Will consumers save the world? The framing of political consumerism

Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 20 (5):469-482 (2007)
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Abstract

An active ethically conscious consumer has been acclaimed as the new hero and hope for an ethically improved capitalism. Through consumers’ “voting” at the checkout, corporations are supposed to be held accountable for their conduct. In the literature on political consumerism, this has mainly been approached as political participation and governance. In this article, we do a critical review of this literature. We do so by questioning the existence of what we call a “generic active consumer model.” At the core of this position, there is a belief that the active consumer is a universal entity, available across nations and time. Instead we call for an approach that takes accord of the ways consumers and consumer roles are framed in interactive processes in markets, governance structures, and everyday life. Consumers in different countries assess their responsibilities and their powers as consumers differently due to different institutionalizations within distinctive contexts. We also must take into account how the inertia of ordinary consumption and the moral complexities of everyday life restrict the adoption of an active consumerist role. Hence, the debate on political consumerism should make for a more realistic notion of ethical consumer-sovereignty and its role in improving the workings of capitalism. In our view, these findings have severe implications for understanding both theories of political consumption and the dynamics of political consumption per se.

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References found in this work

Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences.Jon Elster - 1989 - Cambridge University Press.
Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. [REVIEW]Erving Goffman - 1974 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 39 (4):601-602.
No Logo.Naomi Klein - 2007 - Science and Society 71 (3):361-363.

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