Description
Scholars of International Political Economy (IPE) have called for greater attention to the role of everyday actors in the constitution of the global economy. While the field has championed in-person methods for amplifying everyday actors, social media remains a relatively untapped resource. In this paper, I make a case using ‘netnography’ (Kozinets 2019) to uncover everyday economic belief. Unlike automated data collection approaches, netnography is immersive, seeking to capture cultural knowledge, shared meanings and the context of everyday life. I provide an overview of netnography, how it might be used in IPE, and what are some of the ethical considerations. To demonstrate its potential, I share findings of a netnography of the social media campaign to support the ‘Reopen the Economy’ movement, mobilising protests against stay-at-home orders during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. A surface reading of this movement might perceive ‘the economy’ to mean employment and small businesses. However, using netnography, it is possible to see that this concept represents an antagonism to social insurance, to differently racialised people and to non-citizens. I conclude that while there are limitations and ethical challenges, social media provides unparalleled access to everyday economic belief.
