This special issue examines how conservative, populist, and reactionary consumer movements use consumption as a cultural and political practice. While progressive consumer movements have received substantial scholarly attention, conservative consumer movements remain understudied and often analyzed through frameworks of extremism or social danger. The editors seek contributions that adopt an emic approach, understanding these movements from participants' perspectives while maintaining critical analysis.
The issue welcomes interdisciplinary research exploring how conservative consumer practices construct political, religious, gendered, and national identities. Contributors are encouraged to distinguish analytically among conservatism, populism, reactionary politics, and related categories rather than treating them as interchangeable. Research should examine how markets, brands, platforms, and material practices shape these movements, what needs they express, what forms of belonging they create, and whether consumption can facilitate dialogue across ideological differences.