Thesis

Contemplative consumer activism

Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2026
Thesis identifier
  • T17686
Person Identifier (Local)
  • 202177786
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • This thesis examines the role of contemplation in driving consumer activism. Grounded in the Consumer Culture Theory perspective, it integrates insights from research on consumer activism and consumer spirituality. Employing the Social Phenomenology method, it investigates how mindfulness-based contemplation is understood and enacted within activist contexts, and how it fosters change across personal and social domains. This thesis broadens the epistemological underpinnings of consumer activism research through the conceptualization of Contemplative Consumer Activism (CCA), defined as a form of everyday activism that entails consumers` reflective and empathetic engagement with socially conditioned and personally ingrained thoughts and conduct, fostering subtle and processual social change that originates at a deeply individual level and unfolds across intra-consumer, inter-consumer and systemic domains of marketplace interaction. In this sense, CCA represents an extension of conflictual, collective, competitive and immediate forms of conventional activism, by situating itself at the quieter and more mundane end of the activism spectrum.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Tsougkou, Eleni
  • Hamilton, Kathy
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2025

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