Political Consumerism captures the creative ways in which citizens, consumers and political activists use the market as their arena for politics. This book theorizes, describes, analyzes, compares and evaluates the phenomenon of political consumerism and how it attempts to use market choice to solve complex globalized problems. It investigates theoretically and empirically how and why consumers practice citizenship and have become important political actors. Dietlind Stolle and Michele Micheletti describe consumers' engagement as an example of individualized responsibility taking, examining how political consumerism nudges and pressures corporations to change their production practices, and how consumers emerge as a force in global affairs. Unlike other studies, it also evaluates if and how consumer actions become effective mechanisms of global change. Stolle and Micheletti offer a candid discussion of the limitations of political consumerism as a form of participation and as a problem-solving mechanism.
• Provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of political consumerism • Uses multiple unique empirical materials to study political consumerism theoretically and empirically at the individual, group and cross-national levels • Introduces the concept of individualized responsibility-taking
Contents
1. Reconfiguring political responsibility; 2. Reconfiguring political participation; 3. Who are political consumers?; 4. Mapping political consumerism in Western democracies; 5. The organizational setting for political consumerism; 6. Discursive political consumerism; 7. Does political consumerism matter? Effectiveness and limits of political consumer action repertoires; 8. Political consumerism's scope and challenges.
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