines how environmental identities are enacted in mundane ways that reflect young people’s levels of eco-literacy, focusing on a cohort from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in both urban and rural contexts. The findings reveal the performances of everyday environmental activism and shed light on the liminal political positions youth navigate in their daily lives. This research contributes to education studies by offering insights into how young people’s everyday environmental activism and eco-literacy, rooted in their subjectivities, transcend traditional educational frameworks and provide a deeper understanding of how they learn to become environmental subjects in under-represented contexts. Full article

The paper is based on the crucial value of food as “a condensed social fact”. The analysis focuses on food narratives, responsible consumption, battles for the food emancipation of subaltern and low-income subjects, and attention to the quality, fairness, and traceability of food products as an expression of individual agency, as well as an expression of public engagement with food democracy/citizenship conflicts and frictions. Preliminarily, the paper moves from a discussion of collective agency on food strategies and representations to a critical approach to food democracy and sustainable society. This public arena for food debates is then confronted with personal behaviors embodying food citizenship in the contemporary scenario of socio-economic and environmental transition. The paper addresses the following sustainable development goals: responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), ending hunger, food security, improved nutrition, sustainable agriculture (SDG 2), and health and well-being (SDG 3). Starting from the democratic/neoliberal dichotomy, the paper will consider food governmentality as a positive alternative to food emancipation and democracy, as well as a personal need and a neo-communitarian political approach opposed to agroindustry and food consumerism and dispossession. Three case studies, all situated in the central–southern Italian region of Molise, will discuss different models of food citizenship and governmentality, as well as the relationship between individual responsibility and desires and collective commitment and perspectives. These issues will be framed within a rural economy paradigm and articulated through an ethnographic methodology: local data collection, emic/ethic representations, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. This long-term observation has been realized in the framework of several projects that were coordinated and developed by the authors, who worked for several years in the regional territory, especially on projects focusing on local/regional/national policies of sustainable rural development and bio-cultural heritage conservation and valorization according to the mission of the research center, which they founded and coordinated over the last seven years. The case studies and discussion allow for some final consideration of the impact of individual and community agencies on the achievement of SDGs, the presence of not exclusively consumeristic and hedonistic behaviors, and the growing attention to ecological concerns being paid food producers and distributors, as well as new forms of rural–urban circularity and entanglements aiming toward greater awareness and democratization of food access, security, and sustainable agriculture. Full article

Science and technology have been associated with modern Enlightenment, in a manner that elevated the rational mind over emotions and the body, a separation of the subjective mind from the object of observation, universal categories, objective observation, and linear causality. These assumptions, consolidated by Descartes and then Kant, have underpinned the philosophies of science, economics, policy, and political theory. They have shaped the modern world and enabled corporate freedom to exploit all ‘resources’ in the name of consumerism and global trade. Idealism has alienated subjective rationality from an idealised universal created world. In contrast, ancient indigenous ways of knowing are emerging as better exemplars of the interrelationship between individuals, communities, and organic and anorganic life forms. Celtic shapeshifters and praise poems forge an interwoven dance of geology, weather, plants, animals, and humanity with wisdom and politics. The Māori concept of whakapapa is the kin relations of everything, tied into complex claves as a taxonomy of familial ties. Animism was understood as pagan misidentification by modernity, but if the alienation set out by modern linear physics is severed, then the intra and inter-relationship of strata, atmosphere, ocean, and species are better relayed by indigenous philosophy than by outdated, colonial, modern assumptions. Celtic and Māori pantheism show us how entangled we are, and how special relationships are in place that last across generations. Full article

The pressing need to implement a more circular economy has led to advancements in the research field. In the spatial context, sharing spaces and access-over-ownership models have the potential to mitigate the detrimental environmental impacts of space use. This study aims to adapt an existing theoretical framework on access-based consumption to the spatial context. We utilise a qualitative case study approach exploring a variety of shared spaces from Northern Europe. Our findings suggest that shared spaces and their organisation are inherently fluid. The study further reveals that the physical object of sharing, even in the case of shared spaces, is being partially replaced with virtual and hybrid solutions. In fact, a hybrid solution seems to enable organisations delivering shared spaces to be more dynamic. Finally, we find that in the spatial context, two types of political consumerism prevail: decommercialization of spaces on the one hand and promoting environmental sustainability on the other. This study is the first to suggest a holistic framework for access-based consumption in the spatial context. The findings will be useful to scholars and practitioners engaged in developing, owning and providing services for shared spaces. Full article

What people eat has become a highly political issue, closely intertwined with public health, environmental concerns, and climate change. Individuals’ consumption decisions tend to be greatly influenced by the people that surround them, and this seems to be especially true when it comes to food. In recent years, alongside close contacts, such as family and friends, a myriad of social influencers have appeared on the screens, sharing opinions on what (not) to eat. Presenting results from a youth survey conducted in Sweden in 2019 (N = 443), this paper shows that social media have become the primary source of information about food and eating for youths, followed by schools and families. However, primary sources of influence continue to be parents and the family at large. Furthermore, the study shows that it is possible to identify ‘central persons’, i.e., relatively clear-cut groups of people whose food choices—measured as tendency to eat climate friendly—is mirrored by the youths, both in their everyday food preferences and in their broader political awareness as expressed through political consumerism. A conclusion from this is that certain people can be particularly successful at inspiring larger numbers of other people to engage with healthier and environmentally friendlier (food) consumption in a society. Full article

The term “Anthropocene Syndrome” describes the wicked interrelated challenges of our time. These include, but are not limited to, unacceptable poverty (of both income and opportunity), grotesque biodiversity losses, climate change, environmental degradation, resource depletion, the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health inequalities, social injustices, the spread of ultra-processed foods, consumerism and incivility in tandem with a diminished emphasis on the greater potential of humankind, efforts toward unity, or the value of fulfilment and flourishing of all humankind. Planetary health is a concept that recognizes the interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems—social, political and otherwise; it blurs the artificial lines between health at scales of person, place and planet. Promoting planetary health requires addressing the underlying pathology of “Anthropocene Syndrome” and the deeper value systems and power dynamics that promote its various signs and symptoms. Here, we focus on misinformation as a toxin that maintains the syndromic status quo—rapid dissemination of falsehoods and dark conspiracies on social media, fake news, alternative facts and medical misinformation described by the World Health Organization as an “infodemic”. In the context of planetary health, we explore the historical antecedents of this “infodemic” and underscore an urgent need to remediate the misinformation mess. It is our contention that education (especially in early life) emphasizing mindfulness and understanding of the mechanisms by which propaganda is spread (and unhealthy products are marketed) is essential. We expand the discourse on positive social contagion and argue that empowerment through education can help lead to an information transformation with the aim of flourishing along every link in the person, place and planet continuum. Full article

In this article, we address the question whether political activism can be triggered by sustainable consumption. Specific attention is given to the crowding-out and crowding-in hypotheses. The first hypothesis is driven by a conflict view as it assumes that sustainable consumerism displaces the willingness to act collectively. In contrast, the latter hypothesis—crowding-in—frames conscious consumption as a potential political act whereby individual sustainable consumption may trigger political acts such as signing a petition, demonstrating, and voting. To address this issue, German survey data were analyzed (n = 936). Our analysis appears to confirm the crowding-in hypothesis. However, the results of multiple logistic regression analyses also show that the relation between sustainable consumption and political activism depends on the type of political action. Particularly, sustainable consumption does not relate to traditional political actions such as voting, but it does relate positively to less conventional (e.g., attending a demonstration) and online forms of political engagement (e.g., social media activism). Our findings also indicate that the positive association between sustainable consumption and less conventional politics may be moderated by educational attainment, suggesting that it is weakest among less educated groups. The paper ends with the empirical and theoretical conclusions that can be drawn from this study, and indicates some directions for future research. Full article

As a manifestation of sustainability, self-organizing communities (SOCs) have been proven to be increasingly related to the environmental issues and living space crisis in the urban areas. Many social groups regard self-organizing communities as an ideal alternative to the problems of rapid urbanization since they challenge unsustainable materialism and consumerism. To penetrate this idea into a wider range of socio-cultural, economic, and political activities, such communities are moving towards becoming economically cooperative social entities and are usually characterized by small scale, co-construction, and co-creation. Community studies further point out that contemporary communities are somewhat decentralized, giving members a good sustainable mix of freedom and togetherness. This means that, compared to traditional communes, individualized differences within self-organizing communities are more prominent. They are susceptible to different cultural and political contexts, which have received little attention from Chinese scholars. To fill this gap, this study adopts ethnographic approaches to explore the lifestyle experiments of a self-organizing community (AnotherLand) in South China. It reviews the difficulties associated with identifying and characterizing SOCs. It examines how this self-organizing community maintains its sustainability by experimenting with specific lifestyles (internal factors) and building extensive social networks (external factors). It further suggests that sustainability should be taken as an essential conceptual framework for embodying the success or failure of self-organizing communities. Full article

While the number of theoretical concepts surrounding sustainable citizenship, political consumerism and ethical lifestyles is rising continuously, this article is interested in how citizens themselves delineate sustainable citizenship through their practices. Asking which contours real-world sustainable citizenship has, we draw on the practice turn. From this perspective, sustainable citizenship might be an empirical nexus of material practices, like buying organic products or sharing goods. These practices rely on dispositions that include practical rules, attitudes and political values. With survey data from Germany (N = 1350) and using principle component analysis, we reconstruct sustainable citizenship through stable and widespread real-world patterns. The results suggest that sustainable citizenship is a relatively coherent, nonetheless hybrid bundle of performances and dispositions. Real-world sustainable citizenship most resembles political consumerism, but consists overall of three distinct practices: sustainable purchasing, reduced consumption, and green mobility. All three are shown to be connected to engaged citizenship norms and the intention to advance social-ecological change. However, social class seems to prevent some citizens particularly from applying sustainable purchasing, while age and infrastructures constrain green mobility. Altogether, our results show that citizens from all social backgrounds practice sustainable citizenship. Yet they do so through different forms of practices, adjusted to their capabilities. Full article

This article seeks to develop a preliminary analysis of how neo-liberal thought and policies have impacted on youth political engagement in the UK, specifically by attempting to understand how macro-economic and other public policies can influence the individual psychology of citizens and their subsequent behaviour. The article sets out a clear definition and explanation of neo-liberalism and summarises six key neo-liberal impacts particularly pertinent to political engagement: marketisation and the tension this brings with democratic norms; responsibilisation narratives; increased inequality; the changing character of the state through privatisation and deregulation; the preference among policy-makers for ‘expert rule’; and repression of labour. It argues that the main psychological effects that result, and which underpin and define the personal experience of neo-liberal policy, are declines in political efficacy and increases in individualism, the ramifications of which for political engagement are discussed. Full article

Recent trends indicate diminishing public engagement with formal electoral politics in many advanced liberal democracies, especially among the younger generations. However, evidence also suggests that there has been a simultaneous interest by many young citizens in political consumerism. In large part, this interest is shaped as a response to the individualisation and strict ‘economism’ driven by the underlying forces of neoliberalism. Disenfranchised and disillusioned by the seeming incapacity of the purely political sphere to respond to their individualised claims, and having internalised the neoliberal critique of democracy, these young empowered citizen-consumers often search for the ‘political’ within the bounds of the marketplace and are increasingly attracted to consumerist methods of political participation, such as boycotting and buycotting. Given the susceptibility of political consumerism to a neoliberal modus operandi, the lack of available literature problematising its emergence as a response to neoliberal principles is somewhat surprising. The present article will address this gap by connecting the declining levels of electoral participation among younger generations in post-crisis Europe to the rise of political consumerism within the neoliberal ideological hegemony of the ‘marketopoly’. We distinguish between two antithetical, but complimentary effects. Firstly, the internalised neoliberal critique of democracy emphasises the ‘push’ out of the public into the commercial sphere. Secondly, the emerging individualisation of modern ‘liquid’ politics advanced by the postmaterialist sensitivities of young people’s previously affluent socialisation call attention to the existence of a parallel ‘pull’ effect into the ‘marketopoly’, as a habitus of youth political participation. In both cases, the reorganisation of political participation as consumption, and the re-styling of young citizens as ‘empowered’ consumers, delineates political consumerism as an efficacious response to their political disengagement in an increasingly marketised world. Full article