Political Consumerism and Social Networking Usage

The main purpose of the study is to reveal the relations between the internet and social media usage and the basic motives behind the actions and engagements of political consumers departing from the thoughts and individual experiences of scholars. Therefore, the study first draws a framework of the political consumer, political consumerism, and the effects of political consumerism. Then it investigates the link between the internet and social media use and the aforementioned concepts. In other words, the purpose of the study is to analyze the extent to which internet and social media use and increase the likelihood of engaging in political consumerism through the method of a case study. As a method of sampling, quota sampling method was chosen. The in-depth interviews were performed in a semi-structured form to maintain the coherence and details. The results of this study and similar studies are thought to be beneficial for improving the quality of life for consumers, corporations, and governments related to agenda setting and policy making.

Understanding Political Consumerism, Political Participation, and Their Antecedents

Political consumerism is a form of self-expression where consumers boycott or buycott a brand, company, or a product. The increase in the amount of these actions in recent years has led scholars and marketers improve their understanding of how and why consumers engage in political consumerism and what its predecessors are. By employing a wide scale survey among 360 participants in Turkey, this study presents empirical and qualitative evidence for boycott behavior and investigates how other forms of political participation and individual level characteristics have an effect on political consumerism. Results suggest main reason for boycott behavior in Turkey is due to political reasons and conservatism as an individual level value orientation has a negative effect on boycott behavior. In addition, online activism and voting participation behaviors have positive effects on political consumerism.

Unit Economics of Russian Political Parties: Political Consumerism and Ideological Factor

The article uses the methods of unit economics to analyze inter-party competition in the Russian Federation on the example of the 2016 elections to the State Duma. The author concludes limited applicability of unit economics for the analysis of electoral strategies and prospects of both parliamentary and new parties. The current mechanism of state financing of political parties encourages them to drift in the direction of market or rental strategies.

Facing paradoxical identities: How Indonesian organic food community unify consumers and environmentalist identities

This article explored how the Indonesian organic food community builds its identity as both consumers and environmentalists, which is often thought to be a paradox. Some researchers argue that combining consumption and environmental preservation under green consumption is a challenge and an oxymoron. Nevertheless, the organic food community is still able to build their identities. The author argued that organic communities have transformed into space to empower and shape those identities using conventional and new media as part of green political consumerism. To understand this issue, the author used qualitative research by collecting the communities’ official documents, webpage, and social media accounts’ posts. The author also interviewed the founders of two communities, Komunitas Organik Indonesia (KOI/ Indonesian Organic Community) and Lingkar Organik (LO/ Organic Circle), a KOI member. The author did participatory observation in one of KOI’s WhatsApp Groups for their members. Then, the author triangulated the data and analyzed it. The results revealed that communities maintain and transform their green value into identities and real action by conditioning their members with community structures, activities, and access to organic food either through online or offline services. Therefore, having both identities is not a paradox.