Radical Consumption: Shopping for Change in Contemporary Culture
... For example, consider Café Femenino women's organic coffee cooperative advertisement of a mother and child silhouetted against a stunning mountain landscape, with words like "sustainable," "mother," "child," and "the environment" (Heiliger, 2011(Heiliger, , 2012(Heiliger, , 2013(Heiliger, , 2019. These are also common themes in ethical consumerist media (Barnett, Cloke, Clark, & Malpass, 2005;Goodman, 2004;Heiliger, 2011Heiliger, , 2012Heiliger, , 2013Heiliger, , 2019Littler, 2009). By "ethical consumerism," 1 I mean the contemporary phenomenon that includes the ideas, beliefs, and practices of "shopping our way to a better world" (Heiliger, 2011(Heiliger, , 2012(Heiliger, , 2013(Heiliger, , 2019. ...
... This is not an endorsement of ethical consumerism as the best means to accomplish social justice goals, including ones of environmental preservation and repair. See Barnett, Cloke, Clarke, & Malpass (2005), Brown, (2013), Brown and Lyon (2017), Goodman (2004), Heiliger (2011Heiliger ( , 2012Heiliger ( , 2013Heiliger ( , 2015, Littler (2009), Richey and Ponte (2011) for more on these terms. 2 Used here in reference to the process of promising a positive environmental impact while continuing to pollute. 3 Ethical consumerism's material impacts are complex and unevenly distributed around the globe, providing both opportunities for social justice, and the reinforcement of harmful social norms and global structural violence (Barnett et al., 2005;Brown, 2013;Brown & Lyon, 2017;Goodman, 2004;Heiliger 2011Heiliger , 2012Heiliger , 2013Heiliger , 2015Littler, 2009;Richey & Ponte, 2011). ...
... See Barnett, Cloke, Clarke, & Malpass (2005), Brown, (2013), Brown and Lyon (2017), Goodman (2004), Heiliger (2011Heiliger ( , 2012Heiliger ( , 2013Heiliger ( , 2015, Littler (2009), Richey and Ponte (2011) for more on these terms. 2 Used here in reference to the process of promising a positive environmental impact while continuing to pollute. 3 Ethical consumerism's material impacts are complex and unevenly distributed around the globe, providing both opportunities for social justice, and the reinforcement of harmful social norms and global structural violence (Barnett et al., 2005;Brown, 2013;Brown & Lyon, 2017;Goodman, 2004;Heiliger 2011Heiliger , 2012Heiliger , 2013Heiliger , 2015Littler, 2009;Richey & Ponte, 2011). I and other scholars have written extensively about problems and promises of ethical consumerism (Heiliger 2011(Heiliger , 2012(Heiliger , 2013(Heiliger , 2015. ...
Contemporary white American industrial/breadwinner masculinities (Hultman & Pulé, 2018), traditionally reject the feminine associations of ecoconsumerism, in favour of environmental masculinities that imagine dominating nature and reinforce (imagined) national boundaries, such as Daggett’s “petro-masculinity” (Heiliger, 2019; Hultman & Pulé, 2018; Daggett, 2018). I investigate gendered tensions between 2008 and 2013 that mocked hegemonic white masculinity’s failure to embrace ecomodern practices (Hultman, 2013). I analyse satirical 21st century American cultural artefacts such as The Colbert Report’s “Prescott Oil Loves the Earth” (2008) and Portlandia’s “Meano No Bring Bag” (2012), as well as queer of colour, ecofeminist, critical masculinity, and critical cultural studies theories, and link these to battles over petroleum and plastics to explain the current renewed recycling of heterosexist engagements with nature and “the natural” as responses to Conservation EcoAnxieties during that period. I then point towards recent (2019) satirical cultural productions mocking toxic petro-masculinities as hopeful evidence for future kinder, gentler environmental masculinities.
... In other words: how do consumers navigate this crowded information landscapefrom direct forms of activism and advocacy in their social media feeds and mainstream environmental media, to independent research of brands and retailers' websitesand what are some of the impediments to buying ethically given there is no lack of information, expert or popular? While there has been a great deal of research in cultural studies on ethical and sustainable food consumption from a range of theoretical and empirical perspectives (Ashley et al. 2004, De Solier 2013, Lewis and Huber 2015, Probyn 2016, fashion, with some important exceptions (Littler 2009, Kaiser 2012, McRobbie 2016, Khan 2019, Lusty et al. 2021, has remained relatively obscure. This is despite the longestablished interest cultural studies has taken in anti-or ethical consumer practices (Barnett et al. 2010, Binkley and Littler 2011, Zimmerman 2020 and the earlier work on style, subcultures and symbolic resistance (Hall and Jefferson [1975] 2006, Hebdige [1979] 2003, McRobbie [1989, 1991. ...
... The concept and practice of 'ethical consumption' is not new (Harrison et al. 2005, Hilton 2009, Littler 2009, Thompson 2012. However, various forms of ethical consumption, 'conscious consumption' (Schor and Thompson 2014) or 'connected consumption' (Schor 2013)have been intensifying over the past decade, leading to what fashion scholars have called the 'ethical turn' in fashion (Gaugele 2014, Tseëlon 2014. ...
The introduction of the Australian Modern Slavery Act in 2018 has important implications for the fashion sector and the supply chains that it furnishes. However, it also introduces an added layer of complexity to the already crowded space of ethical fashion information. This article investigates how fashion consumers navigate the increasingly complex landscape of ethical fashion against the backdrop of new legislation and alongside the moral imperatives and pressures of environmental media. Research into sustainable fashion often suggests that more reporting, more transparency, more information is necessary in order to educate consumers about ethical options. However, our survey and interview data illustrate that even the most informed and knowledgeable consumers find it difficult to navigate the information that is available, often becoming overwhelmed when it comes to buying ethically. Taking seriously the competing demands driving ethical consumption, we argue that understanding how the mechanisms of failure operate in the ethical fashion landscape, particularly feelings of shame and guilt, can give us greater knowledge of fashion consumer attitudes and practices. This, in turn, may lead to a better awareness of the needs of conscious consumers as well as the limits of ethical fashion. We advocate for an acknowledgment of consumer imperfection to shift away from pathologizing the consumer or the commodity itself and to focus instead on the consumer’s thwarted relationship with the means of production and the complicated global networks of engagement that inform ethical consumption.
... Consumer activism is as old as the term 'consumer' itself, but has drastically expanded and intensified since the emergence of fair trade and ethical consumer discourses in the late 1980s. As these activities have continued to surge they have taken on new, distinctive formations-variously dubbed 'political consumerism' (Micheletti 2003) 'radical consumption' and 'caring consumers' (Littler 2008), 'consumerized-citizen' (Barnett et al 2010) and 'commodity activism' (Mukherjee and Banet-Weiser 2012). The hallmark rhetoric of ethical consumerism-transparency, accountability, sustainability, fairness and most recently 'care' (Sobande 2020)-have become ubiquitous across mainstream marketing and branding. ...
... More often, though, they take the form of quite personal and individualised efforts to boycott, avoid and disengage from certain cultural entities or to scrutinise, monitor and improve our cultural consumption habits-to #readmorewomen or 'decolonise Netflix'. Building on Jo Littler's (2008) suggestion that we are increasingly invited to be 'cosmopolitan caring consumers', I argue that we can observe in these new audience activities around media and cultural content, the emergence of the careful consumer. As this paper will show, careful consumers care about the conditions and contexts under which media and culture is made and circulated, including the hierarchies of power and control they help to maintain. ...
We are witnessing an era of increased intensity of consumer activism (and its discontents) within the arts, cultural and media industries. Ethical, radical, activist and even ‘woke’ consumer interests are now actively catered to across almost all goods and services, from food, fashion and fast-moving consumer goods to tourism, transport and finance. The aim of this paper is to analyse another field where these practices have recently focussed – the media and cultural industries. Drawing on interviews with 20 self-identified feminist and ethical consumers, this article examines how hyperconscious ethical consumption of cultural and media content is lived out and experienced as careful consumption. How are these careful audience activities described, rationalised and understood by the interview participants? What deliberative processes do they undertake and how does that guide them to certain conclusions about what media, art and culture they are willing to watch or not, where they draw the line, and why? This article shows how perceptions of consumer choice, responsibility and culpability are being channelled into an aspirational ethics, involving forms of self-improvement, self-care and self-control such as screening and filtering content, ‘cancelling’ and boycotting media, and attempts to correct, optimise and diversify our tastes and interests.
... In other words, challenges arise when the gaze on the individual claimsmakers subsumes deeper structural or institutional questions. Jo Littler (2009) has commented that the political economic and societal dimensions can often be lost when the focus is on atomized alternatives for action. This has also been referred to as a shift to «responsibilisation», where climate change becomes the responsibility of the individual in place of governments or regulators who might affect significant policy changes through altering production and distribution (Littler, 2009 are seen to actually move citizens further away from considering their role in requisite collective institutional shifts towards decarbonization. ...
... Jo Littler (2009) has commented that the political economic and societal dimensions can often be lost when the focus is on atomized alternatives for action. This has also been referred to as a shift to «responsibilisation», where climate change becomes the responsibility of the individual in place of governments or regulators who might affect significant policy changes through altering production and distribution (Littler, 2009 are seen to actually move citizens further away from considering their role in requisite collective institutional shifts towards decarbonization. Together, these trends and foci can serve to distract citizens from the scale of the challenges associated with contemporary climate change, and from more textured dimensions of institutional analysis of how climate science and governance interact, as well as contestation therein. ...
Against a contrasting backdrop of consensus on key issues on climate science, a heterogeneous group dubbed climate «skeptics», «contrarians», «deniers» have significantly shaped contemporary discussions of climate science, politics and policy in the public sphere. This essay focuses on the USA context, and explores some of the intertwined social, political and economic factors, as well as cultural and psychological characteristics that have together influenced public attitudes, intentions, beliefs, perspective and behaviors in regards to climate change science and governance over time. This article makes the case that the USA example can inform developments elsewhere; as such it is important to consider these contextual elements to more capably appraise «contrarian», «skeptic», «denier» reverberations through the current public discussions on climate change.
... Wherever I roam, I get the feeling that I am invited to buy something infused with feminism. Such offers range from large corporations utilizing feminist values in their branding and advertising (Banet-Weiser, 2012;Littler, 2009) to independent businesses selling feminist t-shirts or jewellery. Many of these "offers" are displayed on social media, which has arguably played an important role in the rise and visibility of feminist commodities as it is readily available to individuals and facilitates reaching a wide audience (Banet-Weiser, 2012, 2018a. ...
... It may also be argued that, within contemporary neoliberal logic, the boundaries that separate business from social change have become blurred. This is well illustrated in the growth of ethical consumption (Littler, 2009), commodity activism (Mukherjee and Banet-Weiser, 2012) and social entrepreneurship (Augustinsson, 2016). The language, tools and public acceptance of merging business with social change are already in place in public discourse, which helps us to understand the interviewees' responses. ...
By interviewing self-proclaimed feminists with small-scale businesses who sell feminist commodities, the aim of this article is to understand why and how the market has become an arena for doing feminism and what this can tell us about contemporary feminism. Using theories of postfeminism and popular feminism in combination with Lacanian discourse theory, the analysis shows that feminism is renegotiated into ownership by reshaping the feminist discourse of sisterhood into business support and advice. Furthermore, competition is reshaped into a positive value of expanding the feminist community, and making profit is reshaped into a feminist discourse of equal pay. Business feminism produces an individual, visible, affluent and entrepreneurial feminist subject who does not challenge economic structures or ownership conditions.
... Such thinking is far from unique. As much of the highest profile literature on modern slavery suggests (Bales, 1999(Bales, , 2005Kara, 2010), this is the preferred political tactic of mainstream modern abolitionists (Kempadoo, 2015;Page, 2014), very much in line with standard consumer activist approaches (Anderson, 2015;Dauvergne & LeBaron, 2014;Hilton, 2009;Littler, 2009). Be they pro-or anti-corporate, their shared imaginary works to elicit emotional-moral responses in the hope that this will incite actions for change (Kempadoo, 2015;Page, 2014). ...
... Even where it results in legal developments, it individualizes causality, and in turn promotes technical, market-friendly 'fixes' that leave fundamental imbalances in wealth and power unaddressed. In this regard, it constitutes 'fetishized de-fetishization' (Littler and Moor in Page, 2014, p. 3), which ultimately entrenches the status quo by presenting it as technically perfectible (Anderson, 2015;Littler, 2009). ...
This paper examines representational politics in relation to the production and marketization of Italy's ‘red Gold’, the tomato. It centres around three competing images. The first, hegemonic image is of a bucolic countryside, pushed by agro-capital and retail. A stereotypically ‘fetishizing’ image, it hides both labour and its exploitation. The second is its counter-hegemonic opposite, of a countryside seething with indignity, populated by exploited workers, and neglected by the state. Advanced by civil society, this image parallels many within mainstream ‘modern abolitionism’ and seeks to shame big business into pursuing a more ethical capitalism. In our view, it re-inscribes the (neo)liberal paradigm that is foundational to the exploitation it wishes to overcome. It also alienates many of the people it purports to depict. The third image is an ethnographic alternative to the first two and is drawn from our fieldwork with the farmers, migrant workers and labour-brokers responsible for tomato production in Foggia, Southern Italy. Complex and contradictory, it depicts living and working conditions that are bad, but better than the alternative, and workers who are exploited, but nevertheless understand themselves as consenting to their exploitation.
... Anthropological research, for instance, has long highlighted that ordinary shopping is, more often than not, done with others in mind and is commonly embedded in rituals of love, empathy and care for others (Miller, 1998). Accordingly, consumer ethics activism increasingly foregrounds the language of care and interdependency as opposed to the utility-maximizing and atomized homo economicus (e.g., Littler, 2009). Also, at stake is the extension of consumption-mediated forms of care across difference and distance, in ways that subvert what Massey (2005) describes as the "hegemonic geography of care", the idea that care is (and should always be) extending outwards from the home to the local to the national and so on. ...
... More importantly, for the purposes of this article, analytic distinctions between socio-economic, embodied-affective and representational understandings of gender politics allow us to scrutinize the range of remedial and/or subversive consumer logics and practices, from boycotting and buycotting to marketplace performances to collective mobilizations and alliances. The extent to which such modes of consumer activism can or should represent emancipatory politics has been debated in prior literature (e.g., Cremin, 2012;Littler, 2009) albeit less in relation to gender. Hemmings (2012), for instance, claims that "…in late modernity a contemporary Western political economy produces differentiated subjects of capitalism | 323 bs_bs_banner CHATZIDAKIS AnD MACLARAn whose function is not to reproduce and care for a labouring, exploitable population at no cost to the state, or at least not always or only, but to participate actively in markets" (p. ...
Consumer ethics research has greatly enhanced our knowledge of the social and environmental consequences and considerations of consumption choices. We argue, however, that gender theory introduces important aspects of ethical enquiry currently overlooked. To build our argument, we undertake a critical literature review that assesses current gender theory and related applications in gender and consumption research. In doing so, we offer a conceptual pathway that elucidates the intersection of gender with consumer ethics in relation to three distinct levels of understanding; socio‐economic, embodied‐affective and representational. Although fundamentally intertwined, for our current purposes, these are analytically distinct. Implications and avenues for future research into gendering consumer ethics are discussed.
... Ethical consumption is a broad range of consumptive tendencies in the wellness industry encompassing attributes of social justice, environmental concerns, and personal well-being (Lewis & Potter 2011). Ethical consumption is also understood as a form of micropolitical practices (Littler, 2009). It aligns with the aestheticization and politicization of everyday life (Featherstone, 2007), where consumer choices reflect moral values and lifestyle aesthetics. ...
With an increase in consumer demand for health and lifestyle products, some fashion and textile apparel brands are referencing problematic sources or misinterpreting scientific claims on the health benefits of textile fibres to sell wellness products in a saturated market. This paper unpacks the textile fibre wellness phenomenon under ethical consumption greenwashing frameworks, specifically referencing the mystified storytelling tactic adapted by wellness brands from luxury brand marketing strategies. Through case studies of linen and bamboo from online clothing brands, it examines spiritual greenwashing practices alongside technical and scientific claims about fibre frequencies and anti-microbial properties. The aim is to highlight the conflicting issues at play in wellness textile marketing and the need for more textile expertise, stronger guidelines and legislation to assist brands and consumers to navigate this complex terrain in an ethical manner.
... Muitas marcas adotam o CRM como uma expressão do "filantrocapitalismo" (philanthrocapitalism), que propõe resolver problemas globais por meio do capitalismo (Edwards, 2008 apud Richey; Ponte, 2011). Contudo, de forma crítica, o CRM sugere que as empresas devolvem algo que retiraram previamente (Littler, 2009;Nickel;Eikenberry, 2009). O consumo de bens e experiências também mobiliza significados, ação política e integração comunitária, como aponta Žižek (2009a). ...
This study analyzes the discourse of cause-related marketing (CRM) used by Apple to promote its products and support social causes through (RED) products aimed at combating HIV/AIDS in Africa. It reflects on consumption practices using a psychoanalytic framework and its developments, such as Rifkin’s concept of cultural capitalism and Richey and Ponte’s ‘causumerism’ practice. The methodology involves a critical analysis of Apple and (RED)’s institutional materials, combined with a bibliographic review on branding. Findings indicate that although CRM promotes important causes, it also transforms social activism into a product, aligning with contemporary critiques of ethical consumption and the practices of comfort and authenticity.
... Clark (2008) characterizes sustainable fashion as a counterforce to the fast fashion phenomenon. Eco-fashion represents one manifestation of anti-consumption, alongside other forms like eco-consumption, green consumption, ethical consumption, and political consumption, as explored by Joy et al. (2012) and Littler (2009). Furthermore, it is situated within the realm of the cultural economy, as emphasized in Culture Unbound (2014: vol. ...
With the global economic downturn and environmental crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainability is emerging as an important issue for fashion companies and consumers. This study uses big data analysis to examine changes in consumer perceptions of sustainable fashion consumption and ethical fashion consumption pre- and post-COVID-19. By distinguishing between these two concepts, this research contributes to resolving theoretical ambiguities that often lead to mixed consumer behaviors. We used Textom 6.0 to collect data from Korea’s most used TOP 3 websites: Naver, Daum, and Google, using the keywords “sustainable fashion consumption” and “ethical fashion consumption.” Through frequency analysis, we found sustainable fashion consumption developing from the trend of pursuing “eco-friendly” as a practical direction for consumption value, and ethical fashion consumption was expanding the scope of “vegan” from fashion to overall life. Further, we used LDA topic modeling, we found that post-pandemic, there has been a significant shift towards eco-friendly and vegan products,” Ethical fashion consumption confirmed consumers’ perceptions of the keyword “animal.” This study provides foundational data on the distinction between sustainable and ethical fashion and offers actionable insights for brands aiming to align with post-pandemic consumer values.
... to address global problems through capitalism(EDWARDS, 2008, apud RICHEY;PONTE, 2011).However, from a critical perspective, CRM suggests that companies are merely returning something they had previously extracted(LITTLER, 2009;NICKEL;EIKENBERRY, 2009). The consumption of goods and experiences also mobilizes meanings, political action, and community integration, as Žižek (2009a) points out. ...
This paper analyzes the discourse of cause-related marketing (CRM) employed by the app Uber to promote its “Uber Planet/Green” initiative, which aims to offer more sustainable and eco-friendly transportation options. The research examines consumer practices through a psychoanalytic lens (LACAN, 1999; STAVRAKAKIS, 2007; ŽIŽEK, 2000, 2008), along with extensions such as Rifkin’s concept of cultural capitalism (2000) and the practice of “causumerism” by Richey and Ponte (2011). The methodology involves a critical analysis of marketing campaigns and impact reports to understand their implications. The findings indicate that, while CRM advocates for significant social causes, it also commodifies social activism, aligning with contemporary critiques of ethical consumption and the practices of comfort and authenticity (BANET-WEISER, 2012). This research contributes to the discourse on the complexities of consumer engagement with sustainability initiatives.
... That is, by launching their brands, they are arguably engaging in a form of commodity activism, suggesting that through the consumption of their modest fashion products, individuals can contribute to positive changes in the representation and empowerment of Muslim women in society. This interpretation aligns with the idea that the commodification of feminist activism involves selling products with the promise of contributing to a better and more just world (Littler, 2009;Repo, 2020). Through the oral history interviews, we found that the women's intersectional identities (Crenshaw, 1991) informed their business practices to cater to the nuanced identities of Muslim women. ...
Muslim modest fashion is experiencing unprecedented growth in the fashion industry, driven by young Muslim women consumers worldwide expressing interest in this market segment. Yet, few scholars have examined women entrepreneurs who created modest Islamic fashion brands and their experiences launching and sustaining their businesses, particularly how their intersectional identities inform their business practices and outcomes. Therefore, we asked, (1) Why and how did Muslim women entrepreneurs start their modest fashion brands? (2) What are their experiences starting and sustaining their modest fashion brands; and (3) How do agency, intersectionality, and oppression intersect with these women’s experiences? To understand the lived experiences of these entrepreneurs, we conducted oral histories with three Muslim women entrepreneurs. Following thematic analysis using open, axial, and selective coding, we identified numerous themes that help explain their entrepreneurial experiences. Overall, the women started their businesses to create the much-needed space for Muslim women in the fashion system as modest fashion was largely non-existent. The women started with a few products and largely one target market in mind, yet expanded to other religions that embody modesty values. In sustaining their businesses, the owners were highly controlling and involved in every aspect of their business. They expressed starting and sustaining their business was difficult due to their lack of experience, the time intensity of running their business, and difficulty in finding funding. Additionally, they had added layers of White supremacy in these experiences as women of color business owners. Yet, they expressed numerous successful strategies including centering the nuanced Muslim woman identity in product design and marketing. Their consumers expressed much ambivalence in that they loved and criticized the brands for various reasons. The entrepreneurs certainly focused their business on Muslim identities, but also had heightened awareness and attention to environmental justice given the state of the fashion system and its negative contributions to the environment. Overall, through this research, we demonstrate how these entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of starting and sustaining their niche businesses amidst the oppressive cultural environment for American Muslim women in a post-9/11 context within a capitalist framework. Individuals looking to develop businesses catering to marginalized communities can utilize our findings to educate themselves on oppressive environments they may encounter in the future and navigate the tightrope of criticism and love from marginalized consumers looking to buy their products.
... Consumers may support and purchase certain green-brand products that favor responsibility toward society and the environment while boycotting others that cause harm (Ladhari and Tchetgna, 2017). As the concept has progressed, consumers even consider the moral ethics behind the production process through which the product is produced, the way the brand is brought to market, the societal expectation impact on the activism of brand stakeholders, etc. (Littler, 2011). Consumer social responsibility denotes the socially conscious or morally motivated individual consumers who buy ethical products that match their ethical concerns (Caruana and Chatzidakis, 2014). ...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate specific green-brand affect in terms of commitment and connection through the morality–mortality determinants of consumer social responsibility and the assumptions of terror management theory in the proposed three-layered framework. Religiosity serves as a moderator within the framework.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are collected in Taipei, Taiwan, while quota sampling is applied, and 420 valid questionnaires are collected. The partial least squares technique is applied for data analysis.
Findings
With the contingent role of religiosity, consumer social responsibility influences socially conscious consumption, which in turn drives the commitment and connection of green-brand affect. The death anxiety and self-esteem outlined in terror management theory influence materialism, which then drives green-brand commitment; however, contrary to expectations, they do not drive green-brand connection.
Originality/value
By considering green brands beyond their cognitive aspects and into their affective counterparts, morality–mortality drivers of green-brand commitment and green-grand connection are explored to provide unique contributions so as to better understand socially responsible consumption.
... In the process of consumption, commodity activism has become a critical tool for neoliberalism to co-opt feminism, with consumption emerging as a form of civic political engagement. As noted by Jo Littler (2008), "Organizations and corporations sell us the idea that through buying their product, we can make the world a better, fairer, healthier, more just, more habitable or more equal place" (pp. 23-24). ...
Contemporary feminism is currently at a crossroads, facing a concerted onslaught from both neoliberal and neoconservative ideologies. While these ideologies are inherently different—neoliberalism often appropriates feminist language to serve capitalist ends, and neoconservatism typically attacks feminist principles—they similarly reinforce the traditional role of families as providers of welfare. This crisis of alienation in feminism is characterized by three key factors: the gender divisions brought about by feminism’s shift to identity politics, the obscuring of feminist critique of capitalism by the spread of commercialization, and the instrumentalization of feminism in politics. These challenges have resulted in increased class antagonism and the further marginalization of lower-income women, reinforcing one another. To address this multifaceted crisis, a return to Marxist thought is deemed necessary for women’s liberation. The historical foundation of women’s issues can be traced back to class oppression, which stems from the primacy of material production over reproductive labor. In this context, gender oppression becomes an instrument that perpetuates class oppression. Only by interpreting women’s bodily autonomy and power from the perspective of material life and class reproduction, and by uniting various social forces against capitalism with practical actions, can feminism regain its vitality. Although the current global women’s movement is full of internal divisions, contradictions, and struggles, there is still hope for achieving unity. When the day comes, history will confirm that true gender equality is not merely the promotion of individual choice for a few, but the emancipation of all, and Marxism will be recorded once again in the history of human liberation. To accomplish this grand objective, the vital step is to end the marginalization of Marxist Feminism.
... Due to the current upheaval in global capitalism and the globalization of consumer cultures, several scholars' conceptions of ethical consumers are developing 26 . Consumers are becoming more conscious about their purchases because of the development in worldwide sophisticated and visible firm operations (e.g., manufacturing, employment) that are more visible to the public 27,28 . Similarly, statements have been trying to apprehend common ethical consumption issues. ...
The problems of global warming and sustainability, which are now causes for concern, will, in some way, have an impact on our lives. As a consequence of an increased focus on ethical consumerism, rapidly developing countries such as Vietnam are seeing a change in consumer behaviors as well as the marketing strategies used by corporations. This means that marketers must learn more about what makes people want to shop ethically. In particular, the goal of this research is to explore the psychological factors that impact the ethical consumption habits of young people. The data was compiled through surveys with 361 Vietnamese young people ranging in age from 12 to 33 years old and taken from various parts of the country. Both the independent and the dependent variables have branched off into distinct obstructs in a manner that is inconsistent with the initial scale. This study showed that there are three different types of ethical consumer behavior in Vietnam: ETHICBUY, ECOBOYCOTT, and CSRBOYCOTT. According to the results, alienation, altruism, and perceived employee welfare effectiveness all have an effect on the likelihood of engaging in ethical buying (ETHICBUY). However, alienation and perceived ecological consumer effectiveness have been shown to have an effect on the 3-item ECOBOYCOTT. Last but not least, predictors of CSRBOYCOTT include alienation, environmental concern, and the perceived effectiveness of employee welfare programs. In other words, alienation is perhaps the prospective component that has the most influence on unethical spending based on the findings of this research. These findings could be helpful for marketers that want to increase their capacity to target customers who adhere to ethical norms when they promote their products or services.
... As critics argue, "lifestyle tactics are only available to the very privileged who are able to freely make 'choices' about how to live their lives," and the privileged are "the greatest beneficiaries of the policies and ideologies" (Braunstein and Doyle 2002;Littler 2009, cited in Portwood-Stacer 2013. It reminds us that while focusing on the noticeable alternative life choices, voices from many local villagers, especially those who are at the same age as newcomers, are yet largely missing. ...
Lifestyles signify who people are and who people want to be. They contain one's value orientation toward the world. The speeding urbanization over the globe has made the urban lifestyle mainstream, and so does it in China. The overwhelming range of options in cities represents a consumerist society, but meanwhile, there is an emergent underground alternative, especially from the younger generations who are pursuing a “more meaningful life.” This paper does an ethnographic study on young Chinese urbanites' engagement in a village as an essential example of this trend. It argues that young people's choice for rural life is a reaction and a resistance to the social forces of consumerism and urbanization. By reflecting on the reimagination of modernity and life politics in the changing process, the research implies that accompanied by opportunities for social change, young people's promotion of rural lifestyles could be linked to the government's development agenda, and this might potentially cause new forms of inequalities in rural development. By drawing on practical experience, the paper brings narratives about young Chinese urbanites' life choices in rural places into the discussion of modernity and life politics, hopefully exemplifying a broader sociological contribution around the topic.
... On the other hand, ethical consumption is associated with the purchase of the products which have been produced with respect for the basic human rights and the environment. It includes the diverse practices as buying fair-trade, products-not-tested-on-animals, non-sweatshop brands, organic goods and avoiding the exploitative products or unnecessary purchases (Littler 2008). The key to its implementation is the growth of the rational and environmentally conscious attitudes and behavior based on deep values (Ottman 2003). ...
... Charity is, according to the far-sighted declaration of Littler (2008), now part of the job description and an established hallmark of what it means to be a celebrity. This is a function of the moral authority afforded to individuals as famous, wealthy and influential media celebrities, but also of the moral authority claimed by celebrities (and their media enablers, fans and charity organizations) through their work in charity and philanthropy. ...
Throughout the world, 785 million people lack a basic drinking-water service and at least 2 billion people consume contaminated drinking water. At the same time, numerous global water charities fronted by 'caring', politicized celebrity figures-dubbed the 'high priests' of global development by the authors of this article-have sought to 'solve' inequalities in access to clean water through market-based solutions and charity donations. This article engages with the fields of critical social theory, political theology, political ecology and celebrity studies to analyse the interrelationship between capitalism and religion, to interrogate the drivers of international development , and to historically situate the work of celebrity-led water charities and the growing role of these 'high priests'. It takes the case of Matt Damon's Water.org to examine the increasingly religious nature of these neoliberalized charity processes, and outlines the main elements of what the authors term a contemporary political economy of sacrifice. They argue that this results in charities that, rather than reducing inequalities, actually reproduce, normalize and legitimize the very system and exploitative relations that are responsible for these inequalities and environmental problems in the first place, while scattered and localized fixes sustain the illusion that things are getting better.
... A szakirodalomban legtöbbször nem egy konkrét fogalom, sokkal inkább ideológiák, folyamatok és tulajdonságok vezetik az erről szóló szakmai diskurzusokat (Kozlowski et al., 2018). A társadalomtudományok meghatározásában a fenntartható divat a fast fashion alternatívájaként megjelenő fogalom (Clark, 2008), míg fogyasztói oldalról túlfogyasztásellenes (Joy et al., 2012), vagy alternatív fogyasztási forma (mint például etikus, zöld, öko fogyasztás, Litter, 2009). Joergens (2016), illetve az Economist (2009) tanulmányai szerint a fenntartható divatipar célja, hogy a teljes ellátási lánc mentén maximalizálja a társadalom és a gazdaság számára nyújtott előnyöket a káros környezeti hatások minimalizálása mellett. ...
Az elmúlt időszakban egyre nyilvánvalóbbá váltak a divatipar környezeti, társadalmi és gazdasági kihívásai. A tanulmány célja megvizsgálni, hogyan építhetők be a fenntarthatóság szempontjai a hazai divatipari KKV-k üzleti gyakorlataiba, ennek milyen lehetőségei és korlátai vannak. A mélyinterjúkon alapuló empirikus kutatás magyarországi, fenntartható működést megcélzó divatipari KKV-k üzleti gyakorlatait vizsgálja. Az elemzéshez kialakított saját rendszer kategóriái relevánsak a hazai divatipar számára, a kategóriákat (1. hulladékcsökkentés, 2. prémiummárkázás, 3. a keresletvezérelt termék előállításának támogatása, 4. a slow fashion támogatása, 5. fogyasztói nevelés, 6. üzlet közösségbe integrálása, 7. radikális átláthatóság) az empirikus vizsgálat alapján sikerült tartalommal megtölteni. Az is látszik, hogy a leghatékonyabban akkor sikerül a fenntarthatósági szempontokat beépíteni a vállalkozások üzleti gyakorlataiba, ha ez a törekvés egyidejűleg kiterjed a fenntarthatóság környezeti, társadalmi és gazdasági vonatkozásaira is. Ugyanakkor részben átváltás figyelhető meg a fenntarthatóság dimenziói között: a kiemelkedő környezeti és társadalmi teljesítmény mellett a gazdasági szempont sokszor némileg háttérbe szorul.
... Allowing consumers to engage in responsible behaviours through an engaging and exciting socio-digital platform (Parthiban et al., 2020a(Parthiban et al., , 2020b promotes vicarious self-artisanship, another significant mechanism that facilitates sustained consumer responsibilisation. Studies highlight the role of the digital platform in consumer responsibilisation through pressuring and guiding consumers towards certain moral choices by problematising consumption and reminding them of their agency to solve the problems by making responsible consumption choices (Fuentes and Sörum, 2019;Littler, 2009). VirtuoFarm not only creates awareness but also provides a game-like avenue that excited consumers, attracting them to engage in sustained responsible behaviour. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how a socio-digital platform can facilitate consumer responsibilisation in food consumption to encourage sustained responsible consumption and uncovers its possible impacts on different stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem.
Design/methodology/approach
Two-year-long case study of a socio-digital platform that aims to integrate consumers with the farming process; creating value for them and the farmers in India.
Findings
The process of consumer responsibilisation happens through three mechanisms; construction of a moral-material identity, vicarious self-artisanship and shared responsibilisation. Through these key mechanisms, the socio-digital platform could foster consumer responsibilisation and engender positive societal impacts by promoting both responsible production and consumption.
Research limitations/implications
This study shows how the construction of moral–material identity could move beyond an either-or choice between moralistic and material identity and allow space for the coexistence of both. This paper highlights how a socio-digital platform can be leveraged to facilitate responsible consumer engagement in an aestheticised farming process.
Practical implications
This paper aims to guide policymakers to design digitally-enabled human-centred innovation in facilitating consumer engagement with farming and cultivating responsible consumers in achieving sustainable development goals.
Social implications
This study shows how consumer responsibilisation can actually address market failures by enhancing the value created in the system, reducing wastage and cutting costs wherever possible, which drive better incomes for the farmers.
Originality/value
Previous studies have discussed heterogeneous motivations for responsible food consumption. However, this research explores the processes through which an individual reconnects to food production and the mechanisms that support this process in the long run.
... Allowing consumers to engage in responsible behaviours through an engaging and exciting socio-digital platform (Parthiban et al., 2020a(Parthiban et al., , 2020b promotes vicarious self-artisanship, another significant mechanism that facilitates sustained consumer responsibilisation. Studies highlight the role of the digital platform in consumer responsibilisation through pressuring and guiding consumers towards certain moral choices by problematising consumption and reminding them of their agency to solve the problems by making responsible consumption choices (Fuentes and Sörum, 2019;Littler, 2009). VirtuoFarm not only creates awareness but also provides a game-like avenue that excited consumers, attracting them to engage in sustained responsible behaviour. ...
... In many ways, the ambivalence explored reflects the impossibilities of our current social and political juncture. Faced with the realities of unsustainable consumer capitalism, consumers might respond through activism, anxiety or apathy (Verlie, 2019), or by seeking flawed solutions within the structures of consumer capitalism itself (Littler, 2008). Framed within this context, it would be churlish to condemn the imperfect politics of anti-haul vloggers, and this article instead takes a position of critical solidarity towards their often partial and contradictory efforts. ...
This article is based on an analysis of ‘anti-haul’ videos on YouTube, where a vlogger explains which beauty products they plan not to buy. Anti-haul vloggers have much in common with ‘culture jamming’ movements, which use the communicative practices and materials of promotional culture against itself to spread an anti-consumerist agenda. The article argues that anti-hauls should be understood as the reinvention of ‘culture jamming’ techniques for a contemporary promotional culture that is platform based, algorithmically governed, and mobilised through the affective, authentic performance of the ‘influencer’. I refer to this manipulation of the platform’s visibility mechanisms to spread anti-consumer messages as ‘algorithmic culture jamming’. The anti-consumer politics of anti-hauls are contradictory and ambivalent. At the same time, I argue that anti-hauls also offer important possibilities for political learning, personal and collective transformation, and alternative creative pleasures outside of continual consumer accumulation.
... As the examples we have discussed show, this escape is frequently invested in a particular kind of promotional labour -one that suggests that the life that we see on screen or on the page is both aspirational and achievable, something that, with the 'right' choices and the right kinds of commitments, 'we' can all have, too. These discourses reflect the increasing global influence of neoliberal, consumer-oriented modes of citizenship (Miller, 2007) in which individual lifestyle 'choices' are offered as methods for investing in -and articulating -ethical, social and civic concerns (Lewis and Potter, 2011;Littler, 2008). Artisanal making offers a highly individualised response to a range of social, economic and environmental problems, with 'the self' conceived as the primary site of change. ...
This article identifies the rise of a series of tropes around authenticity, retreat and celebration of the artisanal as they manifest around the growing popularity of cooking and craft as activities that have become vehicles for a larger reimagining of ideal middle-class modes of living across much of the Global North. Through media examples of cooking and craft that valorise nostalgia and ‘dropping out’, and following McRobbie’s work on the creativity dispositif, we argue that these cultural practices are united by an artisanal dispositif that fetishises the ‘traditional’ in a context of intensified mediatisation. We revisit Haraway’s iconic text – ‘A cyborg manifesto’ – to identify what is at stake in the ‘return’ of the artisanal and its ongoing tensions between the technological and the traditional. We argue that rather than retreat, to quote more recent work by Haraway we need to ‘stay with the trouble’ in all its complexity.
Purpose
This paper aims to understand how fashion-based social enterprises (FSEs) navigate the marketing communications of fashion products alongside those of their social mission. The authors use the theoretical lens of Consumer culture theory, Collin Campbell’s “Romantic ethic” and the work of Eva Illouz to explore how FSEs weave the emotional appeals of fashion consumption with those of contributing to a greater social cause. The melding of these theoretical approaches to consumer behaviour enables a thorough analysis of FSE marketing strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 founders, marketing directors and managers of FSEs. Open-ended questions were used, and key themes were established through inductive analysis.
Findings
The findings show that FSEs use a form of brand storytelling in their marketing communications; they view their social mission as a unique selling point; FSEs could further incorporate product quality/aesthetic value into brand storytelling; and they could sharpen brand storytelling by further engaging with the positive emotional responses they elicit from consumers.
Originality/value
This research has both theoretical and practical implications in that FSEs that focus on explicit altruistic messaging at the expense of aesthetic hedonism may limit their appeal to mainstream fashion consumers. Accordingly, a promising approach may be to effectively incorporate and link the positive emotional responses of both altruistic and aesthetic value. This approach could similarly apply to other areas of social enterprise retail marketing, particularly for those seeking to attract consumers beyond ethical shoppers.
Third sector organisations, in particular not-for-profit ones, in opposition to organisations operating in the public or private sectors, are often perceived as guided by charity and benevolence when interacting with their stakeholders. But in order to succeed in their mission, organisations such as NGO’s, foundations, charities, or similar, need people and resources to pursuit their social agendas.
But it is not common to discuss not-for-profit organisations’ corporate social responsibility towards the market (including their reporting duties), towards the environment, labour standards, or even towards their contributions to the communities from where they gather the resources used to pursue their social mission.
It is often perceived that business organisations, in their pursuit for profit, may negatively impact their stakeholders, while not-for-profit organisations do not. But is this always (or ever) the case?
In the attempt to shed light on the answer to this question, the duties imposed to not-for-profit organisations’ decision-makers are going to be critically reviewed under Portuguese Law. This comparison will allow us to understand if Portuguese Law, as a case study, is fit for the purpose of regulating the action of not-for-profit organisations’ managers in a way that resonates with the legitimate expectations of the communities where these organisations operate.
The appeal and impact of social media influencers within contemporary consumer culture has been a much-explored topic in fashion and media research. However, there are limited studies of yogalebrities – celebrity yoga practitioners who gain global visibility and following through branded product endorsements and modelling contracts – despite their leading role within the culturally and economically significant wellness industry. Furthermore, while the existing scholarship considers the intersections between consumer culture and spirituality, it is yet to grant due recognition to the active production and consumption of fashionable spiritual feminine identities produced on and through prevalent social media. Drawing on the combined insights from media, fashion and feminist studies, we discuss how yogalebrities represent and perpetuate normative ideals about femininity and its spiritual dimensions. We ground the discussion in the analysis of two different cases of yogalebrities: celebrity influencer Sjana Elise and micro-influencer Jessamyn Stanley. We demonstrate how they fold entrepreneurial opportunities into self-actualizing, self-branded intimate narratives to seek legitimacy and commercial success, and how their audience engagement capitalizes on, commodifies and stylizes spiritual values that underpin western yoga philosophy. By documenting these complex tactics, we contribute to fashion studies’ and feminist media studies’ understanding of the mediatized and increasingly fashionable psychic life of women.
Academic discourse on food justice and sustainable food consumption needs to be informed by empirical contributions and heterogenous conceptualisations from diverse parts of the world. This paper broadens the dialogue with a variety of voices and knowledges, rooting itself not only in the specific political and social context, but also the discursive and epistemic traditions of Brazil, which stand in dialogue with international discourses. Firstly, an analysis is offered of the multi‐stakeholder process that since the mid‐1990s shaped the discourse, theorisation and policy making on food justice and sustainable food consumption in Brazil. Emerging from this process were globally leading Brazilian policy initiatives such as Zero Hunger, the School Feeding Program, the progressive Food Guide, and co‐crafted concepts such as comida de verdade. The institutional architecture for this discourse, the National Food Council and regular conferences, were dismantled in 2019 after a change in government. Secondly, the paper presents data from 30 interviews with key stakeholders from civil society, policy, business, media and celebrity influencers, conducted at the time of the dissolution. Three key subdiscourses on sustainable food consumption emerge: access, with an emphasis on right to food; health; and re‐conhecimento, a term we use to articulate the confluence of multiple knowledges and consciousnesses, including an insistence on the cultural role of food. Throughout the interviews, co‐crafted concepts and phrases emerging from the multistakeholder process reverberated. The paper argues that the multi‐stakeholder process resulted not just in a coherent shared discourse, concepts and policy during a period of conducive policy environment, but also in collective resilience. The invisible edifice of shared ideas and commitments around this public issue is still intact and may be reactivated in future. In times of increased political polarisation, not just in Brazil, this is an important argument for investing in such long‐term multi‐stakeholder dialogue processes.
The study set out to investigate factors affecting consumers’ ethical perception and willingness to pay for Fairtrade bananas during the cost-of-living crisis in the UK. A survey was distributed via social media resulting in 357 valid responses which were analyzed using IBM-SPSS-28. The main influencing factors on consumers’ perception of Fairtrade are still strong ethical beliefs towards socio-economic benefits to farmers followed by cost, convenience and quality. No demographic factors significantly influenced purchase behaviour. A framework representing the factors influencing consumers was proposed.
During a cost-of-living crisis, despite some consumers’ price sensitivity, they are still willing to purchase and pay more for Fairtrade bananas. Ethical knowledge and personal values sustain the purchase of ethically produced bananas. However, consumption would remain strong provided the price premium paid is not substantially high. When targeting consumers, the focus on overall awareness of Fairtrade and its values should be the key features in promotion campaigns.
À l’heure où des milliers de producteurs délaissent leur métier et où des rapports alarmants dénoncent les conditions de travail difficiles et la détresse psychologique au sein du milieu agricole, de nouveaux acteurs décident de « retourner à la terre ». Cette thèse s’intéresse à la démarche en apparence « paradoxale » de ces nouveaux venus qui ne sont pas issus du milieu agricole et qui choisissent l’agriculture comme seconde carrière. Au Québec, ces nouvelles installations prennent la forme de reconversions graduelles et visent principalement les secteurs biologiques. Elles s’opèrent sur de petites surfaces d’exploitation, en privilégiant l’insertion dans des échanges marchands durables et territorialisés. Ces bifurcations vers l’agriculture, qui répondent initialement, entre autres, à une quête de sens ou au désir de contribuer positivement à la société, se heurtent néanmoins à de nombreuses difficultés avec l’expérience concrète de travail.
À la croisée de la sociologie des migrations néo-rurales et de celle de la profession d’agriculteur, cette recherche examine le processus de ces « retours à la terre » pour mieux comprendre les épreuves et défis qui jalonnent ces carrières agricoles. Elle mobilise une analyse de la bifurcation sur le temps long autour de trois temporalités (la bifurcation – la transition – le maintien en agriculture) révélant ainsi le caractère dynamique des trajectoires agricoles. La confrontation du travail imaginé avec le travail réel montre la façon dont les néo-agriculteurs modifient le rapport qu’ils entretiennent avec leur travail, mettent en place des stratégies de survie et recomposent leurs engagements pour s’adapter à une réalité parfois plus rude que prévue. À travers la construction de trois profils idéal-typiques (les « entrepreneurs », les « activistes » et les « terriens »), cette thèse cherche également à montrer la diversité des expressions du « retour à la terre ». Loin d’être un bloc monolithique, ces bifurcations agricoles sont teintées d’idéaux, d’attentes et d’aspirations qui s’inscrivent dans une trajectoire personnelle passée. Les analyses montrent la manière dont ces parcours agricoles se forment et évoluent en fonction d’aspirations professionnelles spécifiques, invitant alors à penser ces retours à la terre au pluriel.
Fair Trade (FT) coffee has a higher production volume than other coffee certifications. This phenomenon is triggered by a shift that is influenced consumer behavior patterns. This study analyzes consumer characteristics, purchasing decisions, and satisfaction in buying FT coffee. A cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach was used as the research design. Data were obtained by distributing online questionnaires to 120 respondents using a voluntary sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI), and Importance Performance Analysis (IPA). The results showed that most respondents were male, with an undergraduate degree and unmarried status. Trends and easy to get drink influence the main reason for purchasing. The main source of information comes from friends who focus on the coffee's taste and flavor. Consumers will continue to buy coffee even though prices have increased. Through CSI calculation, customer satisfaction is worth 74.04%. The results of the IPA calculation show that the main attributes to be improved are price, sales location, and information provision. The results of this study can be used as information on developing a marketing strategy that is adjusted to evaluate consumer expectations. Keywords: characteristics, consumer behavior, fair trade coffee, purchasing decision, satisfaction
Consumer activism has been reshaped as it has moved increasingly into the digital realm, and yet relevant theorisations have been slow to emerge. This paper presents an innovative approach to examining digital consumer politics through key scholarship in digital activism and the digital economy. Through a discussion of three case studies (#grabyourwallet, #deleteuber and Connecting Good), we analyse digitally-mediated agency, and the transformation of consumption meanings and practices in the digital economy. We argue that digital consumer activism offers both new forms of campaigning and presents familiar problems. Our case studies demonstrate the complexity of engendering agency when consumer activism enters the digital realm. Equally, we illustrate contradictions in the way in which consumer politics contests the capitalist economy offline, but leaves it substantially uncontested online because of a reliance on digital platforms dedicated to private profit.
In this paper we consider how the global brand ikea works as an agent of cosmopolitan socialization and shapes everyday practices of cosmopolitan consumption. Drawing on material from case study research, we consider ikea ’s support of cosmopolitan consumption through its emphasis on corporate social responsibility and framing of a cosmopolitan brandscape. We argue that ikea actively works to socialize individuals toward a moral cosmopolitan view, with the aim of enlisting consumers in the co-performance of global socio-environmental responsibility. Based on our interview data, we discuss how ikea does not so much cultivate cosmopolitan outlooks as affirm existing moral and aesthetic orientations, while easing ethical consumption concerns with a socially responsible image. Further, we show how ikea conducts a subtler, practical form of socialization: shaping ordinary cosmopolitan practices – ways of doing cosmopolitanism – with sustainable ‘stuff’ and in-store activity. In this way, ikea supports the co-production of a very ordinary, if not, convenient cosmopolitanism.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to present unique challenges to governments and organisations around the world, but one sector has incorporated COVID-19 into its core mission with relative ease: advertisers have acknowledged the pandemic while continuing to draw on notions of ‘normality’ to activate our desire to consume. As the UK’s series of lockdowns have come to an end, we look back over more than a year of unusual advertising and consider how the pandemic has changed approaches to marketing and the shape of consumer culture in ways connected to ideas about what constitutes ‘normal’ life. Discussions of the relationship between the pandemic and consumerism have included critiques of the prioritising of profit over people, and conceptualisations of Coronavirus as a brand itself, but the politics of notions of ‘normality’ promoted by consumer culture demand closer consideration. This article complements existing studies and debates by examining the tensions, contradictions and morally neutral positions revealed by the advertising response to the coronavirus disease pandemic. Through an analysis of UK advertising campaigns launched during and with reference to the pandemic, this work explores key themes and strategies, including their connection to power dynamics concerning race, gender, class and capitalism. We suggest advertising during crises may offer the opportunity to critique larger dynamics and trends of consumerism, including narrow notions of the defining features of ‘everyday’ life.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to present unique challenges to governments and organisations around the world, but one sector has incorporated COVID-19 into its core mission with relative ease: advertisers have acknowledged the pandemic while continuing to draw on notions of 'normality' to activate our desire to consume. As the UK’s series of lockdowns have come to an end, we look back over more than a year of unusual advertising and consider how the pandemic has changed approaches to marketing and the shape of consumer culture in ways connected to ideas about what constitutes 'normal' life. Discussions of the relationship between the pandemic and consumerism have included critiques of the prioritising of profit over people, and conceptualisations of Coronavirus as a brand itself, but the politics of notions of 'normality' promoted by consumer culture demand closer consideration. This article complements existing studies and debates by examining the tensions, contradictions, and morally neutral positions revealed by the advertising response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an analysis of UK advertising campaigns launched during and with reference to the pandemic, this work explores key themes and strategies, including their connection to power dynamics concerning race, gender, class, and capitalism. We suggest advertising during crises may offer
the opportunity to critique larger dynamics and trends of consumerism, including narrow notions of the defining features of 'everyday' life.
As the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly escalated in early 2020 and shelter-at-home orders cascaded around the world, celebrities streamed live performances from living rooms, home studios, and empty opera houses. Social media buzzed with gratitude for the entertainment, inspiration, and camaraderie that developed between ordinary citizens and celebrities sharing music from isolation via media technology. Celebrities also called upon their industry connections and friendships to create collaborative fundraising events, support working musicians whose tours were cancelled, and highlight amateur performers. Musicians who streamed simple performances from relatively modest homes and provided glimpses of their ‘real lives’ – their talents, personalities, homes, friendships, and families – won praise from audiences. Touring musicians and theatre performers in particular provide fascinating moments of empowered participatory citizenship during the pandemic. Beloved by relatively small, active fandoms but not widely popular outside their specific genres, these celebrities are positioned to provide meaningful social media connections with their devoted fans while not necessarily garnering high-profile media attention for their efforts. My critical analysis explores how musicians and theatre performers have responded to social distancing by sharing their music and fostering moments of connection with audiences who were seeking comfort during a global crisis.
For fashion, which is connected so intimately to our bodies, senses, emotions, and memories, value is more than a matter of cost. In order to illustrate the true value of fashion ‘radical transparency’ is framed as a tool through which brands can counter supply chain opacity and tell stories about the production of their garments. However, models of transparency often conceal more than they reveal. This article unpacks the concept of ‘radical transparency’ by exploring the differing approaches taken by three fashion brands: two large international brands and one boutique Australian label. It asks: how might radical transparency contribute to rethinking fashion value? By critically analysing the capacity for fashion businesses to communicate complex details of their supply chains to consumers who may suggest they want such information yet are also frequently overwhelmed by it, this article demonstrates the potential as well as the limits of transparency. It argues that while the degree to which models of transparency are ‘radical’ varies significantly, such methods of disclosure nevertheless introduce an important sense of openness to an industry otherwise defined by dislocated and difficult to trace modes of production.
The tourism industry in Bangladesh is growing at an approximate annual rate of over 7.75% increase in GDP each year with 3.8% contribution to employment in 2013. However, while in recent year the sector gained significant prominence in our country, especially when considering how attention has diversified throughout the nation, it is also true that due to unplanned and haphazard development of the sector, the destinations where tourism most touches also has become adversely affected by environmental and social consequences. As such, a call to attention for eco-tourism is greatly needed where special consideration will be ensured for tourism development to progresses in a sustainable manner with the welfare of society and all elements of the environment as an integral part of this growth. However, prior studies have shown that though the number of eco-tourism offers in various parts of Bangladesh have increased in the last half decade, demand of the same among Bangladeshi travelers have been stunted. Ethical consumerism itself is a quickly spreading phenomenon where consumer consciousness of corporate social responsibility driving its growth as the helm. However, numerous researches around the world have also indicated that there exists an intention-behavior gap whereby consumers do not always practice their ethical preaching, i.e. even ethical consumers do not always buy ethically. This study has aimed to identify whether the shared history between ethical consumerism and eco-tourism extends to actual purchase decision making among consumers by researching the everyday consumption patterns and travel choices of Bangladeshi travelers. By discovering the similarities and dissimilarities in the ethical consumption patterns between the everyday purchases and travel choices, the study hopes to learn whether conditioned behavior of the everyday may be transferred on to people's travel behavior and also where we may be able to close the gap between ethical intention and ethical behavior.
This chapter places the concept of sustainability in the context of recent debates about the environment, particularly climate change, as a ‘post-political’ issue. Exploring this concept, especially in relation to contemporary discussions of climate communication, the chapter suggests that the broad acceptance of sustainability can be understood as exemplifying the post-political condition identified by critics as foreclosing debate about possible alternative futures. The chapter argues that at the core of the problem of the post-political is a failure of agency – that the apparent difficulty of imagining large-scale social and political transformation results from a diminished view of the human subject. Ecological perspectives, whether advanced by conservatives or radicals, are hostile to attempts to master or control nature rather than respecting natural limits, and therefore tend to give expression to this anti-humanist viewpoint rather than challenging it.
This chapter focuses on the role of communication between food producers and consumers in global food networks. It introduces a new model of communication that draws on the active participation of food growers as information and content providers, and consumers’ virtual interaction with the producers through the spaces of the internet. The discussion is informed by data collected through the experiment introduced in Chap. 5. In this chapter, attention shifts to a group of consumers based in the UK, their engagement with the Indian farmers’ stories, and the informational value they draw from these stories. The chapter demonstrates how a dynamic producer-consumer knowledge and information exchange can drive a change in consumers’ mind-sets and lead to more meaningful consumer role in sustainable development.
Die Prinzipien der ganzheitlichen, integralen Business Ethik 3.0 werden auf die Wirtschaft angewendet. Nachhaltigkeit wird nach Hans-Peter Dürr definiert, dem die Erhaltung des Status quo nicht genügt, sondern der darauf Wert legt, dass das Lebende lebendiger gestaltet wird, wenn der Mensch schon in seine Umwelt eingreift. Das führt zu einer nachhaltigen Unternehmensführung sowie zu nachhaltigen Beziehungen zu Vorgesetzten, Kollegen, Mitarbeitern und allen Geschäftspartnern. Dazu gehören auch ethisches Verbraucherverhalten und eine nachhaltige, belastbare Verantwortung für unsere Umwelt. Das unmoralische Verhalten trotz detaillierter Ethikrichtlinien wird am VW-Skandal erläutert und es folgen die deutlichen Verbesserungen in der chemischen Industrie. Der Haager Ethikkodex ist das Ergebnis dieser Bemühungen. Die Quelle für Ethik und Moral ist das innere Wachstum des Individuums. Als Nebeneffekt wachsen Intuition, Kreativität und Innovation. Durch Achtsamkeitsübungen wachsen die Resilienz, die Gehirn- und Immunfunktionen werden verbessert, Angst und Depressionen verringert, Stress besser bewältigt, Schmerz und koronare Herzerkrankungen reduziert und die Lebensqualität verbessert. Einmal auf diesem Weg der Bewusstseinserweiterung, verhält sich das Individuum ethisch und moralisch einwandfrei, nicht weil es muss, sondern weil es gar nicht anders kann. Bessere Ergebnisse und nachhaltiger Unternehmenserfolg sind eher gewährleistet.
Care, in all its permutations, is the buzzword of the moment, its meanings draining away in its constant evocation. Here, we briefly expand on older and newer meanings of care in the wake of Covid-19. These include the increasingly blurred boundaries between what has been traditionally understood as “care work” versus “essential work”; desperate attempts by corporations to promote themselves as ‘caring’; and the adoption of reactionary rather than progressive models of ‘care’ by populist leaders such as Trump, Johnson, and Bolsonaro. We then argue that we are in urgent need of a politics that recognises our mutual interdependence and vulnerability. Rejecting the extensive carelessness so evident today, our model of ‘universal care’ calls for inventive forms of collective care at every scale of life. We envisage a world in which genuine care is everywhere —from our most intimate ties to our relationship with the planet itself.
En este capítulo ofrecemos una tipología que permita clasificar los vídeos online de divulgación científica, mediante el análisis de una amplia muestra de vídeos, sintetizando los resultados obtenidos en investigaciones previas (De Lara, García-Avilés y Revuelta, 2017; García-Avilés, 2015). También destacamos aquellos formatos de video online que resultan especialmente innovadores, por la tecnología o el tratamiento del tema que abordan.
The terminology employed to explore consumption ethics, the counterpart to business ethics, is increasingly varied not least because consumption has become a central discourse and area of investigation across disciplines (e.g. Graeber, 2011). Rather than assuming interchangeability, we argue that these differences signify divergent understandings and contextual nuances and should, therefore, inform future writing and understanding in this area. Accordingly, this article advances consumer ethics scholarship through a systematic review of the current literature that identifies key areas of convergence and contradiction. We then present the articles in this Journal of Business Ethics Symposium and analyse how these articles fit within the interdisciplinary themes. Subsequently, we develop a transdisciplinary theoretical framework that encapsulates the complexity and contextual nature of consumption ethics. We conclude by outlining how genuinely transdisciplinary research into the intersection of ethics with consumption may develop.
This article theorizes the commodification of the recent resurgence of feminist activism through the concept of “feminist commodity activism.” The focus is on the mass popularization of feminist-themed commodities, with T-shirts as a particular focus. First, I discuss how the mass marketing of feminist goods ties in with: (a) commodity feminism, by refetishizing commodities and consumption as empowering for women; (b) neoliberal feminism, through the construction of the feminist as an economic and choice-making subject; and (c) commodity activism, by entangling feminism with the discourses and practices of ethical consumption. Building on these concepts, I propose “feminist commodity activism” as a way to capture and further analyze the current commodification of feminism activism occurring at their intersection. I argue that feminist commodity activism instigates three further shifts: the commodification of the aesthetic experience of feminist street protest; the transfer of feminist activist agency to companies, charities, and entrepreneurs; and the branding of the feminist as a subject of value. Finally, the article considers the challenges that these shifts pose for feminist critique and politics.
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