Our Work

This line of work began with the publication of a meta-analysis paper about the individual-level predictors of political consumerism (Copeland & Boulianne, 2022). This meta-analysis paper informed subsequent papers about the roles of digital media in political consumerism (Boulianne, Copeland, & Koc-Michalska, 2022), social media in political consumerism (Boulianne, 2022), as well as environmental concern in political consumerism and other forms of environmental activism (Boulianne & Ohme, 2022). We are continuing this line of research with a time series analysis of political consumerism in four countries, focusing on how the pandemic changed the nature of political consumerism (changing offline activities into online activities). We are supporting our survey-based work with an analysis of Twitter trace data to examine how the topics of boycott campaigns changed from January 2020 to December 2021.

The next round of survey work will examine how digital media are used to coordinate new forms of transnational participation in political life, including

• Who uses different social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and the extent to which they use these platforms to express their opinions, including their support for boycott campaigns, views about climate change, or opinions related to election campaigns?

• What motivates activism, such as boycotting? Is it environmental concern, labour issues, animal rights, etc.? Alternatively, is it distrust in institutions or online news/information (quality information versus misinformation)? Is it a belief that participation in boycotts/buycotts will be effective in influencing government (political efficacy) to regulate industry and businesses to change their practices?

• Are there differences (related to the above research questions) by country, over time (2019, 2021, 2023), and for youth vs. other age groups?