“What Else Can We Do?” An examination into sustained anti-authoritarian mobilization in Hong Kong’s Yellow Economic Circle

Abstract: Civil liberties and freedoms have diminished globally due to the last decades’ deepened authoritarianism. Concurrently, mobilizations countering this development have decreased. Hong Kong represents one of the cases where anti-authoritarian resistance has been sustained, which sparks a question regarding what motivates people in expanding authoritarian spaces to engage in contentious politics. This thesis aims to understand why people engage in contentious activities when it can implicate them under growing authoritarianism in Hong Kong. This study was conducted through semi-structured interviews with individuals participating in Hong Kong’s Yellow Economic Circle, a movement relying on strategies derived from political consumerism. Looking at the discourses, spaces, and practices which drive this mobilization, this thesis found that the movement’s decentralized aspect allows for individual agency through everyday activism. The perception of low risks related to the movement, along with the facilitation of social media, allows for broader dissemination of the movement. Moreover, the thesis found that democracy was the main discourse for individuals' initial engagement but not the main discourse behind sustained commitment. Instead, what drives individuals to participate in contentious political activities in Hong Kong's increasingly authoritarian setting is the continuity of a collective identity.