A psycho-social approach to consumer ethics

Abstract

Research into consumer ethics has grown considerably over the last two decades. However most studies adopt either a psychological or a socio-cultural approach and there has been little in the way of bridging the two together. Accordingly, we draw on Kleinian psychoanalysis as a means of advancing an explicitly psycho-social understanding of consumer ethics. Following an emerging tradition that conceptualises moral dilemmas as questions of care, rather than abstract principles of moral and environmental justice, we conceptualise consumer care as a capacity that for its extension across difference and distance is subject to a variety of biographical, inter-subjective and institutional-level processes.Subsequently, we attempt to redress forms of theoretical reductionism noted in both psychological and socio-cultural accounts of everyday morality in consumption. We corroborate a more nuanced, mid-ground conceptualisation that neither precludes nor overstates the possibility of consumer agency whilst also locating agency in inanimate objects. Finally, we offer a methodological contribution by introducing a psychoanalytic (Kleinian) approach to analysing textual and visual data..

The Consumers’ Emotional Dog Learns to Persuade Its Rational Tail: Toward a Social Intuitionist Framework of Ethical Consumption

“…As consumers increasingly express concerns about environmental and social issues by choosing "green" and "fairly traded" goods (Harrison et al, 2005), business ethics and consumer behavior researchers are turning increasing attention to ethical consumption (Caruana et al, 2016;Chatzidakis et al, 2018). Ethical consumers support prosocial consumption and sustainability by avoiding products and services offered by companies that violate human rights, exploit labor, degrade environments, or trade unfairly (Shaw and Clarke, 1999).…”

Υπεύθυνη Κατανάλωση: Μια Κεντρική Διάσταση Της Εκπαίδευσης Για Το Περιβάλλον Και Την Αειφορία

“…Εδώ μπορούμε να διακρίνουμε δυο βασικά παραδείγματα (π.χ. Chatzidakis et al, 2018). Το πρώτο υιοθετεί κυρίως μια ψυχολογική και κοινωνιο-γνωστική προσέγγιση.…”

From Scarcity to Abundance: Food Waste Themes and Virtues in Agrarian and Mature Consumer Society

“…Many of the newspaper and magazine texts from different time periods refer to food leftovers and food waste directly, or they indirectly assume that the waste problem is attributable to consumers' shopping, cooking, dining and general food handling practices and skills. Thus, although the role of institutions' structures and practices also is acknowledged, the principal responsibility is placed on consumers (e.g., Chatzidakis, Shaw, & Allen, 2018;Welch et al, 2018). Meanwhile, the moral discourse on the food waste problem's consequences addresses global concerns, such as climate change and the planet's sustainability.…”