The consumer, politics and everyday life (original) (raw)
Related papers
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2013
This article investigates two possible explanations for willingness to engage in ethical consumption: increased status and improved information about the benefits of ethical consumption for producers and for nature. We approach our hypotheses through an experimental method in which people are asked, under varying conditions, to choose between fair trade and “conventional” coffee. Unexpectedly, status and information provision did not significantly affect consumption decisions. Implications of our findings for the ethical consumption literature and strategies aimed at increasing ethical consumption are discussed.
Ethical and political consumption: an integrated typology of practices
Qeios, 2023
Addressing the diversity of consumer practices requires perceiving and measuring ethical and political consumerism beyond acts of buycotting and boycotting. By viewing consumption as limited to 'purchasing' and 'shopping', the agency of the consumer is bound to certain rules and mechanisms of the market, raising questions on the degree of alternativeness of each practice. Arbitrarily ascribing a strictly 'noneconomic' motivation behind the 'ethical' and 'political' framings of consumption results in excluding private (economic) troubles from the public sphere (ignoring thus their political nature). This conceptual article presents a novel analytical tool that maps consumer practices according to two critical conditions within which practices are performed: monetary transaction and legality. An example of how the proposed typology can be applied in the lodging sector demonstrates the typology's ability to appreciate the diversity found in consumer practices, while also commenting on their degrees of alterity. Overall, the article calls for a reconsideration of the narrow repertoire of consumer action that is often associated with ethical and political consumerism, if we want to understand consumption as an "arena of politics" and a form of political participation in a more democratic manner (where every person gets to "vote").
Ethical consumption: Uncovering personal meanings and negotiation strategies
Geoforum, 2015
The purpose of this paper is to examine how individuals define ethical consumption (EC) and then how they negotiate ethical consumption as they move from one country to another. The authors explore these questions by reporting on and interpreting the evolution of their understanding of EC and their own ethical consumption behavior, the EC practices that have endured over time and national contexts, the tensions they encountered in maintaining EC practices in these transitions and the adaptive strategies they used to manage those tensions. While there has been research on the tensions faced by individuals practicing EC, there has been a paucity of research investigating those tensions from a crosscountry and longitudinal perspective. Moreover, although several studies have focused on EC purchase practices of specific goods (e.g., athletic shoes, fair-trade commodities), none has considered this question in the context of purchases of basic needs categories-food, water, energy, transportation and housing. Each of the three authors has been able to maintain his or her own personal consumption ethic in spite of living in different countries. Whenever consumption practices emanate from, and are imbedded within, a strong ethical framework of values that informs EC, each was able to make the necessary adjustments to overcome the obstacles and points of resistance across countries. Even in those situations involving considerable inconvenience and discomfort, each used adaptive strategies that allowed retention of their consumption practices. Among those strategies employed by the authors were choice of community in which to live, self-regulation and self-reliance.
2018
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Can We Quantify Ethical Consumption?: Reflections on a Decade- Long Exercise in Public Sociology
Humanity & Society, 2020
In order to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the evolving nature of public sociology, this article reflects on a public sociology research project a decade after presenting it as part of the keynote for the 2009 Annual Conference for the Association for Humanist Sociology. The Better World Shopper project focuses on quantifying 32 years of social and environmental responsibility data on 2,204 companies into numerical values that are then translated into A-F grades for the public through a regularly updated book, smartphone app, and website. Rooted in social movements theory and the growing literature on ethical consumerism, the methodology for the project is discussed in detail, including how data are weighted, updated, and an evaluation of how various biases are addressed throughout the analysis. The project is offered up as one example of how humanist sociology and public sociology can overlap in ways that can generate much needed conversations outside of academe.
The conscious consumer: taking a flexible approach to ethical behaviour
This paper considers the ethical purchasing of what is described as conscious consumers. Conscious consumers remain a 'work in progress', and present a complex mix of behaviours; while seeking ethical alternatives, other social and economic forces impact on their behaviour (e.g. family, convenience, price) such that positive ethical choices are not always made. Examining ethical consumption in this way reveals the 'competing priorities, paradoxical outcomes, and the nature of compromises reached in real decision processes'. We identify two areas of theory relevant to the conceptualization of such consumers, flexibility and dissonance theory. A qualitative study of participants identified as conscious consumers was undertaken. As anticipated, the participants revealed a range of often contradictory behaviours regarding their ethical purchases. The relevance of flexibility and dissonance theory to their behaviour is discussed.