IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v98y2019icp65-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

YouTube utopianism: Social media profanation and the clicktivism of capitalist critique

Author

Listed:
  • Kozinets, Robert V.

Abstract

Utopia is a complex and resilient concept. This article extends theory relating utopia to consumer culture and social media. After identifying two main schools of utopian consumer research, termed metopianism and wetopianism, the article inquires how social media discourses of utopianism challenge capitalism and what these challenges suggest about contemporary consumer activism. Sites of utopian discourse on YouTube concerning Walt Disney's original EPCOT plans, Jacque Fresco's Venus Project, and Elon Musk's Silicon Valley vision of the future are sources of netnographic data. The findings first focus on various discourses comparing political and economic systems, environmental effects, technology, and the reflexive, playful, imaginative, emotional, and engaged aspects of utopianist messages. Next, findings reveal worshipful attitudes towards the three charismatic utopian entrepreneurs and their visions. Utopian discourse on social media is clicktivism, but it is also an important and relevant social phenomenon that reveals the spectrum of forms of online political participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Kozinets, Robert V., 2019. "YouTube utopianism: Social media profanation and the clicktivism of capitalist critique," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 65-81.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:98:y:2019:i:c:p:65-81
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296319300219
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.01.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pauline Maclaran & Stephen Brown, 2005. "The Center Cannot Hold: Consuming the Utopian Marketplace," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(2), pages 311-323, September.
    2. Hong, Soonkwan & Vicdan, Handan, 2016. "Re-imagining the utopian: Transformation of a sustainable lifestyle in ecovillages," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 120-136.
    3. Murray, Jeff B & Ozanne, Julie L, 1991. "The Critical Imagination: Emancipatory Interests in Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(2), pages 129-144, September.
    4. Nitin Agarwal & Merlyna Lim & Rolf Wigand, 2012. "Raising and Rising Voices in Social Media," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 4(3), pages 113-126, June.
    5. Robert V. Kozinets, 2008. "Technology/Ideology: How Ideological Fields Influence Consumers' Technology Narratives," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(6), pages 865-881, October.
    6. Kozinets, Robert V, 2002. "Can Consumers Escape the Market? Emancipatory Illuminations from Burning Man," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 29(1), pages 20-38, June.
    7. Burgos-Mascarell, Andrea & Ribeiro-Soriano, Domingo & Martínez-López, Miguel, 2016. "Dystopia deconstructed: Applying the triple helix model to a failed utopia," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(5), pages 1845-1850.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Silvia Biraghi & Rossella Chiara Gambetti & Angela Antonia Beccanulli, 2020. "Achieving cultural relevance in technomediated platforms: instant cultural branding and controversial clicktivism," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2020(2), pages 163-187, September.
    2. Simona Hašková & Petr Šuleř & Róbert Kuchár, 2023. "A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Evaluation System for Share Price Prediction: A Tesla Case Study," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-17, July.
    3. da Fonseca, André Luís A. & Campos, Roberta D., 2021. "The cultural intertwining of consumption and entrepreneurship: A selective review of qualitative studies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 149-162.
    4. Aleksandrina Atanasova, 2021. "Re-examining utopia in contemporary consumption: conceptualization and implications for marketing," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 23-39, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kozinets, Robert V., 2021. "Reprint: YouTube utopianism: Social media profanation and the clicktivism of capitalist critique," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 349-365.
    2. Hong, Soonkwan & Vicdan, Handan, 2016. "Re-imagining the utopian: Transformation of a sustainable lifestyle in ecovillages," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 120-136.
    3. Aleksandrina Atanasova, 2021. "Re-examining utopia in contemporary consumption: conceptualization and implications for marketing," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 23-39, June.
    4. Podoshen, Jeffrey S. & Venkatesh, Vivek & Wallin, Jason & Andrzejewski, Susan A. & Jin, Zheng, 2015. "Dystopian dark tourism: An exploratory examination," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 316-328.
    5. Bernd Schmitt & J Joško Brakus & Alessandro Biraglia, 2022. "Consumption Ideology [Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government]," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(1), pages 74-95.
    6. Sarah C. Grace, 2021. "The intermingling of meanings in marketing: semiology and phenomenology in consumer culture theory," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 70-80, June.
    7. Katja H Brunk & Markus Giesler & Benjamin J Hartmann & Darren DahlEditor & Craig ThompsonAssociate Editor, 2018. "Creating a Consumable Past: How Memory Making Shapes Marketization," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(6), pages 1325-1342.
    8. Podoshen, Jeffrey S. & Andrzejewski, Susan A. & Venkatesh, Vivek & Wallin, Jason, 2015. "New approaches to dark tourism inquiry: A response to Isaac," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 331-334.
    9. Jack Coffin & Andreas Chatzidakis, 2021. "The Möbius strip of market spatiality: mobilizing transdisciplinary dialogues between CCT and the marketing mainstream," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 40-59, June.
    10. Carmela Milano, 2015. "Democratization or else vulgarization of cultural capital? The role of social networks in theater’s audience behavior," Working Papers CEB 15-004, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Malik, Ashish & Mahadevan, Jasmin & Sharma, Piyush & Nguyen, Tuyet-Mai, 2021. "Masking, claiming and preventing innovation in cross-border B2B relationships: Neo-colonial frameworks of power in global IT industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 327-339.
    12. Frederik Plewnia & Edeltraud Guenther, 2017. "Advancing a sustainable sharing economy with interdisciplinary research [Der Beitrag interdisziplinärer Forschung zu einer nachhaltigen Sharing Economy]," NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum | Sustainability Management Forum, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 117-124, June.
    13. Carmela Milano & Sandra Rothenberger, 2018. "Democratization or Vulgarization - The Impact of Facebook on Cultural Capital," Post-Print CEB, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles, vol. 5(1), pages 129-144, February.
    14. Puccinelli, Nancy M. & Goodstein, Ronald C. & Grewal, Dhruv & Price, Robert & Raghubir, Priya & Stewart, David, 2009. "Customer Experience Management in Retailing: Understanding the Buying Process," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 15-30.
    15. Marie-Laure Baron & Claire Capo, 2017. "The Impact of Proximity on Resistance to Foreign Ventures: The Cases of India and Japan," Post-Print hal-01597629, HAL.
    16. Karin Brondino-Pompeo, 2021. "Mapping spheres of exchange: a multidimensional approach to commoditization and singularization," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 81-95, June.
    17. Nieves García-de-Frutos & José Manuel Ortega-Egea & Javier Martínez-del-Río, 2018. "Anti-consumption for Environmental Sustainability: Conceptualization, Review, and Multilevel Research Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 411-435, March.
    18. Gretchen Larsen & Stephanie Hussels, 2011. "The Significance of Commercial Music Festivals," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Nusser, Stefanie & Mahle, Irene & Pätzmann, Jens U., 2015. "How Social Commerce Communication can support Brand Loyalty: An Analysis of Nike‘s Efforts in Facebook Community Management," Markenbrand: Die Strategiequelle - Zeitschrift für Markenstrategie, Hochschule Neu-Ulm, Kompetenzzentrum Marketing & Branding, issue 4/2015, pages 48-57.
    20. Söderlund, Magnus & Sagfossen, Sofie, 2017. "The consumer experience: The impact of supplier effort and consumer effort on customer satisfaction," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 219-229.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:98:y:2019:i:c:p:65-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.