The Politicization of Markets: Exploring the Interplay Between Politics and Markets

This text discusses the interplay between politics and markets in consumer research. It highlights two streams of research: one focusing on the depoliticizing effects of commercialism and the other on how consumer groups politicize brands for political resistance. However, the text argues that the way markets themselves are shaped by political discourses and conflicts, particularly neoliberal ones, remains understudied. The purpose of the special session described in the text is to explore this relationship, referred to as the politicization of markets. The session includes four studies that analyze different market systems and their institutional characteristics, as well as how market actors interpret and shape these systems. The studies examine topics such as the institutional shaping of the ethnic consumer subject, the emergence of retro brand markets, the export of Danish eldercare to China, and the role of political consumerism in neoliberal therapy. The session aims to unpack the politicization of markets at both macro and micro levels, and its implications for consumer actions and interpretations.