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The purpose of this paper is to test the effects of citizens’ support for two rival and opposing conceptions of political involvement, political consumerism and stealth democracy, on their attitudes about demand response (flexible consumption) and prosumerism (self-production) in the context of making of Finnish energy policy. Stealth democracy represents an established view on the role of citizens in energy policy making: the energy sector has traditionally been presented as a technocratic domain reserved for experts and businessmen. By contrast, political consumerism can be seen as an expression of “energy democracy”.

The data is based on a postal survey and an internet survey that were conducted in 2016 among a random sample representing Finns who were between 18 and 75 years. The dependence of the support for demand response and prosumerism on the endorsement of political consumerism and stealth democracy will be tested statistically (Pearson chi-square).

The endorsement of demand response mainly depended statistically on citizens’ attitudes towards political consumerism and stealth democracy. However, comparing electricity prices and changing electricity suppliers did not depend on adherence to political consumerism and stealth democracy. Nevertheless, in these cases, support was higher among the supporters of political consumerism than among supporters of stealth democracy. By contrast, the endorsement of prosumerism, for instance, in terms of factors that influence citizens’ decisions to invest in electricity generation in their households, depended statistically on citizens’ attitudes on political consumerism and stealth democracy.

It might be that the variables used in this study to measure stealth democracy are not specific enough. More generally, Finns’ willingness to support for stealth democracy may be based on or at least encouraged by the misunderstandings of democratic politics: more information is needed on the level of knowledge that citizens have about normative principles of democratic decision-making processes.

The implication of this study for energy policy making is that there are (at least in Finland) good preconditions for developing a decentralized energy system: citizens are ready to adopt a more active role as energy citizens in terms of demand response and prosumerism – irrespective of their attitudes on macro-level attitudes on governmental institutions. Democratization of the energy system could strengthen the legitimacy of energy policy making.

Citizens’ attitudes indicate that their potential for involvement needs to be strengthened in the spirit of energy democracy: the idea of energy democracy needs to be seen in terms of the demand for increased accountability and democratization of the energy sector that was previously not seen as requiring public involvement and was most often depoliticized and dominated by technocrats. However, strengthening energy democracy through demand response and prosumerism is not without its problems: utilization of these devices requires a relatively large amount of resources which depend on the individuals’ socio-economic position. Thus, energy democracy cannot replace but complement electoral participation as a form of energy policy involvement.

The contribution of this study is to fill a part of the research gap linking to ongoing energy transitions. As a socio-technical transition can take place only if citizens support and participate in it, we need to better understand citizens’ attitudes on energy consumption and production and energy policy involvement. Citizens’ attitudes on energy production and consumption are becoming more and more critical for managing the energy sector as a result of that the share of wind power and solar power is increasing in the energy system. In a decentralized energy system, citizens have to be prepared to change their modes of operation. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the originality of this study is to test the impact of citizens’ political attitudes on the endorsement of demand response and prosumerism.

The purpose of this study is to test citizens’ attitudes on political involvement in energy policy-making that has generally seen to be dominated by experts and business interests and been relatively closed to citizen involvement. The study asks whether citizens are willing to participate politically more through political consumerism (i.e., consumption choices) or through representative democracy and if citizens are willing to assign decision-making to the experts representing public administration and business, as stealth democracy asserts.

Methodologically, the study is based on postal surveys conducted in 2007 and 2016 among a random sample representing Finns who were 18-75 years of age.

Political consumerism and stealth democracy were not considered as alternative and detached modes for electoral participation but rather as complementary. However, adherence to stealth democracy was a reaction of people who feel powerlessness in the face of the regime, while the supporters of political consumerism had a higher trust in their ability to influence.

The study is the first one which empirically compares citizens’ support for these three modes of involvement, and it generates new knowledge for the scholars and decision-makers when planning citizen role in (energy) policy-making.

The actions of the political consumer of food may be manifested either through boycotting or through deliberate purchase of certain products based on ethical, environmental or political values (buycotting). This article has several objectives: to analyse which factors predict the behaviour of political consumers of food; to examine how they perceive that their actions can contribute to social or political change and that the political system will respond to their interests and to people's needs and to discover whether, for the political consumer of food, good citizen behaviour comes closer to the norms of the socially “engaged” or “dutiful”.

A national survey of 1,000 people was conducted in Spain. For the analysis of the data, logistic regression models were developed to determine the factors that most influenced the boycott or deliberate purchase. To address the relationship between food consumption in the political arena and political effectiveness and citizenship standards, the authors have conducted factor analyses of the main components.

The main results show political food consumers to be people who are interested in politics, distrust government and big business, are confident in their ability to influence these groups to change practices that are not in line with their values and have a high degree of social engagement.

Consumers are demanding a fairer and more supportive agri-food production system, a healthier and more environmentally friendly diet and accountability from both the private sector and policymakers.

These data represent progress in the study of this form of political action in Spain as there are no precedents.

This chapter posits that we underestimate the way in which our immersion in the ‘social logic’ of capitalist consumption constrains our attempts to understand and respond to the ecological crises at both a personal and political level – and that both dimensions of our response are bound together.

Survey of literature on psychology, well-being and mindfulness.

How has the culture of capitalism – its psychic investment in colonizing our attention – compromised our ability to respond meaningfully to the challenges of sustainable development? In an acknowledgement of a certain closure around such themes within Western thought, I look to a point of exteriority in Peter Hershock’s work, drawing on China’s Chan Buddhist philosophy, for intimations of a worldview that challenges the West’s over-commitment to forms of ‘control’ in favour of a cultivation of mindful and careful awareness – and an offering of unconditional attention.

Draws attention to a new phase of ‘enclosure’ in the cultural processes of capitalism.

Original introduction of a critical approach to mindfulness in the debate on well-being.

Purpose – Many cities have taken action in order to reduce their carbon footprints. Moreover, the European city has historically been the home of democratic institutions, which have proven to be crucial for successful policy. The leading question of this chapter is whether or not this traditional link between democracy and active citizen participation also holds with respect to local climate policy.

Design/methodology/approach – In our chapter, we take a comparative look at two cities – Muenster in Rhineland Westphalia and Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg next to Berlin. We have a look at the track records of both cities’ carbon footprint and analyze the role of civil society in local climate policy. We develop a set of qualitative indicators, measuring local climate policy outcomes on the one hand and local climate policy performance on the other. We base our analysis on documents and on stakeholder interviews in both cities.

Findings – The findings show that Muenster has performed better in urban climate protection than Potsdam. Also the level of civil society engagement is higher in Muenster. Thus, the hypothesis that cities with a higher level of civil society engagement also perform better in urban climate policy can be confirmed. However, Muenster performs just slightly better than Potsdam. Both cities have failed to meet their climate goals. A closer look to the local climate policy performance leads us to the final conclusion that cities should be more active in supporting and including citizens in their local climate policies in all areas of life – including lifestyle politics and political consumerism.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nuances of the consequences of greenwashing in the consumer and financial markets. Greenwashing is discussed frequently but in very abstract terms. Hence, a closer examination of the palpable consequences elucidates the ripple effects of this widespread phenomenon.

Focal points are the concept of green marketing, the stigmatization of corporations in the media and the regulatory consequences of greenwashing behaviour across consumer and financial markets. The two markets are paralleled in order to trace the novelties as well as the points of commonality in greenwashing.

The current consequences are an insufficient deterrence in both markets. The regulatory trend in both markets is leaning towards more stringent and punitive measures, which will likely affect the efficacy of the deterrence factor.

The influence on consumer perception is identified both as a motivating factor for greenwashing and as one of the most immediate elements which is negatively influenced by its exposition. In addition to the fact that greenwashing practices are common across the two markets, this paper identifies that a systemic deterioration of investor trusts significantly compromises the potential of sustainable finance and impacts investment in the financial market, mirrored in the negative consequences on consumer reactions to greenwashed products.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical position of the ethical consumer as a driver of change within the Fair Trade movement. Fair Trade was originally envisaged as a model of South-North trade; however, with Fair Trade labels now available to consumers in India, Brazil, South Africa and Kenya, the geographies of production and consumption appear increasingly fluid and dynamic.

Using a historical comparative case study approach this paper draws on the records and archives from eight leading Fair Trade organisations based in the UK.

The paper develops an exploratory framework based on an assessment of Fair Trade’s theory(ies) of change and the role of the ethical consumer as an agent of change. Four consumer narratives are identified: simpler living and moral action; co-operation and solidarity; consumer demand and choice; and citizen-consumers. The paper concludes by considering the implications for globalising the concept of the “citizen-consumer” and the (re)politicisation of Fair Trade consumption.

Primary data collection was mainly based on UK organisations. Additional comparative studies could develop an understanding of the context and geographies of Fair Trade practices.

New and emerging Fair Trade markets may offer valuable areas of further study.

Increased understanding of the drivers of social change may lead to improved decision-making by Fair Trade organisations and policy-makers.

The paper contributes to the development and understanding of Fair Trade’s theory of change model by offering an historical dimension that is absent from the majority of existing studies.

Through activism, brands participate in the sociopolitical controversies that shape society today. Based on social identity theory, this study aims to examine the moderating effects of consumer–brand identification (CBI) and political ideology in explaining consumer responses to brand activism. Furthermore, the role of perceived marginalization that can arise in the case of consumer–brand disagreement is explored.

The hypothesized effects were tested in three experiments. Study 1 (n = 262) and Study 2 (n = 322) used a moderation analysis, which was supplemented by a mixed design analysis with repeated measures in Study 1. In Study 3 (n = 383), the mediating effect of perceived marginalization by the brand was tested using a moderated mediation model.

The results show that strong CBI as well as a conservative ideology buffer the negative effects of consumer–brand disagreement on brand attitude and word-of-mouth intentions. In the case of agreement with a brand’s stance, no direct or interactive effects of brand activism on consumer responses occur. Perceived marginalization by a brand mediates the effects of brand activism.

This study extends the “love is blind” versus “love becomes hate” debate to the realm of brand activism and finds evidence for the former effect. It also contributes to the research on political consumption by highlighting the role of political ideology as an important boundary condition for brand activism. Perceived marginalization is identified as a relevant risk for activist brands.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the three types of ethical consumption (positive, negative and discursive) simultaneously in three different geographical areas, namely, Hebron (PL), Sofia (BG) and Thessaloniki (GR).

Personal interviews were conducted in the three cities during autumn 2016 with the use of a structured questionnaire. Large enough samples were selected with the one-stage area sampling. The sampling unit was one adult person of all households in each randomly selected city block.

The consumers of all cities were not found frequently engaged in any ethical consumption type. Demographic analysis revealed extensive differences across each one of the behaviours in each one of the cities. Attitudinal and psychographic analyses indicated that consumers, who are less ethically disinterested and more generous, were found to be more frequently engaged in ethical purchase in all the three cities. Evidence was found that less ethically disinterested and more generous consumers are more likely to get engaged in boycotting calls, in Hebron and in Thessaloniki. Less ethically disinterested consumers were also found more active in discursive activities in Sofia and Thessaloniki.

Certain amendments of the behavioural and attitudinal scales could be essential to ensure the same level of measurement accuracy in different geographical areas. Larger and more representative of the overall population samples are needed to facilitate the generalisation of the results. Examination of cultural and political perspectives might add to the understanding of consumers’ ethical consumption in different contexts.

Firms interested in adopting ethical strategies or consumer groups that would like to call a boycotting or a consumer activism campaign should address their communication strategies towards targets that are described by the results in regard to each geographical area.

This study added to the limited so far relevant knowledge about the simultaneous examination of the three types of the overall ethical consumption in three different cities; interesting differences and similarities were revealed.