Article

Lifestyle Movements: Exploring The Intersection of Lifestyle and Social Movement in The Voluntary Simplicity and Social Responsibility Movements

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Social Movement Studies
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Abstract

While the contentious politics (CP) model has come to dominate the field of social movements, scholars note the paradigm's shortcomings, especially its narrow focus on movement organizations, public protest, and political action. The conceptual wall between lifestyles and social movements has created a theoretical blind spot at the intersection of private action and movement participation, personal and social change, and personal and collective identity. We suggest that lifestyle movements (LMs) consciously and actively promote a lifestyle, or way of life, as a primary means to foster social change. Drawing upon our observations of a variety of LMs, we discuss three defining aspects of LMs: lifestyle choices as tactics of social change, the central role of personal identity work, and the diffuse structure of LMs. We also explore the links between LMs and social movements, CP, and conventional politics. Finally, we demonstrate that LM, as a new conceptual category, is applicable across a range of movement activities.

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... French-American zero waste practitioner Bea Johnson started the movement, influencing millions of citizens worldwide with her 2013 book Zero Waste Home (Spiteri, 2021). Zero waste movement is a lifestyle movement where citizen-consumers adopt lifestyle choices as tactics for social change, particularly change of cultural norms and behaviors (Haenfler et al., 2012). Lifestyle movements, part of the new social movement tradition, have largely developed in western post-industrial societies where post-materialist values and identities are core concerns (Haenfler et al., 2012;Xie, 2009). ...
... Zero waste movement is a lifestyle movement where citizen-consumers adopt lifestyle choices as tactics for social change, particularly change of cultural norms and behaviors (Haenfler et al., 2012). Lifestyle movements, part of the new social movement tradition, have largely developed in western post-industrial societies where post-materialist values and identities are core concerns (Haenfler et al., 2012;Xie, 2009). Nevertheless, zero waste movement is also experiencing growth in non-western countries including China (Tin, 2019). ...
... Lu & Steinhardt, 2022;Stalley & Yang, 2006;Xie, 2009). I propose that the sustainable lifestyle community reveals emerging environmental movements in China that can be understood through new social movement theories including Haenfler et al. (2012)'s lifestyle movement and Schlosberg's (2019) sustainable materialism. Given the contextual embeddedness of social movements, the zero waste movement in China offers different insights into implications of lifestyle movement for social change. ...
... It has become increasing clear that confronting unsustainable consumption requires people to act beyond their capacity as individual consumers, to claim their role as citizens who can work collectively to foster changes in systems of consumption and production (for example, Princen et al, 2002). There is now copious research at the intersection of consumption, lifestyle and activism, encapsulated in concepts like 'lifestyle politics' (de Moor, 2017), 'lifestyle movements' (Haenfler et al, 2012), 'political consumerism' (Stolle and Micheletti, 2013) and 'prefigurative politics' (Yates, 2015). This research attests to the significance of lifestyle and consumption in driving social change while revealing the tensions of citizen engagement in spaces between the state and the market, the collective and the individual, the public and the private (for a review, see Yates, 2022). ...
... Through political consumerism, individuals address market actors directly; on aggregate, they form a force that could pressure companies into pro-environmental changes (Micheletti, 2003;Stolle and Micheletti, 2013). Political consumers could also be part of a sustainable 'lifestyle movement' (Haenfler et al, 2012), whereby the active promotion of a lifestyle is used as the primary tool to foster social change. Corresponding with this vision are potentially frames that place the blame on individual consumption and lifestyle (diagnostics) and solutions that target consumption habits (prognostics), appealing to consumer responsibility (motivational frames). ...
... Ordinary lifestyle practitioners actively participate in frame construction and diffusion. I am not arguing that public frames produced by leaders and lifestyle entrepreneurs (Haenfler et al, 2012) lack influence on the ground; rather, I emphasise that participants frames are equally valuable resources for gaining a fuller understanding of the movement as a whole. ...
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The politicisation of everyday life and the proliferation of lifestyle movements have far-reaching consequences on processes of social change. Based on 45 in-depth interviews and virtual ethnography of lifestyle communities, this article reveals how sustainable lifestyle is interpreted and promoted in relation to pro-environmental social change in the ‘zero waste’ movement in urban China. Building on the framing perspective in social movement studies, I use ‘participant frames’ as a heuristic device to uncover bottom-up processes of meaning-making in lifestyle movements. The results reveal that frames constructed by citizen-consumers transitioned from a political and systemic diagnosis to a cultural and communal prognosis, and ultimately centre on a ‘call to action’ that emphasises individual and private actions. The ‘dissonance’ in framing, which involves promoting depoliticised actions while being motivated by political grievances and desires for systemic change, illustrates how citizens navigate structures of opportunities and constraints in China. Through deliberate depoliticisation, lifestyle activism leans towards constructive engagement with institutional actors rather than contentious confrontation and relies on the diffusion of sustainable lifestyle among the general public as the primary tactic for change. By incorporating methodological innovation and presenting new empirical findings from a non-Western context, this article advances the ongoing discussions surrounding political consumption and lifestyle politics.
... Johnson's book has now been translated into 28 languages and the movement has millions of followers around the globe (Zero Waste 2020). Cultural entrepreneurs like Johnson are central to spreading lifestyle movements (Gheihman 2021;Haenfler, Johnson, and Jones 2012). A representative figure is New Yorker Lauren Singer whose zero waste Instagram account attracts more than 300,000 followers. ...
... Individuals construct green self-identity and use lifestyle as a way for social change (Soron 2010;Wahlen and Laamanen 2015). Lifestyle movement, proposed by Haenfler, Johnson, and Jones (2012), emphasizes that participants primarily use ongoing lifestyle habits as a tactic of social change with some involvement in collective actions. Second, personal identity is emphasized as a site of social change for authenticity and integrity. ...
... Third, lifestyle movements have a diffuse structure. Cultural entrepreneurs are leaders of the movements who spread cultural norms and new patterns of meaningmaking through writings and public presentations on media forums (Gheihman 2021;Haenfler, Johnson, and Jones 2012). A main critique of sustainable lifestyles is that emphasis on consumer choices 'deflect responsibility away from powerful economic and political interests' (Soron 2010). ...
... Content creators are who create books, videos, podcasts, blogs and/or any other multimedia content. Some consider FIRE a social movement (Haenfler et al., 2012;Taylor & Davies, 2021). According to Diani (1992, p. 13), a social movement is "a network of informal interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in a political or cultural conflict, on the basis of a shared collective identity", while Melucci (1989, p. 29) affirms that "is a form of collective action." ...
... They were also proposing a lifestyle. Lifestyle "connotes individuality, self-expression, and stylistic self-consciousness" (Featherstone, 1987, p. 55) but also personal practices, attitudes, and consumption habits to identify with others who follow the mainstream or defy prevailing cultural norms (Haenfler et al., 2012). Voluntary simplicity is a term that describes a wide range of practices related to anti-consumption, material simplicity, self-growth, subsistence farming, and environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviour (Elguin & Mitchell, 1977). ...
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The purpose of the present study is to map out and extend knowledge on the conceptual territory of Financial Independence, Retire Early initiative (FIRE). This topic has produced increasing interest in the public, but it constitutes a relatively new research area for academics. In this study, we analyse the four pillars to achieve financial independence to be able to retire early: budgeting and expense control, saving and investing to earn passive income; creating additional income sources, and improving financial literacy. We also analyse the five main dimensions: FIRE as a self-improvement philosophy, as a self-help initiative, as part of the simple/ecological lifestyle, as a result of financialisation, and as a tool for financial literacy and well-being. The five dimensions we distinguish allow to approach FIRE initiative from different perspectives to have a more complete understanding, but at the same time, these dimensions unveil new approaches to research and understand the impact of FIRE in society.
... Direct climate activism is a proactive effort to achieve immediate environmental change. It goes beyond mere encouragement, imploring group members to embrace sustainable lifestyle choices, modify consumer behaviours, and champion pro-environmental practices that prioritize coexistence with nature, leaving no detrimental footprint on our ecosystems (Haenfler et al. 2012;Olzak and Steinhardt and Wu 2016;Fisher and Nasrin 2020). In this context, direct activism, as a facet of civic engagement, is dedicated to motivating individuals within society to make minor and major lifestyle choices and participate in identity-based movements that promote sustainable living, such as the adoption of eco-friendly habits and dietary changes like veganism (Woodward 2019;Büchs et al. 2015). ...
... This type of activism often involves activities such as lobbying, advocating for policy changes, and participating in peaceful protests. These efforts aim to influence decision-makers and create systemic change that can have long-term effects on environmental sustainability and social justice (Haenfler et al. 2012;Saunders et al. 2013). Additionally, indirect climate activism recognizes the interconnectedness of environmental issues with other social and economic challenges, such as poverty and inequality, highlighting the need for comprehensive solutions that address multiple dimensions of sustainability (Carleton and Hsiang 2016). ...
Chapter
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Scientific evidence has validated the inevitability of global warming and its effect in the form of climate change. There has been an increase in climate strikes and other forms of climate activism in recent years. It is important to understand the research landscape in psychological literature with regards to climate change and climate activism, to help guide future researchers. The databases of PubMed (Keywords: “climate activism”, “climate change”, “psychology”, n = 1), Google Scholar (Keywords = “climate activism”, “climate change”, “psychology”, n = 200) and Scopus database (Keywords: “climate activism” AND “climate change” AND “psychology”, n = 160) were searched to create the pool of research documents. This was further filtered according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. In the first section of this article, we have tried to explore the temporal and geographic growth trends of climate change research and collaborations using R (Bibliometric package). In the second section, we have used a text-mining approach to identify the research topics being explored in the climate change literature. R package tm along with associated packages were used to do the processing and subsequent grouping of the themes. In order to refine the classification the identified groupings were supervised by the authors. The final documents have been scoured to extract an overall understanding of the existing concepts explored so far and gauge their impact in the realm of climate change research. This systematic study casts light on the psychological views on climate activism and offers insightful information about the underlying causes that affect people’s involvement in the fight and struggle against climate change. The creation of more effective techniques for encouraging climate activism and utilizing its capacity to inspire significant action to address climate change can be influenced by an understanding of these elements. In order to address the complex issues of climate change, this chapter emphasizes the value of multidisciplinary collaboration amongst psychologists, policymakers, educators, and activists.
... Ecovillages have historical links to earlier intentional communities organized around religion (most prominent in the 1800s) and the counterculture and reform movements (of the 1960s) (Kozeny 1995). These enclaves have been conceptualized as grassroots innovations (Boyer 2015;Seyfang and Haxeltine 2012), utopian spaces (Hong and Vicdan 2016;Sargisson 2007), and lifestyle movements (Haenfler, Johnson, and Jones 2012;Westskog, Winther, and Aasen 2018). Although studies of ecovillages have traditionally tended to focus on community and shared identities (Ergas 2010;Kunze 2012), from the early 2000s onward there has been increased interest in adopting a sustainability transitions perspective (Avelino and Kunze 2009;Boyer 2015;Kunze 2015). ...
... Research that does focus on activists either tends to highlight social movement organizations and their members or uses the concept interchangeably with the term "protest event," leaving the various dimensions, levels, and expressions associated with activism and activists implied rather than explicitly explained. Limiting activism to notions about membership and public protest obscures more individualized, personalized, everyday forms of political resistance that characterize much of what committed social movement participants may do as activists (Haenfler et al. 2012, Melucci 1996. 3 We think about activism as a diverse set of practices intended to promote the persistence and continuity of a movement's ideas, emotions, and collective identity. These practices include normal activism, characterized by visible, public protest, such as rallies and marches, but also diverse forms of resistance involving expressive action at the micro level, not explicitly tied to conventional social movement organizations. ...
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Despite a centuries-long history of violent mobilization, white supremacist activism (WSA) has received relatively little sociological attention outside a small, specialized subfield. Disciplinary interest began to change after Trump's 2016 election; the 2017 violent attack in Charlottesville, Virginia; and the January 6, 2021, insurrection. In recognition, this review article focuses on what has been learned about contemporary WSA since the 1980s. We categorize studies by their unit of analysis—individual or micro, meso, and macro levels—to highlight analytic commonalities and distinctions and to underscore the central role that threat plays in the ebb and flow of WSA. As part of our discussion, we also point to unresolved and understudied issues. We conclude by identifying issues that future research should address.
... The term "structure" is used to describe the larger social, cultural, economic, and political institutions that have an impact on people's daily lives (Haenfler, 2012). All the structures, regulations, and conventions that have developed through time as a result of societal pressures fall under this umbrella (Henrich et al., 2005). ...
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This research examines women's agency in pre-colonial Bengal using a structure-agency method, analysing secondary sources using content-based thematic analysis and comparing two major social groupings. It vividly depicts precolonial Bengali Hindu and Muslim attitudes on women and agency webbing. It concluded that women's agency grew with structural modernization, hence, established practices developed path dependency with the operational paradigm shift where the modernization-induced change in women's status demonstrates agency. The socio-physical environment, religio-cultural settings, economic status quo, and cultural norms that have been associated with submission to men, such as for Hindu women, who were primarily subject to caste and other scenarios, and Muslim women, who were better off but still in the lower tier of society, led agency transformations. These established practices had shaped a new sort of path dependency, which had to persist until women were empowered and agency webbing except only a few upper-class women could have self-refine.
... In addition, Haenfler et al. (2012) point out that while social movement scholars have typically conceptualized movement participation in terms of public protest directed towards the state or other power structures, more recently some have begun to focus on collective actions that are aimed more directly at value expressions (Haenfler et al., 2012, p. 2). These authors conceptualize lifestyle movements as those movements that consciously and actively promote a lifestyle, or a way of life, as their primary means to foster social change. ...
... De Moor (2017) distinguishes lifestyle movements based on their individual or collective level of organization, and direct or indirect strategic logics. These movements have often tended towards encouraging individualized forms of engagement within the private sphere (such as shopping habits), as opposed to encouraging collective action in the public sphere (e.g., through public advocacy; Haenfler et al. 2012). More recent developments, such as sustainable materialism, place a stronger emphasis on people collaboratively creating alternative and localized systems of (re)production. ...
Article
Current post-carbon transition trajectories are primarily focused on external solutions, while citizens’ inner lives and roles in collective transformation and system change processes are largely overlooked. To address this gap, this study aims to explore the potential role of citizens as active agents of change. Specifically, it examines how citizens perceive and address climate change, the factors that can empower and motivate them to act, and how they imagine future transformation pathways and their own role within them. Based on a combined SenseMaker and Grounded Theory methodology, we explore citizens’ perspectives and discuss their implications for improving current approaches and discourses, such as lifestyle environmentalism and post-growth. Our findings provide important insights into the interplay between people’s motivation, sense of agency, and social paradigms, with direct implications for policy and practice. They show that the materialistic growth paradigm under which most people act does not support motivation and engagement in sustainability transformations. Secondly, although intrinsic motivation, along with values such as care and community, increase engagement and transformation, they are seldom reflected in current policy approaches and discourses. Thirdly, a sense of agency is key for lasting individual and collective engagement. Put together, the results indicate that empowering individual and collective agency requires challenging current societal and systemic values that lie at the root of today’s crises. Supporting conditions that allow the emergence of new social paradigms through targeted actions at individual, collective, and system levels is thus crucial to tackling climate change and meeting policy targets.
... However, there are many other groups and activities that present a similar problem, ranging from the veganism movement (Cherry, 2015) to the practice of urban food cultivation (Dobernig & Stagl, 2015) to abstinence pledgers (Haenfler, 2019). Increasingly, the labels of lifestyle movements, to describe the group, and lifestyle politics, to describe the activity, have been used to classify these phenomenon (Bennett, 1998(Bennett, , 2004(Bennett, /2017De Moor, 2017;Haenfler et al., 2012). The extra-parliamentary left, nonetheless, is not a lifestyle movement. ...
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The prevalence and character of political action has changed throughout the Global North, as individuals increasingly turn away from more conventional forms of political participation towards more everyday, continuous types of actions. In this study, I conceptualize one form of everyday political action as a politics of community. A politics of community describes a form of purposeful, collective action that individuals engage in in their attempts to challenge, change, or maintain the social organization of society. In a politics of community, individuals form a distinct and recognizable group that attempts to build community spaces, or interactions in which individuals experience a sense of intimacy and feelings of belonging and being at home. One group that engages in a politics of community is the extra-parliamentary left in Sweden. Adopting a theoretical perspective with roots in interactionist thought, this study analyzes the social world of the extra-parliamentary left in southern Sweden. The extra-parliamentary left, a political group with radical left-libertarian principles, is a stigmatized actor within the arena of Swedish politics. Utilizing an ethnographic method, this study focuses not only on how this stigma arises, but also how individuals become and maintain an identity as extra-parliamentary leftists. I show that extra-parliamentary leftists often achieve stigma in interactions with other political actors, allowing the extra-parliamentary left to become a distinct and recognizable community. In these interactions, extra-parliamentary leftists engage in self-stigmatization to achieve not only a radical identity in Swedish politics, but also as a means of pursuing social change. Second, this study shows that individuals only become extra-parliamentary leftists through participation in the activities of the extra-parliamentary left. I demonstrate that individuals often first encounter extra-parliamentary habits in orbiting social worlds and learn to view these habits as desirable only in interaction with significant others. Third, I explore how extra-parliamentary leftists use self-segregation in their attempts to create community spaces, attempting to create interactional patterns removed from the dominant patterns in Swedish society. I demonstrate that these community spaces remain fragile and vulnerable to interruption, and that the extra-parliamentary left must constantly find ways to address these breaches and recreate community spaces or risk disintegration. The dissertation concludes in noting both the inherent contradictions and challenges involved in radical political action as well as the importance of context in understanding radicality. I argue that focusing on routine, everyday action and interaction allows us to better examine and understand how individuals join and recreate groups involved in collective political action. Finally, I argue that studying the accomplishment of collective action, rather than solely its consequences, allows us to not only better understand changing patterns of political behavior but even the power relations and structures at work within our societies.
... Christian organizations often emphasize the importance of engaging in acts of service and advocating for social justice (Haenfler et al., 2012). Efforts to tackle challenges such as poverty, inequality, discrimination, and other social issues can be classified within this domain. ...
Article
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This research examines political identity from the Christian perspective and the Implication for Christian politicians. In 2024, Indonesia will run the presidential election. The most apparent phenomenon of identity politics in the history of Indonesian democracy was the election for the Jakarta area in 2017. It was done by a handful of people considering the success of identity politics in 2017. They want to repeat their success in 2017 in the forthcoming 2024 election. Politicians and Christians must be different; they must stand firm in their Christian identity and bring important messages to Indonesia. The study adopted a literature study which is a library study method research technique that involves seeking sources that offer factual information or expert opinions relevant to a research question. This method utilizes various library resources, such as books, scholarly journals, and online databases, to collect reliable information. The authors carefully analysed works to build a frame of mind to answer the problem that was formulated. Data analysis techniques were based on careful content analysis. All data are presented descriptively. The result and key finding of the study is that Christian politicians must play their roles as prophetic politicians.
... More precisely, the families who choose it should not be included in the home birth movement, since they do not act in an organised and continuous manner and do not do so with the aim of questioning medical authority over childbirth. The concept of Lifestyle Social Movement (LS) (Haenfler et al. 2012) could come to the aid of interpreting the role of families: LS is a concept coined to interpret those "awkward movements" that are not recognised as social movements, neither according to the perspective of contentious politics, in that the action of the individual is not instrumental to change and there is little disinterest in interlocution with the State, nor can they be understood by the broad category of "new social movements", in that the latter presuppose an organisational set-up. Finally, they do not fall under political consumerism either because the practices of individuals are not the subject of campaigns. ...
Article
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During the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, more couples in Italy considered giving birth at home with the assistance of private midwives, by questioning the social norm of a hospital birth. This article discusses the findings produced through a qualitative study that has reached 16 home birth experts and 22 women who gave birth at home between 2020 and 2022. It emerges that the midwives’ dedication to their profession is embedded in their awareness of being contributors to social change (in terms of the demedicalisation of birth and women’s empowerment) initiated in the 1970s by older generations of midwives and birth activists. Parents tend to make sense of their home birth as a matter of individual choice and wish that this choice could be soon or later normalized. However, midwives and parents rarely engage with policy makers and tend to be content to express their values in their professional practice and birth/parenting choices. Available open access : https://www.openstarts.units.it/handle/10077/20566
... The overlap between digital activism, lifestyle and consumption found among these eco-influencers creates a specific type of social movement that Haenfler, et al. (2012) describe as "Lifestyle Movements". These are characterized by using lifestyle choices as tactics for social change (where personal identity plays a central role as an engine for change) and adopting a diffuse organizational structure. ...
Article
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Images are part of the communication strategies of both the hegemonic powers and political activism. Images have recently been the focus of studies on social movements, highlighting the importance of visual activism in social media. However, the relationship between these visual narratives and mythological structures and how they operate to mobilize social change has not been significantly explored. This study analyses the role of environmental activism memes on social media and how, in anthropological terms, they can be understood as myths or narratives that offer a model for perceiving, understanding, judging and acting in the world. We draw from ongoing research into eco-influencers on Instagram, taking environmental memes characterized by binary oppositions of "before" and "after" as the study subject. This contrast establishes a temporal narrative and future prediction, involving a cause-and-effect relationship and a moral judgement of our actions. We argue that, in the case of the environmental meme, the myth-based approach helps in understanding its role in articulating the cosmic, social and personal orders as it brings human action into harmony with the cosmic order while projecting its images onto the human experience.
... Such approaches emerge as an effort to embody and operationalize the goals or values of a political project within social movement activities, or, put simply, to bring the means closer to the ends (Yates 2015). These practices often relate to less visible, everyday acts of social reproduction, such as food provisioning and gardening (Haenfler, Johnson, and Jones 2012;Kennedy, Johnston, and Parkins 2018;Pottinger 2017). They bind together personal needs and aspirations of participants with a wider collective sociopolitical project (Raekstad and Gradin 2020). ...
... The sharing economy also helps to improve the social utilization rate of redundant and idle resources, reduce waste, promote environmental protection, and it also helps to achieve sustainable consumption; it can even promote social equity and justice, increase employment opportunities, reduce employment pressure, and enhance social integration (Chen 2009;Richardson 2015). The sociological perspectives are also diverse, including cultural (Martin and Upham 2016;Hamari et al. 2016), grassroots social innovation (Martinet al. 2015), lifestyle movement (Haenfler et al. 2012), social integration (Felson and Spaeth 1978;Laamanen et al. 2015), social segregation (Schor et al. 2015), and governance models (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012; Hartl et al. 2016). Among them, some scholars focus on analyzing the social dynamics of the sharing economy, and some focus on exploring the social consequences of the sharing economy (Wang 2017: 24). ...
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Taking the sharing economy as an example, the article discusses the social basis for the development of the internet platform. It shows that the development of the sharing economy and internet platform not only benefits from its economic efficiency and social benefits but also relies on the sharing of technological dividends constructed by its technical characteristics and application, which have expanded the beneficiary groups and broadened the social basis of new technology.
Chapter
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Chapter
In this chapter, I focus on young people’s interest in veganism. Veganism is defined as a daily commitment not to participate in the exploitation of animals (Larue & Giroux, Le véganisme: “Que sais-je?” n° 4068. Presses Universitaires de France, 2017). How does this individual action relate to more collective forms of political action? To understand this phenomenon, I draw on my dissertation fieldwork to bridge structural, relational and cultural theories in the sociology of political participation. While structural approaches focus on the political and organizational context, relational approaches emphasize the role of relationships, and cultural approaches value the role of ideas, identity and emotions. I argue that understanding contemporary animal rights activism means understanding the back-and-forth between structure, ideas and identity, and between individual and collective action. In other words, it means capturing the ebb and flow of lifestyles and activism over the life course, especially among younger members of the movement. Finally, I argue for a redefinition of the boundaries of political participation. This redefinition should include the family sphere.
Article
In this article, we draw on the concepts of lifestyle movements and Do-It-Yourself culture to explore activist identity and practice among grassroots activist groups in Brisbane, Australia. Although Do-It-Yourself ethos is often conceptualised in terms of countercultural ideology linking music, politics and aesthetics, we examine it here as a core characteristic of creative resistance and grassroots organising. We present the case study of an activist blockade camp emerging during the COVID-19 lockdown in Brisbane in 2020 to explore activist lifestyles in the Australian context and reflect on the possibilities of radicalisation and collective affinities through Do-It-Yourself politics and practices. The impact of COVID-19 during early 2020 and the socio-economic disruptions that followed provide an interesting backdrop against which to study the development of Do-It-Yourself activist lifestyles within social movements. Our findings illustrate the potential of activist lifestyle movements within and beyond localised campaigns, while reinforcing the relevance of using Do-It-Yourself frameworks to theorise activist culture.
Article
Alors que le mouvement animaliste se politise en Occident, il reste principale­ment compris comme un mouvement de promotion du véganisme. Cette vision s’écarte de la volonté d’émancipation animale dont se revendiquent les militants de la cause animale. C’est pourquoi, grâce à une enquête qualitative de trois années réalisée au sein du mouvement animaliste de France et de Bel­gique francophone, cet article s’est donné pour objectif d’investiguer le “para­doxe animaliste”, c’est-à-dire, le contraste existant entre centralité du véganisme pour le grand public et volonté d’émancipation animale portée par les militants animalistes. À cet égard, l’article présente le mouvement animaliste comme un mouvement social composé de deux cultures militantes au sens de Pleyers (2016), à savoir, la culture véganiste et la culture antispéciste. Il démontre que si la plupart des animalistes sont animés par un désir d’émancipa­tion animale (antispécisme), nombre d’entre eux choisissent de s’inscrire dans une stratégie véganiste. Celle-ci repose sur l’idée que le véganisme est une porte d’entrée pertinente pour mener à une société antispéciste du fait qu’il fait écho à de nombreuses problématiques contemporaines. C’est donc parce que le véganisme représente une alternative solide à différentes crises des sociétés capitalistes modernes qu’il devient l’axe d’action privilégié par les militants de la cause animale. Dès lors, la centralité du véganisme se traduit par une surreprésentativité des véganistes au sein du mouvement animaliste, pourtant porté par des acteurs se revendiquant de l’antispécisme.
Article
In this article, we examine the expressions of veganism on Facebook, a main social media platform worldwide, through a combination of classic qualitative social science and computational methods. Building on a foundational typology proposed by Jessica Greenebaum, we adopt Weber’s ‘ideal types’ to analyze a broad range of online vegan expressions, using Max Reinert’s algorithm to identify distinct ‘lexical worlds’ of vegan discourses in 200,000 vegan-related messages published over a decade (2010–2020). Our analysis leads to a nuanced typology based on individual versus collective focus and inward versus outward orientation, uncovering four primary functions of social media in veganism: self-documentation and resource sharing, advocacy and education, identity and community formation, and support and mobilization. The research also advances methodological approaches in social media analysis by integrating traditional qualitative insights with computational Big Data techniques.
Chapter
Starting from the understanding of political consumption prevalent in the literature, a multi-level model of politics is developed that allows the various manifestations of political consumption to be classified and in particular to distinguish between ‘top-down’ incentivized and ‘bottom-up’ initiated boycott or ‘buycott’ actions, as well as to determine some future research desiderata.
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Community agriculture describes the practice of land commoning for food production. Communitarian food systems are explained as determined by neoliberalisation for being either prompted by global processes of environmental degradation or dissolved in submerged networks of everyday politics. While consistent with neoliberal critiques, the article advocates for their historicization through a processual approach to community agriculture. The analysis builds on the historical‐comparative scrutiny of land commoning in the Italian peninsula through the selection of secondary sources and draws a longue durée periodization from late antiquity to the present. Analytical results highlight three temporal macro‐sequences of food transformations that contextualise structural and agential influences on communitarian food systems: delegation, privatisation, and commodification of food production. The historical trajectories of community agriculture in the Italian peninsula offer valuable insights into three key areas of debate and potential avenues for future research. The first concerns the divides between structure and agency, contentious and everyday politics; the article also contributes to classical analyses that emphasize the crucial role of food in capitalist development and finally, it advances the processual framework as an adaptable analytical tool.
Chapter
Thirty years since the regime-changes in Eastern Europe. Thirty years of debates on democratization, illiberal trends and deconsolidation. This chapter takes stock of the puzzle around anticipated chances for democratic consolidation in Romania and the more recent appraisal for citizens’ democratic attitudes and resilience in this country. While Romania has, for a long time, been criticized for its underachieved democratic consolidation, recent protests indicate a noteworthy development of Romanian society in this regard. Following scholarship that considers the activity of social movements and protest a part of civil society, Gubernat & Rammelt contend that protests of the past ten years provide both an efficient linkage between citizens, local concerns and institutionalized decision-making and a challenge to authority and social structures on a domestic level. However, the chapter concludes that, while progress in democratic consolidation in one societal arena is to be observed, Romanian civil society and protest culture fall short, up to this time, of providing a more profound critique of capitalist society, displaying a lack of vigilance towards power configurations and systemic inequalities, owing to the influence of the Western hegemonic discourse.
Chapter
Voluntary simplicity has received growing attention during the last few years. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumers are trying to rebuild work–life balance and reconsider their priorities. Voluntary simplicity has become one of the most popular lifestyles as a result of these efforts. Hence, this chapter aims to explore the concept of voluntary simplicity by first identifying its relationship with minimalism. Then, the concept, existing literature, and the relationship between voluntary simplicity and well-being are explained. Finally, future research directions for improving the existing literature are presented.
Article
Veganism is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. In addition to being viewed as a dietary choice, it is also studied in various disciplines as a cultural movement, lifestyle, or even as a climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy. Due to its complexity, there is a growing interest in studying veganism through sociological lenses. The aim of this research is to provide a systematic overview of the current sociological literature on veganism. This analysis follows the PRISMA systematic literature review protocol and includes academic articles published in English between 2000 and 2022. The study has been organised around 3 main research questions to reveal the scope and intensity of sociological research on veganism, its methodological aspects, and the conceptualisation of veganism. The results suggest an emerging discourse of veganism as a lifestyle movement and the orientation of studies toward qualitative research. A variety of veganism concepts used in the sociological literature indicate the potential of different strands of research.
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À partir des données d’une recherche sur l’origine du mouvement de la permaculture, les modalités de sa diffusion transnationale et sa présence actuelle en Italie et dans d’autres pays du sud de l’Europe, l’article propose une analyse de l’évolution du mouvement sous l’angle du poids croissant en son sein des formes d’appropriation individualisée mais également de « préfiguration ouverte ». La préfiguration suppose l’inscription de la vision du changement social d’un mouvement non seulement dans ses objectifs déclarés mais également dans ses pratiques. Alors que la « préfiguration fermée » préconise la création de communautés avec une identité forte et partagée et une frontière nettement délimitée séparant l’intérieur de l’extérieur, la « préfiguration ouverte » favorise les « collaborations » entre les activistes de la permaculture et d’autres mouvements et groupes sociaux. Dans les conclusions, l’article revient sur les risques associés à la « fluidité » de la permaculture comme méthode de préfiguration écologique, mais également sur la contribution de ce mouvement aux luttes pour la justice environnementale et climatique et à la transformation culturelle nécessaire à l’émergence d’une société civile écologique.
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This paper is written based on a qualitative approach, to explore the ability to use communication technology by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMES) within the culinary field to support their ability to innovate in developing countries such as Indonesia. A total of 30 small and micro enterprises from the two biggest cities in East Java province participated in this empirical study. The data collection system is carried out using a semistructured interview that looks at the ability of business users to understand the internet as a media through four digital literacy elements, namely the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages. Based on the results of comparative analysis, it was found that the majority of MSMES owners have just reached the access phase, which is the initial phase where users are connected to the internet and utilize the most basic features of application services. MSMES owners only use internet technology for informal communication purposes and access to entertainment. One of the most important points from the results of the interview is the existence of religious issues which hamper the willingness of some MSMES owners to embrace the internet by creating reluctance and suspicion against the internet. One of them is the usury discourse that appears on non-cash payment technology and food purchasing services by online transportation.
Article
As social media are increasingly integrated into our lives, scholars have examined how social media use can inform beliefs about politics and science. This study considers the political implications of following lifestyle influencers and their aspirational content in social media. Aspirational social media use may shape political attitudes and beliefs, even when not explicitly political. Using a two-wave survey of American adults ( N = 1,421), this study examines whether aspirational use of social media is associated with anti-expert attitudes and inaccurate beliefs about politicized science. Data indicate that aspirational social media use is associated with anti-intellectualism and holding more inaccurate beliefs, but not with overall distrust of science. These relationships are moderated by political affiliation, so that the attitudes and beliefs of Democrats and Republicans are similar at high levels of aspirational social media use. The results highlight the need to better understand the political implications of different types of social media use, including seemingly apolitical social media.
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Sociological literature on cultural practices seeking to understand the social differentiation of taste pays limited attention to what people avoid consuming, despite its potential as a strategic indicator of taste. Avoidance has special relevance for the understanding of eating and drinking practices which are often characterized by exclusion of items for health, hedonic, reputational, or spiritual reasons. Making use of rich data on twenty-three items commonly consumed by Italian adults, this paper investigates how avoidances-i.e. what people claim never to eat or drink-are clustered, socially patterned and have evolved over time. Methodologically, we propose the novel use and integration of two machine learning techniques-Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT)-to identify nine highly homogeneous avoidance clusters and examine the power of social variables in predicting the probability of individuals' belonging to various clusters and to further characterize them. We conclude by discussing possible rationales behind avoidance.
Article
Current calls for deep societal transformation stress the need to go beyond green consumption and aim for the reduction of material consumption. Such a shift is enacted by grassroots initiatives around reuse, repair and sharing. However, the possibility of postconsumerist perspectives and practices to reach a broader audience is affected by discursive opportunity structures (DOS) formed in public debate. To understand the DOS it is relevant to pay attention both to the continuous normalisation of consumption and to the ways in which alternatives are represented. To develop new analytical tools for examining what postconsumerist initiatives are up against, we introduce the concept of banal consumerism: mundane, habitual expressions that reproduce consumer culture. Through an empirical study of Swedish daily newspapers, we construct the basis for a typology of different expressions of banal consumerism. We find several expressions, of which the massive advertising of consumer goods is the most common but editorial material also plays an important role. This largely disabling DOS is then put in relation to the potentially enabling opportunities entailed in the existing media coverage of postconsumerist initiatives, practices and perspectives. The results show that postconsumerist initiatives and practices are newsworthy and presented as commendable. The fact that high levels of material consumption negatively impact the environment and life on the planet is widely accepted. To argue for degrowth or criticise consumerism is, however, controversial. Thus, support for postconsumerist practices coexist with massive expressions of banal consumerism, creating a complex set of DOS for the postconsumerist initiatives to navigate.
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Drawing on a qualitative case study of consumers involved in community-supported agriculture farms in Norway, this article applies social practice theory to understand pro-environmental behaviour transformation in relation to community-supported agriculture. Situating social practice theory in the larger framework of the political economy of low-carbon transformation provides a holistic and grounded perspective on consumer behaviour change and potential for social transformation. In contrast to conventional individualistic and rationalist approaches, our study suggests that there is no linear path of transformation; rather, people join community-supported agriculture to use their consumer power to push for social transformation. Simultaneously, community-supported agriculture influences a reorientation of values and practices because it opens up opportunities and resources for sustainable lifestyles. We argue that the collaborative aspects of community-supported agriculture can challenge unsustainable consumption by emphasizing sharing over private ownership and frugality over accumulation of growth. However, the consumer practices of the wider political economy produced by the 'culture of capitalism' continue to be ingrained in people's social relations and contexts, and thus weaken new and more sustainable forms of food consumption. Bibliographical notes Karina Standal is a human geographer and senior researcher at CICERO. Standal's main research interests are within the field of consumption, energy, development and gender research. Standal's research has for many years had a particular focus on qualitative aspects and social practices to understand social change and low-carbon transformation.
Article
The moral and justice dimensions of climate change are uncomfortable and commonly avoided in the conversations of day-to-day UK life. This ‘silence’ impedes the genesis of a public discourse to drive justice-oriented social and political change. Two social realms identified as silence-breaking are social movements and personal relationships, yet the potential of this intersection has yet to be explored. This article applies Goffman’s theories of interaction to a qualitative study of UK-based climate activists to show how silence around climate justice is often a means to avoid relationship conflict, and the ways in which this is negotiated within everyday interactions. Activist participants faced conversational resistance through normative avoidance of climate-related death talk, and from negative environmental activist stereotyping. In efforts to protect relationships while promoting their climate politics, participants backgrounded their activist identity, slowly ‘chipped away’ at climate obstruction through social and sustainable practices, and prioritised humour. Breaking silences required taking relationship risks through radical environmentalist ‘killjoy-talk’: a deliberate, politicised transgression of polite conversation norms. The article reflects on the normativities and loci of power discursively obstructing a moral engagement, and the potential for activists’ practical and discursive strategies to work against these to normalise politicised climate talk.
Thesis
Full text available at: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-98987 This thesis is concerned with the problematics of contemporary identity politics of body acceptance as situated in the visibility logics of digital media. It examines how seemingly progressive narratives of body-acceptance can rely on normative discourses and dominant ideologies. Thus, it carries out a case study of an American online body-acceptance platform called StyleLikeU which claims to strive for social change by challenging normative beauty ideals. StyleLikeU, also claims to create visibility for everyone, interviews individuals as they take off their clothes while talking about their experiences of suffering due to their non-normativities. This study applies multimodal critical discourse analysis to examine the textual, visual and audio-visual online content created by StyleLikeU. Theoretically, the Foucauldian understanding of neoliberal governmentality is applied. Moreover, emotional capitalism is mobilised in terms of the commodification of affect and affective publics of digital media. Lastly, postfeminism is adopted and viewed through the lens of depoliticisation and inclusion. From this perspective, the analysis focuses on how SLU represents its movement, its actions, its participants and its aims as an online movement. The study concludes that although StyleLikeU claims to challenge normative beauty ideals, it heavily relies on normative neoliberal, postfeminist and middle-class discourses around identities, bodies, beauty and suffering. The study also finds that while StyleLikeU claims to liberate people from normative judgements of beauty with their online content, it creates a new category of non-normativity of its own. The study argues that StyleLikeU makes use of online content to create and sustain affective publics by highlighting personal experiences of suffering which, in turn, become colonised and commodified as they are situated in the landscape of emotional capitalism.
Chapter
Starting from the understanding of political consumption prevalent in the literature, a multi-level model of politics is developed that allows the various manifestations of political consumption to be classified and in particular to distinguish between ‘top-down’ incentivized and ‘bottom-up’ initiated boycott or ‘buycott’ actions, as well as to determine some future research desiderata. Keywords Boycott Buycott Participation Politics Political consumption
Article
Scholars have recently worked to broaden the definition of urban engagement in order to better understand the multiple manifestations of this concept. Some, interested in grasping the potential transformative or demonstrative effects of everyday actions in urban settings, have examined active practices, such as gardening. Others have focused on the scale of action and have demonstrated how limited activities can have significant effects on individuals and communities. Building on the case studies of collective gardens in the significantly different urban settings of Québec City (Canada) and Madrid (Spain), we explore how the practices of urban gardening offer forms of learning that often go beyond gardening itself and expand into collective decision making and social engagement. The gardens we look at are grassroots based, have been in operation for approximately ten years and receive a form of support from city programmes. Our results show that these gardens are the sites of social processes where gardeners develop a strong identity in relation to the alternative lifestyles that they build, as well as a sense of belonging that goes beyond the boundaries of their garden and that connects them to nature. By developing their ethos of care, gardeners learn that neighbourhood-oriented actions have political implications that can help change the city.
Article
What happens when politics enters strongly aesthetic cultural fields? This article proposes a novel conceptual framework, which we propose to call ideologization, to understand how political-ideological considerations influence cultural legitimation. We build on theories of legitimation and cultural intermediaries to examine the strategic case of fashion as a cultural production field at the intersection of aesthetics and economics. Combining an analysis of frames in fashion magazines since the 1980s with critical discourse analysis of British Vogue in turning-point year 2020, we theorize ideologization as consisting of three elements: aesthetic agenda-setting; the reimagination of relations between producers, consumers and intermediaries; and the generation of discursive contradictions. This process of ideologization, which we see across cultural fields since the late 2010s, has strong implications for intermediaries who act as framers and brokers of legitimate culture. We conclude by proposing future research to further develop the ideologization framework and detail the long-term impact of political-ideological logics on cultural fields.
Thesis
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À l’heure où des milliers de producteurs délaissent leur métier et où des rapports alarmants dénoncent les conditions de travail difficiles et la détresse psychologique au sein du milieu agricole, de nouveaux acteurs décident de « retourner à la terre ». Cette thèse s’intéresse à la démarche en apparence « paradoxale » de ces nouveaux venus qui ne sont pas issus du milieu agricole et qui choisissent l’agriculture comme seconde carrière. Au Québec, ces nouvelles installations prennent la forme de reconversions graduelles et visent principalement les secteurs biologiques. Elles s’opèrent sur de petites surfaces d’exploitation, en privilégiant l’insertion dans des échanges marchands durables et territorialisés. Ces bifurcations vers l’agriculture, qui répondent initialement, entre autres, à une quête de sens ou au désir de contribuer positivement à la société, se heurtent néanmoins à de nombreuses difficultés avec l’expérience concrète de travail. À la croisée de la sociologie des migrations néo-rurales et de celle de la profession d’agriculteur, cette recherche examine le processus de ces « retours à la terre » pour mieux comprendre les épreuves et défis qui jalonnent ces carrières agricoles. Elle mobilise une analyse de la bifurcation sur le temps long autour de trois temporalités (la bifurcation – la transition – le maintien en agriculture) révélant ainsi le caractère dynamique des trajectoires agricoles. La confrontation du travail imaginé avec le travail réel montre la façon dont les néo-agriculteurs modifient le rapport qu’ils entretiennent avec leur travail, mettent en place des stratégies de survie et recomposent leurs engagements pour s’adapter à une réalité parfois plus rude que prévue. À travers la construction de trois profils idéal-typiques (les « entrepreneurs », les « activistes » et les « terriens »), cette thèse cherche également à montrer la diversité des expressions du « retour à la terre ». Loin d’être un bloc monolithique, ces bifurcations agricoles sont teintées d’idéaux, d’attentes et d’aspirations qui s’inscrivent dans une trajectoire personnelle passée. Les analyses montrent la manière dont ces parcours agricoles se forment et évoluent en fonction d’aspirations professionnelles spécifiques, invitant alors à penser ces retours à la terre au pluriel.
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Within the context of an increasingly industrialized, global-scale food system, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), where consumers form direct relationships with the farmers who grow their food, provides one example of a grassroots effort to reassert local control over the terms of food production and distribution. Gathering momentum in the U.S. over the past decade, the CSA idea has spread from a few communities in the Northeast to a farming strategy spanning the nation. Today, hundreds of thousands of U.S. consumers are eating food produced on CSA farms. Despite its enthusiastic acclaim as a central component of an emergent “new agriculture” that enhances local economies, improves farm profitability, and protects the environment, surprisingly little is known about the extent and composition of this movement, it’s long-term viability or its overall social significance. This study explores whether the organizational forms, ideas, and cultural values introduced by CSA offer a viable alternative to the dominant system by tracking the emergence and evolution of 24 midwestern farms over a ten-year span. Social studies of agriculture and social movements theory provide the broad framework for the study, however, the distinctive features of CSA require that existing theory be reworked, expanded, and adapted. Rather than the reactive or protest activity depicted by many social movement theorists, CSA represents a proactive attempt to design and implement new economic relationships and social forms for farming by linking like-minded farmers and consumers. Research on farmer and consumer participation in CSA can ultimately afford new insights into the transformative potential of grassroots strategies for remaking the food system.
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Both anecdotal and case-study evidence have long suggested that consumer behavior such as the buying or boycotting of products and services for political and ethical reasons can take on political significance. Despite recent claims that such behavior has become more widespread in recent years, political consumerism has not been studied systematically in survey research on political participation. Through the use of a pilot survey conducted among 1015 Canadian, Belgian, and Swedish students, we ascertain whether political consumerism is a sufficiently consistent behavioral pattern to be measured and studied meaningfully. The data from this pilot survey allow us to build a “political consumerism index” incorporating attitudinal, behavioral, and frequency measurements. Our analysis of this cross-national student sample suggests that political consumerism is primarily a tool of those who are distrustful of political institutions. However, political consumers have more trust in other citizens, and they are disproportionately involved in checkbook organizations. They also tend to score highly on measures of political efficacy and post-materialism. We strongly suggest including measurements of political consumerism together with other emerging forms of activism in future population surveys on political participation.
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Preface Acknowledgments 1. What Is Vegetarianism? And Who Are the Vegetarians? 2. Vegetarian Diets and the Health Professions: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Issues 3. Charting the Contemporary Vegetarian Movement in the Social Movement Field 4. Vegetarianism: Expressions of Ideology in Vegetarian Organizations 5. The Beliefs and Strategies of Vegetarian Movement Leaders 6. Organizational Strategy in Action: Promoting a Vegetarian Collective Identity 7. The Food Industry's Role in Promoting and Gaining Acceptance for Vegetarian Diets
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Sometime After 1968, analysts and participants began to speak of “new social movements” that worked outside formal institutional channels and emphasized lifestyle, ethical, or “identity” concerns rather than narrowly economic goals. A variety of examples informed the conceptualization. Alberto Melucci (1988: 247), for instance, cited feminism, the ecology movement or “greens,” the peace movement, and the youth movement. Others added the gay movement, the animal rights movement, and the antiabortion and prochoice movements. These movements were allegedly new in issues, tactics, and constituencies. Above all, they were new by contrast to the labor movement, which was the paradigmatic “old” social movement, and to Marxism and socialism, which asserted that class was the central issue in politics and that a single political economic transformation would solve the whole range of social ills. They were new even by comparison with conventional liberalism with its assumption of fixed individual identities and interests. The new social movements thus challenged the conventional division of politics into left and right and broadened the definition of politics to include issues that had been considered outside the domain of political action (Scott 1990).
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In recent times, much has been written about consumers' co-responsibility for addressing environmental problems, with consumers expected to steer or regulate their consumption in an instrumental way. By drawing on data from in-depth interviews with green consumers in urban Ireland, this article examines how green consumers engage with environmental issues at an everyday level. The article considers green consumption through the theoretical lens of reflexive modernization, particularly its relevance to self-identity. We argue that although green consumption is important to the maintenance and constitution of a green subjectivity, it must be understood within the context of a process of increasing individualization, where individuals feel both responsible and empowered in dealing with environmental risks to both the wider global planet and themselves. However, such feelings are accompanied by doubts and insecurities about the choices to be made, creating a rather dichotomous situation. This challenges the idea that green consumption as some form of politics of choice can unambiguously form part of a strategy for environmental reform as it does not adequately address the fundamental dilemmas that people face.
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Historians and cultural theorists have long asserted that a desire to express political concerns often guides consumer behavior, yet such political consumerism has received limited attention from social scientists. Here, the authors explore the relationship of political consumerism with dispositional factors, communication variables, and consumption orientations using data collected from a panel survey conducted in the United States between February 2002 and July 2005. The authors test a theorized model using both cross-sectional and auto-regressive panel analyses. The static and change models reveal that conventional and online news use encourage political consumerism indirectly through their influence on political talk and environmental concerns. However, media use may also have some suppressive effects by reducing the desire to protect others from harmful messages. Results demonstrate how communication practices and consumption orientations work together to influence political consumerism beyond previously delineated factors. Implications for declines in political and civic participation and youth socialization are discussed.
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Shows how social change affects political mobilization indirectly through the restructuring of existing power relations, comparing the impact of the ecology, gay rights, peace, and women's movements in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Of interest to students and researchers in political science and sociology.
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This chapter argues against the recent crystallization of “contentions politics” as the anchoring concept for the study of collective action on the grounds that it is overly restrictive, foreclosing consideration and analysis of much social movement activity not tied directly to government or the state and which thus falls beyond the bailiwick of the political arena. The problematic character of the contentious politics frame is discussed and illustrated both empirically and conceptually, and a more inclusive and elastic conceptualization is proposed and elaborated, one that conceives of movements broadly as collective challenges to systems of authority. This alternative conceptualization includes collective challenges within and to institutional, organizational, and cultural domains other than just the state or the polity. Not only are direct challenges to authorities included, but also movements that challenge authorities indirectly either through covert means, as in the case of terrorist movements, or by exiting the system, as in the case of separatist and communal movements and other-worldly religious “cults.”
Thesis
ABSTRACT This dissertation is an investigation of a new form of collective action that I will refer to as social responsibility activism. With up to 50 million participants by some estimates, this type of activism has been able to fly below the radar of most social scientists and most of the mass media due to its unusual form. Individuals, acting on a set of progressive values, consciously choose to change everyday actions in the hopes of building a better world for themselves and others. The roots of social responsibility activism reach into a number of contemporary social movements, notably environmentalism, simple living, socially responsible investing and business, and progressive and green politics. This type of activism avoids the confrontational approach of traditional political activism for a “no enemy” approach to social change that focuses on the impacts of everyday lifestyle choices. Social responsibility activism may point to a larger shift in the culture of activism from the political to the cultural, from the collective to the individual, from the confrontational idealism of the 60s to a strategic realism of the 90s. Drawing largely on new social movements theory, this dissertation examines social responsibility activism through: • Its history and evolution from various social movements • Its lifestyle approach to social change • The values of its core philosophy • The actions its adherents take in their everyday lives • The demographics of its adherents • The organizations, literature and “influentials” guiding them The dissertation concludes with a model for conceptualizing activism, perhaps better adapted for the investigation of current collective action than those social movement theory now provides. This research utilizes a variety of research methods including preliminary field research, a content analysis of primary sources (social responsibility literature, organizational records, web sites), a mail survey of social responsibility activists and a number of interviews with “influentials” shaping this new kind of activism.
Book
In recent decades the study of social movements, revolution, democratization and other non-routine politics has flourished. And yet research on the topic remains highly fragmented, reflecting the influence of at least three traditional divisions. The first of these reflects the view that various forms of contention are distinct and should be studied independent of others. Separate literatures have developed around the study of social movements, revolutions and industrial conflict. A second approach to the study of political contention denies the possibility of general theory in deference to a grounding in the temporal and spatial particulars of any given episode of contention. The study of contentious politics are left to 'area specialists' and/or historians with a thorough knowledge of the time and place in question. Finally, overlaid on these two divisions are stylized theoretical traditions - structuralist, culturalist, and rationalist - that have developed largely in isolation from one another. This book was first published in 2001.
Book
Unlike political or economic institutions, social movements have an elusive power, but one that is no less real. From the French and American revolutions through the democratic and workers' movements of the nineteenth century to the totalitarian movements of today, movements exercise a fleeting but powerful influence on politics and society. This study surveys the history of the social movement, puts forward a theory of collective action to explain its surges and declines, and offers an interpretation of the power of movement that emphasises its effects on personal lives, policy reforms and political culture. While covering cultural, organisational and personal sources of movements' power, the book emphasises the rise and fall of social movements as part of political struggle and as the outcome of changes in political opportunity structure.
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Speed is the essence of the modern era, but our faster, more frenetic lives often trouble us and leave us wondering how we are meant to live in today’s world. Slow Living explores the philosophy and politics of ‘slowness’ as it investigates the growth of Slow Food into a worldwide, ‘eco-gastronomic’ movement. Originating in Italy, Slow Food is not only committed to the preservation of traditional cuisines and sustainable agriculture but also the pleasures of the table and a slower approach to life in general. Craig and Parkins argue that slow living is a complex response to processes of globalization. It connects ethics and pleasure, the global and the local, as part of a new emphasis on everyday life in contemporary culture and politics. The ‘global everyday’ is not a simple tale of speed and geographical dislocation. Instead, we all negotiate different times and spaces that make our quality of life and an ‘ethics of living’ more pressing concerns. This innovative book shows how slow living is about the challenges of living a more mindful and pleasurable life.
Book
Buying Time and Getting By provides a detailed account of the voluntary simplicity movement, which took off in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The concept of voluntary simplicity encompasses both self-change aimed at bringing personal practice into alignment with ecological values and cultural change that rejects consumerist values and careerism. While simple livers struggle with self-change, they work toward the broader goals of a sustainable global environment, sustainable communities, increased equality in access to resources, and economies aimed at human quality of life rather than profit. Author Mary Grigsby looks inside the movement at the daily lives of participants and includes their own accounts of their efforts. She also uses reflexive empirical analysis to explore race, class, and gender in relation to the movement. The influence of the dominant culture and institutionalized power in shaping the movement are balanced with the importance of participants' dynamic identity work.
Article
Social movements have an elusive power but one that is altogether real. From the French and American revolutions to the post-Soviet, ethnic, and terrorist movements of today, contentious politics exercises a fleeting but powerful influence on politics, society, and international relations. This study surveys the modern history of the modern social movements in the West and their diffusion to the global South through war, colonialism, and diffusion, and it puts forward a theory to explain its cyclical surges and declines. It offers an interpretation of the power of movements that emphasizes effects on the lives of militants, policy reforms, political institutions, and cultural change. The book focuses on the rise and fall of social movements as part of contentious politics in general and as the outcome of changes in political opportunities and constraints, state strategy, the new media of communication, and transnational diffusion.
Article
Kanawha County, West Virginia is the scene of a continuing protest over the content of textbooks used in the public schools. This protest is analyzed within a reformulated theoretical framework of status politics derived from Weber and Gusfield. The background and development of this moral crusade are examined, as well as its organization, leadership, and the basic issues of the conflict. The conflict is viewed as a struggle between status groups for control of the means of the production of life styles. The protest is interpreted as the politics of life style concern. Protestors are expressing a direct concern about the erosion of their control over their way of life.
Article
This paper extends and applies the theory of status politics, derived from Weber's conception of status group, to a non-economic political movement of conservative evangelical Christians. It is argued that a perceived decline in morals and a perception of legislative issues that symbolically support a more liberal element of American society motivated these evangelicals to political action. In the bid to place a candidate of like orientation in political office was seen the possibility to legitimate and thus protect the conservative lifestyle to which these evangelicals are committed.
Article
Author bio and credits: The authors took back their lives by gaining control over their money. They both gave up successful, and stressful, careers in order to live more deliberately and meaningfully. Author's Big Thought: This book is about the integration of all aspects of life. Our financial life does not function separately. The basics of making your spending money (and hopefully your saving) of money into a clear mirror of your life values and purpose. The purpose of this book is to transform your relationship with money. Once you have changed the nature and function of your interaction with money, through following the steps in this book, your relationship with money will be transformed. You will reach new levels of comfort, competence and consciousness around money. The authors call this consciousness the results of FI (Financially Independent) thinking. FI thinking will lead to Financial Intelligence, Financial Integrity and Financial Independence. Financial Integrity is achieved by learning the true impact of your earning and spending, both on your immediate family and on the planet. It is knowing what is enough money and material goods to keep you at the peak of fulfillment – and what is excess and clutter. It is having all aspects of your financial life in alignment with your values. There are no shorter shortcuts. This whole book, with all nine steps, is ' the shortcut. The steps are summarized here for review, reference and reminders. Read the corresponding chapter for the all-important context and details. These steps are simple, common sense practices. It is absolutely necessary that you do, diligently, every step. The steps build on each other, creating the "magic" of synergy-the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You may not see this effect until you have been following the steps for a number of months.
Article
Analyses of the women's movement that focus on its "waves" and theories of social movements that focus on contentious politics have encouraged the view that the women's movement is in decline. Employing alternative perspectives on social movements, we show that the women's movement continues to thrive. This is evidenced by organizational maintenance and growth, including the international expansion of women's movement organizations; feminism within institutions and other social movements; the spread of feminist culture and collective identity; and the variety of the movement's tactical repertoires. Moreover, the movement remains capable of contentious collective action. We argue for research based on broader conceptions of social movements as well as the contentious politics approach.
Article
This article examines two disputes within sex and gender movements, using them to think through inclusion/exclusion processes, the place of such explosions in the construction of collective identity, and the gendered nature of social movements. Literatures on collective identity emphasize the ways boundary negotiation reinforces the solidarity necessary for collective action and note benefits of solid boundaries, yet downplay the role of internal conflict in the making of collective identities. The cases examined here both involved the explicit expulsion of some “members”: the North American Man/Boy Love Association from the International Lesbian and Gay Association, and transsexuals from the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. An incongruence between practical participation and symbolic exclusion suggests that internal movement debates are best understood as public communications, depending heavily on the communicative environment. Finally, these stories raise questions about the gendered nature of collective identity construction in social movements more generally.
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Part 1 Introduction: Environmentalism and Social Movement Theory. Part 2 Movements in Context: The Evolution of Environmentalism Europeans and Environmentalism. Part 3 Environmental Organizations: The Organization of Environmentalism Environmental Elites. Part 4 Political Repertoires: Defining the Agenda Alliance Patterns and Environmental Networks Patterns of Action Political Parties and Environmentalism. Part 5 Conclusion: Environmental Poltics and Advanced Industrial Democracies.
Article
Consumption is not often addressed in the literature on social movements even though consumer organizations and consumer tactics have been successful in achieving social change. This paper offers an analytical framework for studying the politics of consumption, which suggests that consumers can be conceived of collectively as active agents rather than passive individuals. I capture this active agency through four concepts: mobilization, problematization, identification, and contention. I focus on one consumer organization, the National Consumers' League, and its three consumer tactics, white lists, white labels, and legislation, in order to demonstrate how the analytical framework I construct can be applied.
Article
Introduction Part I. Theory of Collective Action: 1. The construction of collective action 2. Conflict and change 3. Action and meaning 4. The process of collective identity Part II. Contemporary Collective Action: 5. conflicts of culture 6. Invention of the present 7. The time of difference 8. Roots for today and for tomorrow 9. A search for ethics 10. Information, power, domination Part III. The Field of Collective Action: 11. A society without a centre 12. The political system 13. The state and the distribution of social resources 14. Modernization, crisis, and conflict: the case of Italy Part IV. Acting Collectively: 15. Mobilization and political participation 16. The organization of movements 17. Leadership in social movements 18. Collective action and discourse 19. Forms of action 20. Research on collective action.
Article
Acknowledgements 1. The mysterious shrinking circle of concern 2. Volunteers trying to make sense of the world 3. 'Close to home' and 'for the children': trying really hard not to care 4. Humour, nostalgia and commercial culture in the postmodern public sphere 5. Creating ignorance and memorizing facts: how Buffaloes understood politics 6. Strenuous disengagement and cynical chic solidarity 7. Activists carving out a place in the public sphere for discussion 8. Newspapers in the cycle of political evaporation 9. The evaporation of politics in the US public sphere Appendices Notes References Index.
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The American Diabetes Association currently recommends that all youth with type 1 diabetes over the age of 7 years follow a plan of intensive management. The purpose of this study was to describe stressors and self-care challenges reported by adolescents with type 1 diabetes who were undergoing initiation of intensive management. Subjects described initiation of intensive management as complicating the dilemmas they faced. The importance of individualized and nonjudgmental care from parents and health care providers was stressed. This study supports development of health care relationships and environments that are teen focused not merely disease-centered and embrace exploring options with the teen that will enhance positive outcomes.