Attitudinal Measures of Political Consumption as a Form of Civic Engagement in a Developing Country

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 28-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu ◽  
Richard Ampadu-Ameyaw
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Trust In Institutions ◽  
Industrialized Nations ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption ◽  
Higher Institutions

The use of the marketplace as a site for political action with social change motives is referred as political consumption. The phenomenon of political consumption has been widely studied in post-industrialized nations such as the United States of America but less is written about such social change-oriented behaviors in developing countries. This paper aims at determining the attitudinal measures of political consumption in Ghana, a developing nation in West Africa. The study is based on data collected in August 2013 from a total of 356 Ghanaians sampled from higher institutions of learning. Findings suggest that influence over government (political efficacy) is a consistent predictor of the respective attitudinal measures of political consumption. To some extent this pattern of behavior of engagement in political consumption contradicts findings in post-industrialized nations where it is consistently linked to variables such as: socio-demographics, political interest, and trust in institutions.

Political Consumption as Supplement to Conventional Political Participation in Promoting Social Change

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Using Data ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption

Research indicates that individual consumers with food safety, environmental and ethical concerns regarding the provisioning of food may be motivated to use the marketplace as a site for political action to promote social change—a phenomenon known as political consumption (PC). Using data from Ohio 2007 Survey of Food, Farming and Environment, this research examined individual level attributes shaping engagement in PC and conventional political action. Findings based on logistic regression analyses, reveal that engagement in conventional political behavior is positively related to the likelihood of engagement in political consumption. This suggests that engagement in conventional political action and political consumption are not mutually exclusive. The main factors associated with engagement in political consumption are: knowledge about food production, environmental and food safety concerns. These findings suggest that consumers with concerns about the organization and character of food production believe they can create social changes via their consumptive decisions.

Boycott and Buycott as Emerging Modes of Civic Engagement

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Safety Concern ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Demographic Correlates ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Consumptive Behavior ◽  
Public Policy Decisions ◽  
Political Consumption

Citizens in post-industrialized societies such as the United States are becoming dissatisfied with some public policy decisions on the provisioning of food, prompting engagement in buycotts and boycotts as means to influence policy change. Such politically motivated consumptive behavior with social change motives is referred as political consumption. Using data from Ohio 2007 Survey of Food, Farming and the Environment, this research examines the attitudinal and demographic correlates of engagement in buycott and boycott. Findings reveal that engagement in boycott and buycott are shaped by food safety concern and knowledge of food production respectively. Both boycott and buycott behaviors are positively associated with conventional political action and organic labels. Those with greater political efficacy and high incomes are more likely to engage in buycott. These emerging forms of consumer-oriented political engagement may constitute an important force in setting the agenda for social change with respect to the issues targeted.

Political Consumption as Supplement to Conventional Political Participation in Promoting Social Change

2019 ◽  
pp. 362-378
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Using Data ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption

Research indicates that individual consumers with food safety, environmental and ethical concerns regarding the provisioning of food may be motivated to use the marketplace as a site for political action to promote social change—a phenomenon known as political consumption (PC). Using data from Ohio 2007 Survey of Food, Farming and Environment, this research examined individual level attributes shaping engagement in PC and conventional political action. Findings based on logistic regression analyses, reveal that engagement in conventional political behavior is positively related to the likelihood of engagement in political consumption. This suggests that engagement in conventional political action and political consumption are not mutually exclusive. The main factors associated with engagement in political consumption are: knowledge about food production, environmental and food safety concerns. These findings suggest that consumers with concerns about the organization and character of food production believe they can create social changes via their consumptive decisions.

Correlates of Political Consumption in Africa

2016 ◽  
pp. 452-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
World Citizenship ◽  
The World ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption

Using the marketplace as a site for political action with social change motives is referred as political consumption. Boycott, as a form of political consumption is an innovative way being used by citizens to directly express their attitudes, interests and concerns with the ultimate goal of influencing public affairs. This book chapter specifically examines the correlates of boycott as a form of political consumption in Africa using Wave 6 of the World Values Survey. Based on binary logistic regression, the correlates of boycott action are: level of education, gender, social class, media usage, gender equality, institutional confidence, social network, interest in politics, life satisfaction, seeing oneself as being part of world citizenship, seeing oneself as being embedded in local community, importance of doing something for the good of society, importance of traditions, and importance of riches or expensive things. These findings have implications for reaching out to boycotters.

Correlates of Political Consumption in Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 1656-1677
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Adugu
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
World Citizenship ◽  
The World ◽  
A Site ◽  
Political Consumption

Using the marketplace as a site for political action with social change motives is referred as political consumption. Boycott, as a form of political consumption is an innovative way being used by citizens to directly express their attitudes, interests and concerns with the ultimate goal of influencing public affairs. This book chapter specifically examines the correlates of boycott as a form of political consumption in Africa using Wave 6 of the World Values Survey. Based on binary logistic regression, the correlates of boycott action are: level of education, gender, social class, media usage, gender equality, institutional confidence, social network, interest in politics, life satisfaction, seeing oneself as being part of world citizenship, seeing oneself as being embedded in local community, importance of doing something for the good of society, importance of traditions, and importance of riches or expensive things. These findings have implications for reaching out to boycotters.

Engaged Musicology, Political Action, and Social Justice

Black Opera ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 193-208
Author(s):  
Naomi André
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
New Production ◽  
Art Form ◽  
Opera House ◽  
A Site

This chapter examines a new analytical paradigm called “Engaged Musicology” that allows for reading opera as an art form that has potential for being a site for critical inquiry, political activism, and social change. It is fleshed out in two real-life situations: a cutting-edge new production of Bizet’s Carmen (a Trans Carmen in prison) and a concert version performance of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The potential of an engaged musicological practice allows old and new, standard and underrepresented narratives to be voiced in opera. Such a practice would both invite new audiences into the opera house and present traditional opera goers with new realities.

Does Changing a Light Bulb Lead to Changing the World? Political Action and the Conscious Consumer

2012 ◽  
Vol 644 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Willis ◽  
Juliet B. Schor
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
General Social Survey ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Consumption ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Political Actions

As the prevalence of “conscious” consumption has grown, questions have arisen about its relationship to political action. An influential argument holds that political consumption individualizes responsibility for environmental degradation and “crowds out” genuine forms of activism. While European and Canadian empirical research contradicts this perspective, finding that conscious consumption and political engagement are positively connected, no studies of this relationship have been conducted for the United States. This article presents ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models for two datasets, the 2004 General Social Survey and a detailed survey of approximately 2,200 conscious consumers conducted by the authors, to assess the nature of the relationship between conscious consumption and political activism. The authors find that measures of conscious consumption are significantly and positively related to political action, even when controlling for political involvement in the past. The results suggest that greater levels of political consumption are positively related to a range of political actions.

scholarly journals Consumer Activism for Social Change

Social Work ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-309
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Bradford Lightfoot
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Political Action ◽  
The United States ◽  
Consumer Activism ◽  
Macro Practice ◽  
United States Today ◽  
Work Intervention ◽  
Ethical Shopping

Abstract Consumer activism, or activism taken by consumers through participating in the market such as through boycotts or ethical shopping, is the most common form of political action in the United States aside from voting. Although consumer activism was a popular macro practice social work intervention by social work pioneers and has been an important part of many social change movements internationally, it is rarely discussed formally in the field of social work in the United States today. This article provides an overview of consumer activism as a social work intervention, describes historical and 21st century examples of consumer activism, and discusses the effectiveness of consumer activism. The article ends with a discussion of the strengths and challenges of consumer activism for social workers who engage in it either professionally or personally.

How do social beliefs affect political action motivation? The cases of Russia and Ukraine

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Gulevich ◽  
Irena Sarieva ◽  
Andrey Nevruev ◽  
Illya Yagiyayev
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation Modeling ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Just World ◽  
Political Actions

Political action is one of the main methods of social change. Previous research has shown that readiness to participate in such actions is determined by an evaluation of the current situation. The question arises as to how stable beliefs influence such evaluations. In this study we have analyzed the link between such beliefs and readiness to participate in political actions. We assumed that just and dangerous world beliefs are factors that influence readiness to participate in political actions. However, these factors’ influence is mediated by political efficacy. Respondents from Russia ( N = 440) and Ukraine ( N = 249) participated in our study. Structural equation modeling partly confirmed the hypotheses. It has shown that the more people believe in a just world and the less they believe in a dangerous world, the higher their internal and external political efficacy is. Political efficacy, in turn, predicts readiness to participate in various forms of political action. Internal political efficacy is positively linked to normative political collective actions, while external political efficacy is negatively linked to nonnormative collective actions. However, the extent of these patterns is dependent on cultural context.

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