Critical review of consumption in the 21st century. New ways to politicize citizenship?

Abstract

The latest studies on the forms of consumption in the 21st century identify a change in citizens' purchasing behavior. In particular, most of the studies coincide in the existence of a new culture of consumption and consumer action conceived as a political practice of an active citizenship, critical to consumerism and guided for responsible and sustainable consumption. This paper critically reviews this new consumption model that suggets a transformation in the consumer-citizenship status, to determine whether or not the consumption behavior in the 21st century is innovative and alternative to consumption, that is, capable of emancipating itself from the consumerist logic characteristic of economically globalized societies.