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Anti-consumption as Tactical Resistance: Anarchists, Subculture, and Activist Strategy
Abstract
This article examines practices of anti-consumption deployed by anarchist activists as tactical actions within their overall projects of political and subcultural resistance. Drawing on existing literature on anti-consumers, my own interviews with anti-consumers, and analysis of materials that circulate in support of anti-consumption, I explore both the material and discursive effects of anti-consumption within a specific political subculture. I offer a typology of motivations for anti-consumption among activists, as well as a discussion of how overlaps and conflicts between various motivations complicate assessments of lifestyle-based resistance. I ultimately argue that the analysis I offer can prove helpful to political projects that utilize consumption-based tactics, in the construction and evaluation of effective activist strategies.
... Everyday practices of deconsumers encompass various activities that seem to ignore the dominant consumerist cult of novelty and fashion, as well as the inclination to discard older possessionsas discussed by Bauman (2011). Deconsumers partake in producing their own goods for personal use (Anantharaman, 2022;Mendonça et al., 2020;Hoelscher & Chatzidakis, 2020;Duda, 2020;Kala et al., 2017;Kraleva, 2017;Carfagna et al. 2014;Kramarczyk, 2015;Brombin, 2015;Wilczak, 2016;Papaoikonomou, 2013;Portwood-Stacer, 2012;Isenhour, 2012). They engage in repairing or repurposing pre-owned items (Hoelscher & Chatzidakis, 2020;Mendonça et al., 2020;Duda, 2020;Papaoikonomou et al., 2016;Wilczak, 2016;Majdecka, 2013;Papaoikonomou, 2013;Isenhour, 2012;Portwood-Stacer, 2012), and redistribute unused possessions through diverse platforms as well as exchange chains (Wilczak, 2016;Bly et al., 2015;Chatzidakis et al., 2012;Isenhour, 2012). ...
... Deconsumers partake in producing their own goods for personal use (Anantharaman, 2022;Mendonça et al., 2020;Hoelscher & Chatzidakis, 2020;Duda, 2020;Kala et al., 2017;Kraleva, 2017;Carfagna et al. 2014;Kramarczyk, 2015;Brombin, 2015;Wilczak, 2016;Papaoikonomou, 2013;Portwood-Stacer, 2012;Isenhour, 2012). They engage in repairing or repurposing pre-owned items (Hoelscher & Chatzidakis, 2020;Mendonça et al., 2020;Duda, 2020;Papaoikonomou et al., 2016;Wilczak, 2016;Majdecka, 2013;Papaoikonomou, 2013;Isenhour, 2012;Portwood-Stacer, 2012), and redistribute unused possessions through diverse platforms as well as exchange chains (Wilczak, 2016;Bly et al., 2015;Chatzidakis et al., 2012;Isenhour, 2012). Their shopping habits are restrained, characterised by enhanced reflection and consideration during decision-making processes, often requiring additional time and effort (Saraiva et al., 2020;Duda, 2020;Pelikán et al., 2017;Kraleva, 2017;Zalewska & Cobel-Tokarska, 2016;Kramarczyk, 2015;Isenhour, 2012). ...
... They use that which is available within the established order, without the necessity to escape it entirely. Evident illustrations include: the utilization of public transportation and bicycles (Anantharaman, 2022;Pelikán et al., 2017;Kraleva, 2017;Isenhour, 2012;Portwood-Stacer, 2012), propagation of deconsumption ideas and values through social media platforms (Mendonça et al., 2020;Przecherska, 2019;Wilczak, 2016;Zalewska & Cobel-Tokarska, 2016), andmost importantlythe resourceful practices of freegans capitalizing on urban waste abundance a lifestyle contingent entirely on the wastefulness of city dwellers (Pelska, 2022;Barnard, 2016). ...
The objective of this paper is to highlight the potential contributions of the post-critical perspective to social movement learning (SML). To achieve this aim, the study employs a thematic analysis of findings derived from a systematic literature review on deconsumption (an umbrella term understood as rejection of consumerism together with materialistic values prevalent in the Western consumer societies, encompassing movements such as voluntary simplicity, freeganism etc.). Identified themes are presented within the framework of post-critical pedagogy and analysed through its lens. This approach allows the researcher to demonstrate the implications and insights of the post-critical perspective in SML and adult education. This article argues that integrating the post-critical perspective into SML can yield a novel understanding of pertinent issues within this subfield. Such an application not only broadens the scope of adult education but also expands post-critical pedagogy itself.
... 6 "Their goal is to become an en lightended citizen-consumer. " (Micheletti 2002, S. 223) Ob damit wesentlich mehr impliziert ist als bloße ‚Lifestyle Politics' , müsste im Einzelfall geprüft werden (Bennett 1988;Shah et al. 2007;Cherrier et al. 2011;Newman/Bar tels 2011;Portwood-Stacer 2012;de Moor 2017; de Moor/Verhaegen 2020). 5 Vgl. ...
... Heutzutage ist dann naheliegenderweise von ‚Sustainable Lifestyles' die Rede (Gilg et al. 2005;Barr/Gilg 2006;Jackson 2008;Görgen 2020). Ein funktional äquivalentes Label lautet häufig auch ‚Lifestyle Poli tics' (Bennett 1988;Shah et al. 2007;Cherrier et al. 2011;Newman/Bartels 2011;Haenfler et al. 2012;Portwood-Stacer 2012; de Moor/Verhaegen 2020). "Lifestyle politics are essentially defined by their direct approach to social change. ...
... Die Vokabel kam somit wiederholt zum Einsatz. Ebenso ist der Bewegungsbegriff häufiger in Gebrauch, gleichsam wie eine Währung, teilweise sogar inflationär, ohne dass auch nur ansatz weise erkennbar wird, wann sich wer wie wo wirklich genau bewegt hat (Dameron 1941;Selter 1973;Straver 1977;Glickman 2001;Stürmer et al. 2003;Kozinets/Handelman 2004;Hilton 2005;Hol zer 2006;Clarke 2008;Balsinger 2010;Fontenelle 2010;Dubuisson-Quellier 2010Haenfler et al. 2012;Portwood-Stacer 2012;Wahlen/Laamanen 2015;Rössel/Schenk 2018;Diani 2019;Ziesemer et al. 2021). Hier fehlen oft empirische Daten, um die Rede von Mikro-, Meso-und sogar Makro mobilisierung hinreichend belegen zu können, so dass die Bezeichnung ‚Be wegung' bzw. ...
Ab wann wird Konsum politisch? Konsum ist per se unpolitisch. Diese Bewertung liegt zumindest nahe, leitet man die Genealogie des Wortes ‚Consumption' von der neoklassischen Wirt schaftstheorie her. Jedenfalls ist die originäre Provenienz von Konsum in erster Linie im Ökonomischen zu verorten, und insofern wäre Konsum per se apolitisch und primär ökonomisch. 1 Freilich kann jede Form von Konsum immer auch politisch beobachtet und sogar politisiert werden. Dies ist heutzutage mit jedem Sachverhalt möglich. Wir leben in einer funktional differenzierten Gesellschaft, die aus mehreren, mehr oder weniger autonom erscheinenden Funktionssystemen besteht, die jeweils eigene Kontexte repräsentieren. Polykontexturalität ist für uns gelebter Alltag, sonst gäbe es keinen Bedarf für unser aufwändiges Rollenmanagement, und von daher kann jedes soziale Ereignis, jede Form von Kommunikation polykontexturell beobachtet und gedeutet werden, sei es vom Operationsmodus des Erziehungs-, des Kunst-, des Medien-, des Medizin-, des Politik-, des Rechts-, des Religions-, des Sport-, des Wirtschafts oder des Wissenschaftssystems aus. Mithin auch Konsum, und sei es als politisch relevant (Holzer 2006). 2 Im höchst agilen Forschungsgebiet ‚Political Consumerism' hat sich nun eine Position etabliert, Konsum sei schon politisch, sobald Konsumen ten und Konsumentinnen ihren Konsum insgesamt (Erwerb, Nutzung und 1.
... Research demonstrates that tattooed individuals are directed by values that prompt these consumption practices (Kosut, 2006;Portwood-Stacer, 2012). Research also reveals that tattooed individuals are analogous to "sustainable fashion pioneers," or individuals who have overcome some of the inherent tensions between their hedonistic desires and sustainability concerns (e.g., by foregoing designer brands for sustainable fashion), and who have employed sustainable consumption behaviors (e.g., purchasing designer brands secondhand) (Bly, Gwozdz, & Reisch, 2015). ...
... These "sustainable fashion pioneers" exhibit anti-consumption patterns in subcultural shopping attitudes including a distrust of retailers' sustainability motives (e.g., large retailers moving into small markets may not be perceived as being conducive to local communities) (Cranfield, Henson, & Blandon, 2012), advocacy for reduced consumption, and rejection of mainstream fashion in favor of idiosyncratic styles (Bly et al., 2015). Acknowledging both abstinence from consumption and alternative genres of consumption as non-conformist practices (Portwood-Stacer, 2012;Venkatesh, Podoshen, Urbaniak, & Wallin, 2015), these anti-consumption practices embrace the concept of alternative hedonism. ...
... Previously, scholars argued that marginalized subcultures such as tattooed individuals tend to develop autonomous, internally focused economies and eschew capitalist engagement (Kosut, 2006;Littler, 2005;Portwood-Stacer, 2012;Venkatesh et al., 2015). Members of these subcultures opt for economic producer-consumer interactions that cultivate ritualistic, economic, and individualistic exchanges (e.g., an artist trading a tattoo for a haircut) (Kosut, 2006). ...
Alternative hedonism is an unconventional form of consumerism that offers a middle-ground consumption practice between sustainability and hedonism. Based on a review of the literature, we identified three major themes of alternative hedonism: seeking pleasure from consuming differently, civic responsibility, and voluntary simplicity. This study is designed to determine whether tattoo coverage (none, light, or heavy) and community type (urban, suburban, or rural) have main and interaction effects on alternative hedonism practices such as community engagement, green consumption, shopping small, and holistic wellness. We collected data via online survey from 168 lightly tattooed, 213 heavily tattooed, and 185 non-tattooed individuals. We discuss implications of our findings for both scholars and practitioners.
... Interestingly, questions of morality have typically been associated with women's drinking practices that breach social expectations of femininity and women's gender roles, most starkly during the British temperance movements when women's drinking was positioned as a threat to children's health and the success of the nation (McErlain, 2015). Indeed, Mel's sentiments suggest that historical connections between anti-consumption, morality, and motherhood remain (see also Portwood-Stacer, 2012). However, she subverted this discourse by using the term "immoral" to describe the practices of the alcohol industry, who market alcohol to women based on their role (and challenges) as mothers, when formerly immorality was ascribed to the woman who succumbed to drink. ...
... She questioned these "dominant goals," made her "invisible ideology visible," and suggested "an alternative" path: sobriety (Haenfler, 2004, p. 429). For Jo, sobriety has become a form of lifestyle activism through anti-consumption (Portwood-Stacer, 2012;Piacentini & Banister, 2009). Similar to the previous findings, Jo drew on vivid descriptions of tangible phenomena to assist in the articulation of her ideological position: plaques, mixers, and sales deals. ...
Alcohol is marketed to women as a glamorous and empowering reward for juggling the demands of work and family life. This essay explores the ways in which women who do not drink reject the feminization of alcohol and drinking practices and frame this rejection within discourses of feminist resistance. This essay draws on data collected as part of a mixed-method ethnographic research project that investigates women’s use of, and participation in, online sobriety communities. Findings suggest that women who lead or utilize online sobriety communities have considerable awareness of the feminized marketing of alcohol, and some express strong ideological opposition to it. The marketing of alcohol is positioned as a predatory force that takes advantage of women’s exhaustion as mothers and perpetuates the double standards associated with women’s drinking. Sobriety may prompt a feminist awakening regarding the connections between the feminization of alcohol and women’s inequality within society and, in turn, disrupt women’s identification with post-feminist cultural representations of women’s drinking practices. Through the public identification and critique of these marketing practices, women critically engage with feminism while raising consciousness and building a community of sober women.
... The greater the value of alpha, the more the scale is coherent and thus reliable (alpha is actually an approximation to the reliability coefficient). Some authors have proposed a critical value for alpha of 0.70, above which the researcher can be confident that the scale is reliable [41,42]. The reliability value of the instrument was 0.89 and the test was done for the research objective. ...
The purpose of the study was to examine teachers’ perception on repairing of clothes in Agona Kwanyako in the central region of Ghana. Quantitative research approach and Descriptive survey design were adopted for this study. The population of this study comprised teachers in the seven public Basic Schools, one Senior High School, two private Basic Schools and one Vocational and Technical School in Agona Kwanyako. Krejcie and Morgan chart was used to sample hundred and fifty-five (155) out of two hundred and sixty (260) teachers in Agona Kwanyako schools. The main instrument for data collection and analysis was questionnaire. All the questionnaires retrieved were prepared by sorting and coding. They were then entered into IBM SPSS Statistics 2017 version 25.0 for data to be analysed. The SPSS software was used to generate mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentages on the data because it is fast, energy saving and gives a consistent and accurate statistical representation of raw data. Findings were then discussed in relation to the research question for the study. Data were presented using tables and charts. The study indicated that the perception one holds about the repair of clothes affects how they view the act and their subsequent adaptation of the exercise. The perception teachers hold about clothes repair was that, clothes protect the environment, create employment and alleviate one from poverty, helps clothes stay trendy and can give one a sense of satisfaction. It can also be concluded that clothes that are normally used such as dresses, shirts and trousers are the types of clothes mostly repaired. Teachers have positive perception about clothes repair. Based on this it is recommended that Home Economics teachers should team up with other teachers to inculcate proper clothes care in their students. Also, clothes should be made in such a way that repairing is easier and possible based on the findings on the types of clothes that are mostly repaired.
... Consistent with the literature(Craig-Lees & Hill, 2002;Hutter & Hoffmann, 2013;Khan, 2017;Portwood-Stacer, 2012;Shaw & Moraes, 2009;Tilikidou, 2013;Tosun & Yanar Gürce, 2018), our findings suggest that ecological concerns trigger anti-consumption attitude and intention; however, our moderation analysis reports that the impact of ecological concerns on anti-consumption attitude and intention is stronger in developed countries than in developing countries. This suggests that environmentally conscious consumers in developed countries are more likely to avoid the consumption of non-environmentally friendly products and services. ...
Researchers have given considerable attention to investigate anti‐consumption behavior. However, empirical research tends to report somewhat erratic and inconsistent findings. Accordingly, the relationships between the antecedents, and the outcome variables of anti‐consumption behavior, such as consumer well‐being, remain unclear. Thus, to fill this void in the literature, this study integrates Attitude Behavior Context (ABC) theory and Well‐being theory into a meta‐analytic framework and synthesizes the extant literature on anti‐consumption to examine concrete relationships between the contextual and attitudinal variables, anti‐consumption behavior and consumer well‐being. The findings show that ecological concern, religiosity, mortality salience, and perceived behavioral control influence anti‐consumption attitudes and intention, whereas consumer well‐being is the outcome variable of anti‐consumption behavior. To investigate the possible reasons for the inconsistent findings, we performed a moderation analysis which suggests that country of study, product type, data collection period, research methods and sample type may cause inconsistencies in the findings. This meta‐analytic study contributes to the anti‐consumption literature. Practically, the findings provide guidelines to policymakers and societal organizations interested in promoting anti‐consumption.
... Late modern societies, with their extreme division of labour, have generally lost such practical expertise and self-sufficiency skills. In these respects, many downsizers try to again become do-it-yourself experts following older generations in terms of how to live in a more independent and selfsufficient way, as emphasised in previous literature (see Portwood-Stacer 2012;Carfagna et al. 2014; Hagbert/Bradley 2017; Osikominu/Bocken 2020). Interviewees described how they successively learnt new skills through their engagement and experiments, and that they even en-joyed the creativity involved in such learning practices and skill development (see also Armstrong et al. 2016;Kasser 2009Kasser , 2017. ...
Overconsumption habits and structures have a huge environmental impact. The article uses a qualitative interview study of environmentally conscious Swedish citizens undertaking a lifestyle transformation process to reduce their overall consumption in the context of mass consumption society. The purpose is to emphasise the importance of a transformative learning perspective to understand pathways and challenges for transforming towards less consumerist lifestyles. The study demonstrates five mutually bolstering aspects of learning experiences in this lifestyle transformation process: 1) factual and theoretical learning; 2) practical, corporal and tacit learning; 3) personal and emotional learning; 4) social relational learning; and 5) critical learning. It stresses the importance of a social dimension including the interplay of macro, meso and micro levels.
... Alternative ways of producing, exchanging and consuming are paving the way for the future in the present: experimentation with future-oriented politics firmly grounded in the here and now are increasingly discussed in studies of consumption under the moniker of prefiguration (e.g. Casey et al., 2020;Forno & Wahlen, 2022;Portwood-Stacer, 2012;Yates, 2015). Prefigurative experiments not only construct spaces for equitable, fulfilling and sustainable change in individual lifestyles but also enable communal organising that aligns mind-sets, practices, existing pools of resources and resource dependencies, and moral justifications locally and across regions. ...
Consumer collective action is commonly connected to individualised politics, market responsibility and local utopias. In this paper, we take an alternative point of departure and discuss the (emergence of) neo-materialist movement organisations (NMMOs) as mobilising prefigurative everyday politics in local organising and creating strategies toward alternative global futures. Our approach is threefold. First, we introduce the concept of neo-materialist movement organisations and, second, outline their organising in the everyday context and prefigurative commitments. Third, we explore different strategies of scaling toward alternative futures with particular focus on (controversial) institutional avenues. We contribute to the emerging literature on prefigurative politics in consumer movements by problematising the dominant approach to social change trapped in local inwardness. We further highlight the potential for systemic changes via local authorities, or what we call scaling through institutions.
... While companies within the hunting industry are concerned with reversing declines in populations of hunters and anglers and conserving hunting and angling culture (Larson et al., 2014;Quartuch et al., 2017;Ryan & Shaw, 2011;Schorr et al., 2014;Winkler & Warnke, 2013;Wszola et al., 2019), their utilization of strategies that reflect a neoliberal environmentality ultimately does not do much to address these concerns, because their discourses reinforce a homogenous and exclusionary view of hunting and angling as sports primarily practiced by white American men. However, as other scholars have noted, hunting and angling may hold potential for disentangling from globalized food systems through "anti-consumption" (see Portwood-Stacer, 2012;McGuigan, 2017) and shifting towards local food systems (e.g., Stedman et al., 2017), for reconnecting humans with nature (Peterson et al., 2010;Tickle, 2019), and for developing pro-environmental behaviors rooted in a sense of place (e.g., Larson et al., 2018;Love-Nichols, 2020). We therefore believe that the future of hunting and angling lies in a shift from neoliberal capitalist systems as well as in a redefinition of hunting and angling that moves away from its dominant narrative rooted in individualism, masculinity, and American nationalism. ...
Understanding dynamics around the neoliberalization of conservation is an important direction within current scholarly research. In this paper, we contribute to these discussions by examining how companies within the hunting industry engage in practices that are reflective of neoliberal environmentality. We conduct a Foucaul-dian discourse analysis of four companies' websites to interrogate what discourses of technology companies promote to hunters and anglers, how they mobilize these discourses, and how these discourses function to reproduce wildlife conservation-minded subjects and maintain particular beliefs, identities, and practices about both wildlife conservation and conservationists that uphold state conservation objectives. Through our discourse analysis, we find that companies within the hunting industry construct hunter/angler wildlife conservation-minded subjects by educating consumers, legitimizing trophy animals, using identity politics, positioning technology as a conservation(ist's) tool, and through wearing camouflage. Subsequently, we argue these companies present a view of wildlife conservation that problematically privileges neoliberal values, trophy animals, and exclusionary politics, illustrating how discourses of technology function to obscure such issues. Examinations of environmentality must therefore more explicitly consider discursive absences and other hidden aspects of conservation as well as potential consequences of failing to address oversights.
... Cao (2015, 2) argued that ecological politics can radically transform what it means to be a citizen in the 21 st century. The 21 st -century environmental movement is characterised by single-issue-oriented causes and lifestyle politics (Portwood-Stacer 2012). In this regard, it is relevant to study the individual and collective aspects of environmental citizenship. ...
The Fridays for Future (FFF) movement is a major climate movement on a global scale, calling for systemic change and demanding politicians act on their responsibilities. In this paper, we present and analyze original findings from a case study on the FFF movement in Finland, at a watershed moment for young climate activism. We explore the representations of young people’s environmental citizenship within the framings of the FFF movement, using an environ-mental citizenship framework analysis of the Finnish news media and Twitter discussions. We identified three frames within the media debate on the school strikes: the sustainable lifestyle frame, which focuses on the individual aspects of environmental citizenship, the active youth frame, which focuses on justifications of youth participation in politics, and the school attendance frame, which is concerned about the young people’s strike action. Our results explore the many aspects of environmental citizenship that young people express in the FFF movement. We reflect on the dominance of adult voices in the framing of this historic movement of young people for action on climate change. Our analysis contributes to a step change in the study of this important global movement, which is shaping the emergence of young people as active citizens in Finland and around the world. We argue that the FFF movement is shaping young people’s perceptions of active citizenship, and we advocate a youth-centred focus on the collective action and justice demands of young people.
... In a departure from this binary approach, Richardson (2015) argues that the sharing economy is simultaneously part of the capitalist economy and an alternative to it, since capitalism can no longer be understood as a monolith. This complex vision has the potential to reconcile the long-running search for 'cracks in the capitalist logic' (Zwick, 2015: 487) with the evidence that such alternative spaces are not entirely free from market logics (Penaloza and Price, 1993;Kozinets, 2002;Portwood-Stacer, 2012). In an attempt to better reflect the diversity and fluidity of the post-capitalist economy and challenge the dominant belief that the market is increasingly and inevitably encroaching into the few remaining spaces of everyday life untouched by its irresistible force, Williams and Nadin (2010: 57) propose a visual metaphor of a borderless continuum ranging from 'relatively market-oriented' to 'more non-market oriented' economic practices, which are 'not discrete but seamlessly entwined together'. ...
Although prosumption and the sharing economy are currently at the cutting edge of consumer culture research, little attempt has been made to explore the theoretical relationship between these concepts and approach them with a pluralistic, dynamic, nuanced and ethnographically informed lens moving beyond the dichotomies of capitalism versus anti-capitalism, rhetoric versus reality, exploitation versus empowerment and traditional versus digital consumer culture. This article addresses these gaps by focusing on the phenomenon of pay-per-minute cafes – physical spaces inspired by digital culture and meant to apply its principles in the brick-and-mortar servicescape. Drawing on a multi-site, multi-method case study of the world’s first pay-per-minute cafe franchise, the article shows a multitude of ways in which prosumption and the sharing economy, both shaped by different configurations of organisational culture, physical design, food offer and pricing policy, are conceived, interpreted and experienced by the firms and customers across the franchise and argues that conflicts and contradictions arising from this diversity cannot be reduced to the narrative of consumer exploitation. Finally, while both prosumption and the sharing economy are typically defined by the use of digital platforms, this article makes a case for a post-digital approach to consumer culture research, looking into the cultural impact of digital technology on traditional servicescapes.
Research on financial well-being not only employs objective measures such as income, but also utilizes a psychological approach to measure subjective well-being, which is beneficial for alleviating stress stemming from financial conditions, enhancing overall mental health, and augmenting individuals’ quality of life. This study devises a metric for financial well-being, incorporating variables such as religiosity, anti-consumption lifestyle, and financial behavior through a quantitative approach using Structural Equation Model. The research model is examined using LISREL 8.0 for data analysis drawn from a questionnaire administered to 256 Muslim respondents. The research findings revealed that good financial behavior is the main key to achieving better financial well-being, with support from an anti-consumerist lifestyle towards such financial behavior. Meanwhile, religiosity does not significantly influence financial behavior. While religiosity can have a direct positive effect on financial well-being, it does not do so through the mediation of financial behavior. An anti-consumption lifestyle itself does not directly affect financial well-being without the help of mediating supportive financial behavior. The practical implications of these research findings suggest that financial education programs should not only focus on the aspect of religiosity alone, but also be practical and applicable to all individuals regardless of their level of religiosity.
In the age of hyper-capitalism, globalization has allowed the rise of the halal product industry and its consciousness worldwide. Over a period of time, the preference of a majority of Muslim consumers for non-alcoholic or halal perfumes has increased providing a substantially growing segment of consumers in the market for companies to target. Despite this emerging trend, little research has been done to understand personal depositional factors such as the role of religiosity on consumer preferences in the perfumes industry. The present study investigates the relation between ethical self-identity (ESI) and purchase intention (PI) of consumers by analyzing the mediating role of attitude (ATT). Moreover, the moderating role of religiosity between ethical self-identity and purchase intention in the context of non-alcoholic perfumes was studied. Data was collected in 4 time lags from 220 consumers in Pakistan by using purposive sampling. The findings suggest that ethical self-identity influences the purchase intention of consumers if attitude toward non-alcoholic perfumes is positive and moderated by religiosity. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.
The study investigated the relation between ethical self identity and attitude with mediating role of attitude between ethical self identity and purchase intention in context of societal friendly products. Data was collected in 3 time lags from 220 societal conscious consumers of Pakistan who deliberately buy societal friendly products. The results indicate that ethical self identity of consumers predict attitude of consumers. The relation between ethical elf identity and purchase intention is also explained through attitude. Additionally, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control directly influence purchase intention. The findings suggest that ethical self identity influence purchase intention of consumers if attitude toward societal friendly product is positive. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are also discussed.
Alors que le mouvement animaliste se politise en Occident, il reste principalement compris comme un mouvement de promotion du véganisme. Cette vision s’écarte de la volonté d’émancipation animale dont se revendiquent les militants de la cause animale. C’est pourquoi, grâce à une enquête qualitative de trois années réalisée au sein du mouvement animaliste de France et de Belgique francophone, cet article s’est donné pour objectif d’investiguer le “paradoxe animaliste”, c’est-à-dire, le contraste existant entre centralité du véganisme pour le grand public et volonté d’émancipation animale portée par les militants animalistes. À cet égard, l’article présente le mouvement animaliste comme un mouvement social composé de deux cultures militantes au sens de Pleyers (2016), à savoir, la culture véganiste et la culture antispéciste. Il démontre que si la plupart des animalistes sont animés par un désir d’émancipation animale (antispécisme), nombre d’entre eux choisissent de s’inscrire dans une stratégie véganiste. Celle-ci repose sur l’idée que le véganisme est une porte d’entrée pertinente pour mener à une société antispéciste du fait qu’il fait écho à de nombreuses problématiques contemporaines. C’est donc parce que le véganisme représente une alternative solide à différentes crises des sociétés capitalistes modernes qu’il devient l’axe d’action privilégié par les militants de la cause animale. Dès lors, la centralité du véganisme se traduit par une surreprésentativité des véganistes au sein du mouvement animaliste, pourtant porté par des acteurs se revendiquant de l’antispécisme.
This article contributes to ongoing discussions about the practice of prefigurative politics by urban social movements, and the relationship between prefiguration and other political practices. We argue that urban social movements can deploy prefigurative power in combination with other political strategies with which it is often contrasted and opposed. To demonstrate, we explore Cape Town's Reclaim the City movement that occupied several inner‐city buildings to create affordable housing for low‐wage Black communities—prefiguring the kind of affordable housing that they were demanding. They developed this strategy iteratively after having tried to play by the rules through litigation and mobilize through protest. When those approaches failed to shift decision makers, they tried to prefigure their goal for housing through occupation. Prefiguration offered distinctive strategic advantages: it helped demonstrate that affordable housing was possible and provided direct relief for people facing housing stress. These advantages not only engaged new participants but contributed to new affordable housing commitments from the City of Cape Town and the courts. We show how movement participants understood their prefigurative occupation as part of a constellation of people power strategies and suggest that this points towards the potential for prefiguration to be deployed pragmatically as well as ideologically by urban social movements.
As consumers and activist organisations press for greater transparency about fashion’s social and environmental impacts and new legislation comes into force requiring accurate environmental, social and governance reporting, fashion businesses are called upon to generate, validate and act on data relating to their sustainability business operations. Responsible business certifications, for example B Corp, require fashion businesses to report across the areas of environment, workers, customers, community and governance. Thus reliable and accessible data is the cornerstone to a transparent global fashion industry and is one of the most important tools for driving transformative change. As Fashion Revolution says: “transparency is foundational to achieving systemic change in the global fashion industry… When brands publicly disclose information, it allows anyone to scrutinise their policies, hold them accountable for their claims and advocate for positive change” (FTI, 2021).
The jobs of tomorrow require ‘fluency in sustainability issues and climate science fields’ (Microsoft, 2022). In the era of big data, data literacy has become even more vital for those professionals whose work is reliant on accurate interpretations and projections informed by data and those who design data collection and management systems (Cai & Zhu, 2015; Koltay, 2016). Within fashion the number of roles requiring facility with sustainability has increased massively. But integrating responsible business theory and sustainability literacies into engaging teaching and learning experiences remains a challenge in the shifting landscape of sustainable fashion. For those who are working in industry there is a pressing need to upskill and gain knowledge not only about social and environmental impact but also the most effective ways to ameliorate negative impacts and promote positive impacts. Furthermore, fashion activists and policy makers require accurate, reliable and accessible empirical data at local, regional, national and international levels against which to benchmark fashion industry actions.
Whilst the scope and scale of the global fashion industry makes measuring sustainability and impact efforts challenging there is growing pressure from various stakeholders to provide just this information. But many fashion business professionals find themselves at a loss amidst a sea of information, misinformation, myths and greenwash. It is against this backdrop that Glasgow Caledonian University, the University for the Common Good initiated an innovative and unprecedented partnership between academics, industry and fashion activists.
This paper shares the motivations, intentions, operations and outcomes of the first Data for Sustainable Fashion Certificate course developed by Glasgow Caledonian New York College (GCNYC) and Fashion Revolution USA bringing sustainability experts across academia, activism and industry together and which first ran as an online synchronous delivery in Winter 2022. The paper explores how the team co-designed a 3-part course to deliver impactful, interactive sessions for current fashion professionals working in a variety of functions across Europe, Asia and North America. Our collaborative classroom provided a rich and vibrant space a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) within which sustainable fashion advocates could investigate and interrogate the sustainable fashion landscape, developing data literacy and understandings as to data’s use in supporting policy development as well as designing powerful internal and external data-rich communications that can help move the needle on sustainability in their own areas of work.
2023 was the ten-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza industrial homicide which led to the founding of Fashion Revolution. Since 2017, Fashion Revolution has published the Fashion Transparency Index (FTI) ranking the world’s biggest fashion brands on their ‘public disclosure of human rights and environmental policies, practices and impacts, in their operations and supply chains’. The 2022 FTI scored 250 businesses, in 246 categories across five weighted areas: Policies and Commitments, Governance, Traceability, Know Show & Fix and Spotlight Issues (Fashion Revolution, 2022). 2023 also sees the clock ticking towards the 2030 deadline set by the United Nations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (UN). Fashion relates to several of the Goals, primarily SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 5 (gender), SDG 8 (decent work), SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) and SDG (climate action).
Sustainability expands the need for different data since beneath each of the SDGs sits a number of targets requiring collection and collation of data. As such frameworks such as the Fashion Transparency Index provide an invaluable resource reflecting the multitude of impacts generated by the world’s largest fashion brands. By allowing students to explore the variety of data sources and their various methodologies, including those of the FTI, we can empower our students and fashion professionals to lead the necessary changes we individually and collectively wish to see in the fashion industry. The authors invited students to write reflective pieces which highlight the transformational impact of engaging with the course. These and testimonials will be presented and discussed during the presentation as well as the key takeaways from the partners who developed this innovative executive education course, including how to build effective partnerships between academia, industry and activist organisations as well as the circular relationship between data and policy. The approach taken can provide a roadmap for other educators seeking to implement change in their teaching of sustainable fashion.
The way consumers consume goods has changed due to growing awareness of both unethical marketing techniques and the detrimental effects of those practices on society and the environment. Depending on their level of empowerment, their personality, and the market they are in, consumers may adopt different personas and have many identities. Today, consumption is perceived as a reflection of one’s political and moral views in addition to just being an act of buying and selling. Different forms and methods of consumer activism are examined. Then, we make a distinction between various forms of consumer resistance. The chapter also discusses the rising acceptance of alternative consumption among modern consumers.
Tüketim kavramı yıllar içerisinde bir anlam genişlemesi yaşayarak temel ihtiyaçların karşılanmasından bir kimlik oluşturma aracı ve sosyal statü göstergesi olma özelliğine kavuşmuştur. 19.yy’da Veblen, yaşanan bu genişlemeyi güç olgusu üzerinden artık fiziksel veya yönetim becerisinin değil sahip olunan maddi varlığın önemli olduğuna işaret ederek açıklamaktadır. Ancak kavramdaki bu anlam genişlemesinin toplumun varlıklı kesiminin tekelinden çıkarak toplumun tabanına yayılması üretim teknolojilerindeki gelişme sayesinde olmuştur. Teknolojik gelişmelerin bir sonucu olarak üretimin artmasıyla arzın talebi geçmesi sorununa gelir arttırıcı politikalar, kalite ve psikolojik eskime gibi çeşitli yöntemler geliştirilerek tüketim arttırılmaya çalışılmıştır. Bu çabalar ise tüketim kültürünün oluşmasına yol açmıştır. Günümüzde uç noktalarda yaşanan tüketim kültürüne karşı bilinçlenen tüketicilerden çeşitli tepkilerin verildiği görülmektedir. Bu tepkilerden biri literatürde tüketim karşıtlığı olarak adlandırılmaktadır. Çıkar gruplarının sermaye ve kâr elde etmeyi insandan ve onun parçası olduğu doğadan üstün görmesi bu tüketici grubunu rahatsız etmektedir. Bu kapsamda tüketmeme, tüketimi azaltma ve doğa dostu işletmelerin ürünlerini tercih etme gibi pratikler geliştirilmiştir. Bir alt kültür olarak otoriteye karşı olan ve insan özgürlüğünü ön planda tutan anarşist tutum gösteren tüketicilerin tüketim davranışları incelendiğinde bu davranışların tüketim karşıtlığıyla paralel olduğu gözlemlenmektedir. Anarşist tutum gösteren tüketicilerin tüketim karşıtlığı çerçevesinde tüketim davranışlarını incelemeyi amaçlayan bu çalışmanın iki bölümü bulunmaktadır. İlk bölümde tüketim kavramının gelişimi, tüketim toplumu ve kültürünün oluşumu ile sürdürülmesindeki motivasyonlar ve tüm bunların sonucunda oluşan tüketim karşıtlığı kavramı, ortaya çıkış sebebi, motivasyonları ve türleri sunulmuştur. İkinci bölümde ise anarşizm ile tüketim karşıtlığı motivasyonları arasındaki ilişki ve nihayetinde anarşistlerin tüketim karşıtı davranışları incelenmiştir.
The indicators of the increasing popularity of organic food products, such as the rapid growth of the amount of land under cultivation of organic products and the continuous growth in the consumption demand of these products, are increasing. This research was conducted with the aim of analyzing the factors affecting the behavioral intention of organic products technology from the point of view of agricultural experts. The statistical population of this research is the experts of East Azerbaijan Agricultural Jihad Organization (N=837). For this statistical population, a sample size of 310 was determined using the Karjesi and Morgan table and they were studied randomly. The main tool of data collection in this research was a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis. Based on the field data, there was enough evidence to confirm the significant effect of "knowledge of organic products", "perceived usefulness" and "perceived risk" on "attitude towards organic products". Also, the significant effect of "social justice", "attitude towards organic products" and "perceived ease of use" variables on "behavioral intention of organic products technology" was confirmed. Based on the results, more financial support from the government, holding specialized training courses, specialized seminars and targeted debates (especially with GM agriculture experts), creating the necessary platform for experts to receive training courses abroad and forming a committee that It is proposed to integrate the three departments of research, education and promotion (TAT).
Broadly, consumerism can be considered as a set of beliefs and values integrated into, but not exclusive to, the global market system, intended to make people believe that happiness is best achieved through possessions. In literature there are several other definitions of consumerism, consumption, anti-consumption and consumption communities. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to (i) present an overview of the research concepts, models and main theories of this topic, based on a systematic literature review and using the following databases to search information: Elsevier, Emerald, Science Direct, EBSCO, Springer, and ISI web knowledge; (ii) formulate a framework of consumption waves and anti-consumption motivations and types (iii) discuss consumption and anti-consumerism in football (soccer) context. The current study also carried out semi-structured interviews with 15 football fans with an average duration of 60 minutes each. Findings revealed four main types of anti-consumption: Global impact consumers or anti-consumption society; Selective consumption or anti-loyalists market activists; Conservative or Simplifiers; and Rejection of brand hegemony. Football fans are avid consumers of many products, such as information, knowledge, travels, tickets to matches, and diverse merchandizing from brands that sponsor the team and the club. Nevertheless, they are also selective consumers, rejecting everything connected to the rival clubs. Finally, the chapter provides insights for further research and managerial implications. In this vein, this chapter contributes to the existing literature giving insights for a better understanding of football clubs and fans as consumers and anti-consumers.
This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the current status of scientific production about anti-consumption through an integrative literature review that identifies international and national studies published in highly relevant journals. The method applied was proposed by Botelho, Cunha & Macedo (2011). A total of 101 papers published between 2011 and 2021 were selected at the end of the analyses. The objectives were to identify the main conceptual definition used in studies on this topic, the target audience, the level of analysis and arguments for anti-consumption, the most applied research method, and the scope of this research. Furthermore, this paper attempts to highlight the main criticism of this theory raised by the scholars in this field, clarify possibilities for future research and introduce a new theoretical model that summarizes how the anti-consumption phenomenon takes place in different contexts/situations according to the findings on the studies analyzed by this integrative review. Hopefully, this paper can contribute to advancing and developing this field at the theoretical and practical levels by setting a research agenda.
En el campo de estudio de los movimientos sociales, hay una importante laguna en las investigaciones en la construcción de futuros alternativos. El presente artículo presenta una propuesta de análisis usando el enfoque de la prefiguración política y la dimensión emocional del activismo de base como variable explicativa. El análisis de la dimensión emocional permite distinguir y por lo tanto comprender sus impactos, entre prácticas estratégicas y prácticas prefigurativas. Esto da lugar a que en el activismo prefigurativo las prácticas políticas como la autogestión, el hazlo-tú-mismo, la autoformación, el veganismo, entre otras, se vinculen directamente, a través de una serie de emociones, a futuros alternativos caracterizados por el anticapitalismo, el conocimiento compartido, la democracia directa, el antiespecismo, el antipatriarcado, entre otros.
This study rests at the intersection of technopolitics, translocal networks and political change. The overall aim of the thesis is to understand, and in turn, influence, the way technology interacts with political transformation. It responds to the fact that social science has thus far neglected to adequately account for and analyze how emerging technologies like blockchain and civic tech influence the way politics is practiced. The main research question guiding the study is how does the design, implementation and use of technopolitical innovations influence the practice of politics. The thesis foregrounds the idea that technopolitical experiments personify a ‘prefigurative politics by design’ i.e. they embody the politics and power structures they want to enable in society.
Conducted as part of the EU-funded SUSPLACE project that explores the transformative capacity of sustainable place-shaping practices, the research was predominantly inspired by a hybrid digital ethnography methodology. The thesis confines its focus to three empirical clusters: technopolitical blockchain projects, government-led blockchain projects and place-based civic engagement technologies. The study delineates how differing politico-social imaginaries play a role in the design and implementation of technopolitical projects; addresses contemporary post-political phenomena such as the depoliticization of agency; and identifies the activation of a place-based geography of political action through digitally-mediated municipal networks. It articulates the language and frameworks necessary to analyze these present-day challenges, while simultaneously developing approaches that can be exported to different domains of political activism.
Technology is not neutral; but neither are its designers and users. The thesis finds that it is through considerable, deliberate efforts, in conjunction with individual and collective choices, that technopolitical innovations can reframe our socio-economic and political realities. The study demonstrates the emphatic and urgent need for researchers, practitioners, politicians and citizens to collaboratively work on redrawing boundaries of access, empowering the citizenry, creating new forms of organization and re-politicizing the economy. It outlines a transdisciplinary research and practice agenda that aims at not only (de)coding the existing technopolitical innovations, but also (re)coding them to create a more equitable system of politics. The thesis concludes that since coding affordances and constraints in a technopolitical system is shown to regulate political agency and even influence the behavior of citizens, we must devise value-driven technology that incentivizes creating a more equitable political system.
Indicators of the increasing popularity of organic food products, such as the rapid growth of the amount of land under cultivation of organic products and growth
The demand for these products is constantly increasing. This research aims to analyze the factors affecting the behavioral intention of technology
Organic products were made from the point of view of agricultural experts. The statistical population of this research is the experts of Jihad Keshavarzi organization
were from East Azarbaijan (N=837) for this statistical population, the sample size of 310 people was determined using the Karjesi and Morgan table and
They were studied randomly, and to collect data, they used a questionnaire and to analyze the data, they used a modeling technique
Structural equations were used. Based on field data, there is enough evidence to confirm the significant effect of "knowledge of organic products".
There was "perceived usefulness" and "perceived risk" on "attitude towards organic products". Also significant effect
The variables of "social justice", "attitude towards organic products" and "perceived ease of use" on "behavioral intention of technology"
"Organic products" were approved. Based on the results, more financial support from the government, holding training courses
specialization, specialized seminars and targeted debates (especially with GM agriculture experts), creating the necessary platform in the direction of
Having experts from training courses abroad and forming committees that include the three departments of research, education and promotion (TAT).
It is suggested to merge it.
The debate in this research paper is that the sustainability concept doesn’t always have to be sold to a customer with the help of environment and the green credentials. Rather the motivating the consumers by environmental concerns of sustainability, the same should be done in a way that it relates to the act of the consumer’s practical daily life and thus enhances the anti-consumption for sustainability. This paper does a conceptual study of the motivation for anti-consumption for fashion brands. The paper list the various motivations of a consumer where the consumers rationality of price, happiness from the product, dissonance with purchase, efficient use of resources, self interest, product mismatch, identity avoidance, socializing through sharing, and cultural myth. The paper aims at building a conceptual model with these factors of motivation o for anti-consumption in contrast to the usual environmental and non-moral science factors.
Disconnection and avoidance have been theorized various ways, e.g., by analyzing communicative and non-communicative affordances of devices and platforms; categorizing tactics and patterns of non-use; and through analogy with historical ways of seeking solitude and resisting technologies. This article, however, treats history not only as a source of analogies for momentary disconnections, but also as a timescale on which to understand slower undercurrents of resistance. I define “strategic illiteracies” as: purposeful, committed refusals to learn expected communication and technology skills, not only as individual people in specific moments, but also in communities over time. This concept connects technology refusal to historical lineages of resistance to linguistic and orthographic imperialism, analyzing examples including the Greek alphabet in antiquity, Chinese characters in Asia, and the Latin alphabet through European colonization. This new framework and genealogy of avoidance and technology refusal elucidates ways forward, slowly, for successive generations to reclaim their communicative futures.
Counterculture movements in the 1960s and 70s dramatically reorganized the role of bodies within social frameworks and saw the internalization of political issues, both figuratively and literally. The political became the personal and quotidian moments of consumption became sites of resistance. As Warren Belasco suggests, in reference to the radical food movements that saw the expulsion of "Wonderbread" and the resurgence of home-cooked holistic foods, "[d]ietary radicalism could be lived 365 days a year, three times a day. If, as Leftists knew, the personal was political, what could be more personal than eating? And what could be more political than challenging America's largest industry, the food business?" (227). Food provides a dynamic vessel for engaging with politics and capital at both the gastronomical level (what we choose to put into our bodies) and the social level (how we arrange our bodies collectively and individually). The kneading, baking, and consumption of bread, for example, provide precious, intimate moments for expressing agency and resistance to systems of power. Belasco saw this...Find full text in .pdf below.
Following the recent #GameStop ‘market disruption’ where r/wallstreetbets ‘rogue’ traders were able to momentarily topple billion dollar hedge funds, we employ Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘war machine’ concept in order to comment on the potential of consumer resistance when matched up against global financial markets. While most extant theory follows the Foucauldian tradition in asserting that consumer resistance is a reaction to power, we use Deleuze and Guattari’s immanent theorisation of desire to make the case for thinking of resistance as primary. Far from a hagiography of affective affirmation, our immanent perspective draws attention to how state and corporate forms are readily able to co-opt consumer resistance. Ultimately, we make the case for reorienting consumer resistance research away from seeking out ruptures and breaks in stable structures of power to asking a more difficult question: how can resistance be organised to avoid capture?
This paper discusses how a consumer social movement employs prefigurative practices to resist a dominant market logic and drive market changes in the here and now. We based our research on one year of ethnographic fieldwork with vegetarian and animal welfare activists embedded in a cultural milieu that predominantly supports the consumption of animal products. We used the storytelling method for the description and data analysis. Our findings reveal that activists challenge the market logic of animal abuse in three ways. First, they work to revolutionise the so-called meat culture. Second, they pro-actively demand laws that protect animal rights. Third, they establish singular modes of community-based exchange that detach themselves from the doxa of the consumption of animal products. By opposing the mainstream culture, the mainstream policy and the mainstream marketplace, these activists develop influential arenas of consumption that resemble their ideal world and impact the market as a whole.
Purpose
This study aims to predict ethical self-identity’s effect on consumer buying behavior of biodegradable bags. Moreover, a moderated mediation model is tested by analyzing the mediating role of attitude and the moderating role of religiosity to investigate buying behavior. Few studies have been conducted to explore moderated mediation to predict consumer behavior based on belief congruence and planned behavior theories, according to previous literature, indicating a literature gap in consumer behavior studies. Accordingly, the moderating role of religiosity in the relationship between ethical self-identity and purchase intention in the context of biodegradable bags was used to contribute to the consumer behavior literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The population of the study included literate consumers who are aware of biodegradable bags and keen to buy them. The data were collected from consumers of twin cities (Rawalpindi/Islamabad) via purposive sampling. The data were collected from 310 consumers five-time lags.
Findings
The findings suggest that ethical self-identity influences the buying behavior of consumers toward biodegradable bags. In this study, the theory of planned behavior provides greater implications to predict consumer buying behavior because the subjective norm, perceived behavioral control and attitude were found to have a significant influence on purchase intention, which further predicts the actual consumer behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The study’s sample was limited to one geographical area and the sample was limited to only biodegradable bags. Future studies may go for a cross-comparison of industries or multiple environment-friendly products to enhance the generalizability of the research.
Practical implications
This study provides useful insights to the companies of consumer-based brands to use eco-friendly practices from production to packaging and consumption. Environment-friendly consumers are ready to pay a premium price for environment-friendly products, which encourages decision-makers companies to cater to this niche market. Moreover, companies can focus on factors that influence their decision-making, such as ethical and moral values of responsibility, while planning their advertising strategies. Furthermore, the positioning of the environmental or consumer personal care products should be done by considering the personal disposition factors because they reinforce the actual behavior of employees.
Social implications
For researchers, this research opens new avenues for predicting consumers’ buying behavior by applying the theory of planned behavior in the plastic bag industry. This study provides useful insights to the companies of consumer-based brands to use eco-friendly practices from production to packaging and consumption.
Originality/value
The proclivity to buy biodegradable bags increased over time, providing opportunities to the companies to offer environmentally friendly products to an increasing number of customers. However, personal deposition factors, such as religiosity and consumer views, are less well understood in terms of predicting actual behavior. Few studies have been conducted to explore moderated mediation to predict consumer behavior based on belief congruence and planned behavior theories, according to previous literature, indicating a literature gap in consumer behavior studies.
Increasing numbers of people in welfare societies express worries about their ecological footprint. Some make efforts to significantly reduce their consumption. Because people have been socialized into a society of mass/excess consumption, there are great challenges. How can someone learn to downsize when society incessantly compels her to continue with mass consumption habits? This article demonstrates, theoretically and empirically, how social relations, within a societal context of mass consumption, shape the conditions for transforming lifestyles to reduce consumption. It contributes to sociology as well as a growing interdisciplinary literature on reduced consumption by focusing specifically on challenges related to social relations. The study uses a qualitative approach and an interview study of 24 people in Sweden making significant efforts to reduce their consumption. Findings – both perceived challenges and creative ways of coping with them – are related to four analytical themes: (1) the intersection of everyday rituals and consumption; (2) the norms and normality of mass consumption; (3) social comparison and status consumption; and (4) social and community support for reducing consumption.
In January 2020, an employment tribunal in the United Kingdom decided that ethical veganism qualified for protection from discrimination as a philosophical belief under the UK’s Equality Act 2010. This article explores the reasoning behind this judgement, as presented in the preliminary hearing decision for Mr J Casamitjana Costa v The League Against Cruel Sports, to argue that ethical veganism in this context can be conceptualized as a form of nonreligion. This article uses a relational theory of nonreligion to demonstrate how ethical veganism in this case is constructed to be distinct from religious belief while also being conceptually entangled with religion. It contributes to emergent scholarship on nonreligion, and veganism and (non)religion, by demonstrating how a relational framework allows connections among these phenomena to be articulated and explored with greater depth. In addition, this article considers the diversity of ethical veganism as an identity and practice in relation to its legal construction as a philosophical belief. Attention is paid to the ways in which veganism as lived can intersect with religion, nonreligion and areligion.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the conditions in which consumer wisdom emerges. Based on some theories of dynamic moral and needs development, the authors have designed a first model of consumer wisdom development process, taking consumption satiation (as a new concept) and self-transcendence as its possible antecedents.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted that collected 800 responses from 2 European countries with different levels of maturity with regard to consumption: France and Poland.
Findings
The authors find that consumption satiation is positively and significantly correlated with self-transcendence. Self-transcendence is positively and significantly correlated with consumer wisdom. Age seems to be partly operating as a moderating variable.
Research limitations/implications
The findings confirm that the occurrence of consumer wisdom may be partly explained by a dynamic process based on previous consumption experiences, resulting in a certain level of consumption satiation and the concomitant development of self-transcendence needs.
Practical implications
Government bodies, consumer advocacy groups and possibly corporate actors in Europe could promote consumer wisdom not only as an idealistic and benevolent attitude but as a true sign of maturity, personal accomplishment, well-being and success.
Originality/value
This research work studies new antecedents of emerging consumer wisdom, outside personal values and socio-demographics. The authors define and identify “consumption satiation” as one promising stage in the development process of wise, responsible consumer attitudes and behaviors.
At the present time, although the productivity and sustainability of many environmental protection technologies, such as organic technology, have been widely demonstrated, many farmers are still unaware of these technologies and the reason of it, is that such technologies require the replacement of management skills, knowledge and local manpower with foreign inputs. In this regard, the purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of agricultural extension and education system in the form of educational-extension methods on the development of organic agriculture in agricultural cooperatives. The statistical population consisted of the members of active and passive agricultural cooperatives in Shabestar township in 2019. This study is In terms of paradigm, quantitative; In terms of purpose, practical; In terms of data collection, survey and in terms of the relationship between variables, it is a type of descriptive-correlation researches. Structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis. According to field data, there was sufficient evidence to support the significant impact of "scientific visits" and "training sessions" on "organic technology behavior". Also, the significant effect of the variables of "personal contact" and "knowledge of organic technology" on "attitude to organic technology" was confirmed. Based on the results, the following recommendations are proposed: the establishment of R&D center and national organic database, Orientation to farmers' thoughts for more communication with extension agents, leading farmers and experts, and culture building on how to use of messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp and Instagram) and mobile text messages.
Activist brands commonly engage in controversies to redefine which opinions and ideas are acceptable to express publicly. We conceptualize this practice as free speech boundary work, that is, negotiating the social norms defining which opinions and ideas are acceptable to express publicly. Thus, how can activist brands negotiate the boundaries of free speech to authenticate their activist positioning? By conducting a comparative case study of 18 activist brands, we identify three controversial strategies –creating monstrous hybrids, challenging the establishment, and demonstrating exemplarity– each of them challenging the boundaries of free speech through a distinct mechanism. The results show that whether these strategies authenticate brands’ activism depends on their ability to communicate brands’ moral competency, defined in terms of moral sensitivity, moral vision, and moral integration. This research contributes to the literature on brand activism by proposing an integrative framework that articulates the mechanisms underlying the reformative power of controversial brand activism. Second, we contribute to the literature on brand activism authentication by introducing a competency-oriented view that reveals the heterogeneous and multidimensional nature of activism authenticity and expends our conception of the spectrum of moral territories with which activist brands can engage.
Consumer research has focused on the various resources and tactics that help movements achieve a range of institutional and marketplace changes. Yet, little attention has been paid to the persistence of movement solidarity, in particular its regeneration, despite a range of threats to it. Our research unpacks mechanisms that help consumer movement solidarity to overcome threats. Drawing on a six-year ethnographic study of consumer movements in Exarcheia, a neighborhood in central Athens, Greece, we find that consumer movement solidarity persists despite a cataclysmic economic crisis that undermines their prevalent ideology and the emotional fatigue that is common in such movements. Three key mechanisms serve to overcome these threats: performative staging of collectivism, temporal tactics, and the emplacement of counter-sites. Overall, our study contributes to consumer research by illuminating how threats to solidarity are overcome by specific internal mechanisms that enable the regeneration of consumer movement solidarity.
In Great Britain, “religion or belief” is one of nine “protected characteristics” under the Equality Act 2010, which protects citizens from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. This paper begins with a discussion about a 2020 ruling, “Jordi Casamitjana vs. LACS”, which concluded that ethical vegans are entitled to similar legal protections in British workplaces as those who hold philosophical religious beliefs. While not all vegans hold a philosophical belief to the same extent as Casamitjana, the ruling is significant and will be of interest to scholars investigating non-religious ethical beliefs. To explore this, we have analysed a sample of YouTube videos on the theme of “my vegan story”, showing how vloggers circulate narratives about ethical veganism and the process of their conversion to vegan beliefs and practices. The story format can be understood as what Abby Day has described as a performative “belief narrative”, offering a greater opportunity to understand research participants’ beliefs and related identities than, for example, findings from a closed-question survey. We suggest that through performative acts, YouTubers create “ethical beliefs” through the social, mediatised, transformative, performative and relational practice of their digital content. In doing so, we incorporate a digital perspective to enrich academic discussions of non-religious beliefs.
This study examines how roller derby players and representations of players rely on surface levels of third wave feminism through their costuming and naming.
Previous consumer research on waste has prioritized disposable and low-involvement possessions. The authors extend scholarship into the context of obsolete buildings to better engage with the complex materiality of waste and to explore the role anticonsumption plays in consumers’ valuations of end-stage consumption. This study focuses on the phenomenon of urban exploration, a subculture that seeks to discover and explore derelict buildings. Drawing on an ethnographic study including in-depth interviews, the authors reveal how anticonsumption manifests in the urban environment in terms of alternative understandings of value. In contrast to the economic valuations that often dominate public policy decision making, this study highlights the need for policy makers to consider diverse, and perhaps conflicting, value regimes. The authors propose an Obsolescence Impact Evaluation that enables a systematic assessment of the stakeholders potentially affected by redevelopment and/or demolition, differing regimes of valuation relevant to these outcomes, and potential uses of the buildings. The authors suggest various ways that public policy makers can take advantage of this tool.
Whereas most anticonsumption research focuses on middle- to upper-class consumers who reduce, avoid, or control consumption, this study analyzes anticonsumption among materially deprived consumers. Such an anticonsumption focus runs contrary to the conventional subordination of homeless people to the status of inferior and deficient, whose survival is dependent on social housing support and food charities. Findings from an ethnographic study in Australia show that materially deprived consumers avoid social housing and food charities as a tactical response against institutionalized subordination, which specialized homeless services reinforce. In this context, anticonsumption is thus not about projecting a self-affirming identity or generating a collective force to change consumer culture. Rather, anticonsumption among materially deprived consumers aims at overcoming institutionalized subordination and represents tactics of survival rather than strategies for illusionary emancipation.
A growing field of research is documenting the political investment of the consumer. Yet, consumers are invested of political responsibilities in many different ways, which respond to different visions of politics and consumption, culture and the economy. In this article we critically explore the particular stance of an increasingly international actor such as Slow Food, placing it in the context of current debates on the scope of alternative food networks and on the moral boundaries of the market. Starting from the Slow Food core in Bra, Italy, and through a variety of qualitative sources, both primary (interviews) and secondary (publications, public speeches), we show that while Slow Food contributes to the current political investment of the consumer, it does so in distinctive ways which bear witness to its gastronomic origin and middle-class constituency. Slow Food rhetoric works out a politically-thick vision of taste refinement: its imagined consumer is an ‘eco-gastronome’, someone who adds ecological concerns onto a continuously trained aesthetic appreciation of food. The article considers the scope of what Slow Food has defined as the ‘right to pleasure’ in the face of a tension between inclusion and exclusion running through contemporary consumer culture. It concludes by exploring Slow Food’s current shifts towards issues such as economic growth, access to resources and environmental protection — crucial in defining the complex world of critical consumption — through a politico-aesthetic problematization of food consumption.
In recent times, much has been written about consumers' co-responsibility for addressing environmental problems, with consumers expected to steer or regulate their consumption in an instrumental way. By drawing on data from in-depth interviews with green consumers in urban Ireland, this article examines how green consumers engage with environmental issues at an everyday level. The article considers green consumption through the theoretical lens of reflexive modernization, particularly its relevance to self-identity. We argue that although green consumption is important to the maintenance and constitution of a green subjectivity, it must be understood within the context of a process of increasing individualization, where individuals feel both responsible and empowered in dealing with environmental risks to both the wider global planet and themselves. However, such feelings are accompanied by doubts and insecurities about the choices to be made, creating a rather dichotomous situation. This challenges the idea that green consumption as some form of politics of choice can unambiguously form part of a strategy for environmental reform as it does not adequately address the fundamental dilemmas that people face.
This article focuses on consumer movements that seek ideological and cultural change. Building from a basis in New Social Movement (NSM) theory, we study these movements among anti-advertising, anti-Nike, and anti-GE food activists. We find activists' collective identity linked to an evangelical identity related to U.S. activism's religious roots. Our findings elucidate the value of spiritual and religious identities to gaining commitment, warn of the perils of preaching to the unconverted, and highlight movements that seek to transform the ideology and culture of con-sumerism. Conceiving mainstream consumers as ideological opponents inverts conventional NSM theories that view them as activists' clients. S ocial movements are intentional collective efforts by activists to transform the social order (Buechler 2000). This article focuses on consumer movements, which are particular kinds of social movements that attempt to trans-form various elements of the social order surrounding con-sumption and marketing. As consumption has come to play an increasingly central role in contemporary society, con-sumer movements have arisen to challenge and transform aspects of it by propagating ideologies of consumption that radicalize mainstream views. As we seek to increase our understanding of the dynamics and complexities of consumer culture, we need theory that conceptualizes consumer movements and their ideological role. As we follow the historical trajectory of a culture of consumerism that seems in many accounts to be globally ascendant and apparently unstoppable, conceptualizing con-sumer movements that stand in opposition to it may be viewed as increasingly important. Sklair (1995, p. 507) terms the mutually reinforcing integration of consumer cul-ture and consumerist ideology the "culture-ideology of con-sumerism" and concludes that it is a "fundamental institu-tional support of global capitalism." The purpose of this article is to arrive at a theory-based understanding of con- for their many insightful comments and suggestions. The authors thank the editor, associate editor, and three reviewers for their comments and helpful suggestions. They are also grateful for the contri-butions of the consumer activists and consumers who were observed and interviewed for this article.
Philosophy and ethical consumption This chapter introduces some basic philosophical approaches that are useful in understanding and evaluating ethical consumption issues and ethical consumer behaviour. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first section introduces the two main approaches to ethics in moral philosophy, ‘consequentialism’ and ‘deontology’, and considers how appropriate they are when applied to questions of consumption. The example of consumer responses to products made using child labour is then explored to show how these two different approaches to ethics can lead to different outcomes. The second section considers the relevance of another approach, virtue ethics, which it is argued has the advantage of concentrating on the broad contexts in which ethical issues arise. Virtue philosophy focuses on flourishing and living a good life. Empirical evidence suggests that a sense of integrity is more fundamental to the well-being of ethical consumers than either a concern for consequences ...
This article introduces the idea of brand community. A brand community is a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a structured set of social relations among admirers of a brand. Grounded in both classic and contemporary sociology and consumer behavior, this article uses ethnographic and computer mediated environment data to explore the characteristics, processes, and particularities of three brand communities (those centered on Ford Bronco, Macintosh, and Saab). These brand communities exhibit three traditional markers of community: shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility. The commercial and mass-mediated ethos in which these communities are situated affects their character and structure and gives rise to their particularities. Implications for branding, sociological theories of community, and consumer behavior are offered. Copyright 2001 by the University of Chicago.
This article explores the articulation of queer sexuality with anarchist identity. Drawing on interviews and participant observation in the contemporary North American anarchist movement, I show that queer critique is typical among self-identified anarchists. Anarchist movement culture serves as a medium for the circulation of discourses around sexuality and anarchist identity, as well as supports individuals in their own queer practices of resistance against dominant sexual norms. However, subcultural investments in notions of authenticity may serve to detract from the political potential to be found within anarchist culture. This article ultimately concludes that the strong movement culture and its investment in authentic identity can prove useful for anarchist political projects, but that ‘anarchonormativity’ must be wielded strategically, taking into account its many potential effects.
Citizenship and consumption have frequently been regarded as oppositional and even mutually exclusive domains of activity and theory. Recent consumption practices and discourses — although they raise many complex issues both empirically and theoretically — have begun to revise this perception. This article offers reasons for enlarging the framework of thinking about the contemporary `civic' or `republican' aspects of consumption in order to include considerations that have been little registered even in the argument of those whose special interest is in the environmentally concerned citizen or `ethical' consumer. It argues for the need to recognize the extent to which moral concerns may now be coinciding with more self-interested forms of disaffection with `consumerist' consumption, and revisions in thinking on the part of affluent consumers themselves about the `good life' and what conduces to human flourishing and personal fulfilment. Theorized under the concept of `alternative hedonism', attention is paid to the ways in which affluent consumption is both compromised by its negative effects (including congestion, pollution, overwork, stress) and pre-emptive of other possible pleasures and satisfactions. This theoretical approach is presented as distinctive in allowing for a consumer whose privately experienced and self-interested needs may come to encompass public goods and the gratifications of a more socially accountable consumption. The article advances a case for viewing the `alternative hedonist' reaction to consumerism as further adding to the ways in which consumption may be said today to be acquiring a `republican' dimension and emerging as a site of citizenship, and thereby of pressure for a sustainable consumption.
The potential of consumption to figure as a site of political agency is now recognized by both corporate capitalism and its No Logo opposition. Many now also accept that the pursuit of consumerist lifestyles is the major contributor to ecological crisis. This article argues the importance in this context of recognizing the impact and longer term implications of some emerging forms of self-interested disaffection with consumerism on the part of affluent consumers themselves. For a small, but arguably growing number of these, consumerism is now compromised by its specific displeasures (stress, congestion, pollution, ill-health..) and seen as actively pre-empting other more rewarding ways of living. The 'alternative hedonism' implicit in these forms of consumer ambivalence is analysed with a view to disentangling its perspective from either the more didactic (and often overly naturalistic) conceptions of need and satisfaction offered by some Marxist strands of cultural theory, and from the post-modernist celebrations of consumer culture as a resource for the pleasures of fantasy, fashion and self-styling. In pressing the case for the development of a new 'hedonist imaginary' with which to subvert current perceptions of the attractions of a consumerist material culture, the article also considers the possible contribution of cultural and artistic activities to the formation of an anti-consumerist aesthetic.
Geography’s debates about how to maintain a sense of morally responsible action often emphasise the problematic nature of caring at a distance, and take for granted particular kinds of moral selfhood in which responsibility is bound into notions of human agency that emphasise knowledge and recognition. Taking commodity consumption as a field in which the ethics, morality, and politics of responsibility has been problematised, we argue that existing research on consumption fails to register the full complexity of the practices, motivations and mechanisms through which the working-up of moral selves is undertaken in relation to consumption practices. Rather than assuming that ethical decision-making works through the rational calculation of obligations, we conceptualise the emergence of ethical consumption as ways in which everyday practical moral dispositions are re-articulated by policies, campaigns and practices that enlist ordinary people into broader projects of social change. Ethical consumption, then, involves both a governing of consumption and a governing of the consuming self. Using the example of Traidcraft, we present a detailed examination of one particular context in which self-consciously ethical consumption is mediated, suggesting that ethical consumption can be understood as opening up ethical and political considerations in new combinations. We therefore argue for the importance of the growth of ethical consumption as a new terrain of political action, while also emphasising the grounds upon which ethical consumption can be opened up to normative critique.
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