Playing on a moving pitch: foregrounding the impact of sociocultural contexts on social movements and brands

The actions of brands, consumers, and social movements are inextricably linked to the sociocultural context. However, researchers have often under-theorised the impact of sociocultural contexts on market actors. Following a systematic literature review and a longitudinal case study of the 2014 FIFA World Cup based on interviews with social movement leaders and archival data from traditional media and social media, we argue that sociocultural contexts are not always stable and may shape (i.e. provide social norms and ideologies for) and anchor (i.e. offer mobilisable resources for) the actions of social movements and brands. We establish the notions of Convergent Sociocultural Shaping and Convergent Sociocultural Anchoring - and their antitheses - to illustrate different scenarios in connection to the impact of sociocultural contexts on activism and brands.