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Cited by 40Youth, Politics, and SocietyPolitical Theory and DemocracyElectoral Systems and Political Participation

Political consumerism as a neoliberal response to youth political disengagement

Open access
Kyroglou, Georgios, Henn, Matt·2017·Societies
DOI 10.3390/soc7040034
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Abstract

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.

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  • Clean and ethical beauty has surged in response to consumer empowerment.

    “Clean and ethical beauty has surged in response to consumer empowerment (153).”

    From The dark side of beauty: an in-depth analysis of the health hazards and toxicological impact of synthetic cosmetics and personal care products (2024) · cites this paper as [153]

    Section 3.1 reports growth in ethical purchases generally, and Section 3 discusses empowered consumers making socially conscious purchasing decisions. Neither passage addresses clean or ethical beauty specifically, so the source does not establish that this sector has surged in response to consumer empowerment. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Research works printed but not linked: 15

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Authors
Kyroglou, G., & Henn, M.
Affiliations
Nottingham Trent University (GB)
Corresponding author
Henn, Matt
ORCID
Venue
Societies
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2017-12-11
Volume
7
Issue
4
Pages
34
ISSN
2075-4698 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/soc7040034
OpenAlex
W2772017029
Cited by
40
References
90
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2
FWCI
4.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Societies (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Nottingham Trent University's Institutional Repository (Nottingham Trent Repository) (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
  • Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/I03157X/1)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Youth, Politics, and Society
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
Keywords
political consumerism, neoliberalism, boycotts, electoral participation, individualization, liquid modernity, post-materialism, youth empowerment, post-crisis Europe

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