Title: Lost in the Supermarket
Subtitle: Youth Political Consumerism under Hegemonic Neoliberalism
Subject Classification:  Society and Culture, Business and Management, Politics and Government  
BIC Classification: KJ, JP, JH
BISAC Classification: BUS016000, SOC026000, POL042020
Binding: Hardback, eBook
Publication date: 17 Dec 2024
ISBN (Hardback): 978-1-80441-689-1
ISBN (eBook): 978-1-80441-690-7

To view a sample of the book, please click here

e-books available for libraries from   Proquest  and   EBSCO   with non-institutional availability from  GooglePlay

For larger orders, or orders where you require an invoice, contact us  admin@ethicspress.com

Description

Political consumerism refers to citizens’ use of boycotting and ‘buycotting’ as they seek to influence political outcomes within the marketplace, rather than through more traditional routes such as voting. It is commonly understood as reflective of the progressively converging roles of the citizens and the consumers in late modernity. In the aftermath of the Recession, young people in particular, are attempting to harness their individual consumer power to collectively express their political, ethical, and environmental considerations via their consumer choices.

The expansion of political consumerism among young people across several advanced liberal democracies has been theorised as a result of a wider cultural shift towards cosmopolitanism and postmaterialist value orientations and therefore as an outcome of affluence. However, the persistence of political consumerism as a preferred form of political participation among young people, who were socialised under conditions of neoliberal austerity - during and after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis - calls for a re-evaluation of these assumptions. In particular, given the susceptibility of political consumerism to a neoliberal modus operandi that attempts to commercialise citizenship itself, the lack of literature problematising its emergence within a neoliberal socioeconomic context is indeed surprising.

This book addresses this gap by offering a detailed re-evaluation of the underlying motivations, values and identity orientations of young political consumers in a country of the European north (United Kingdom) as opposed to one of the European south (Greece).

It will be of interest to academic specialists working in the areas of Political Sociology, Youth Studies, and Consumer Studies, and scholars interested in political participation and political engagement.

Biography

Author(s):  Dr. Georgios Kyroglou is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK.

Reviews

"At a time when contemporary democracies are struggling under the weight of populism, the normalisation of disinformation, plummeting levels of trust, poverty, escalating social inequalities and social unrest, this inspiring and important book by George Kyroglou offers some hope that young people can rise above this malaise and identify ways in which they themselves can shape their democratic destinies.This book is about young people’s political consumerism, and how this generation is finding ways to express its values and holding to account those dominant forces which are responsible for a global polycrisis. It is outstanding in its scholarship and meticulous in its analysis. Based on unique survey and focus group -based data with young people from the UK and Greece, it is a must-read for all those interested in the field of youth political participation and more broadly in the future of democracies."
- Emeritus Professor Matt Henn, PhD, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University