Completing the Circuit: Routine, Reflection, and Ethical Consumption

Abstract

Efforts to explain why some people incorporate ethical concerns into everyday shopping for food and household goods, while many do not, have so far left significant variation in "ethical consumption" unexplained. Seeking to move beyond explanations that rely mainly on differences in consumers' social class, gender, and political engagement, I draw on concepts associated with "practice theory" to argue that ethical consumption is closely tied to people's willingness and ability to spend time, while shopping, on distinct activities associated with breaking old routines and establishing new ones. The central insight of practice theory is that most consumption is the product of unconscious routine. And it is precisely because consciously departing from routine is, according to my study, a fundamentally time-consuming process, that lack of time emerges as a crucial obstacle to translating abstract ethical concerns into concrete action as a consumer. . 2 The terms ethical consumption, political consumerism, and conscious consumption have all been used to describe buying products based on ethical or political views (Willis and Schor 2012). I use ethical consumption-as well as ethical consumers and ethical products-because most people interviewed for this study preferred to describe their actions as "ethical" rather than "political." I do not mean to suggest that some consumers are, in an objective sense, behaving ethically, or that certain products are necessarily more ethical than others.

Maintaining Meat: Cultural Repertoires and the Meat Paradox in a Diverse Sociocultural Context

“…However, we find benefit in an expanded conception of the “attitude‐behavior” gap that moves beyond individual consumer psyches, one that considers the cultural factors that facilitate sustained meat‐eating habits alongside rising concern. Sociologists have recently taken up the challenge of explaining continuity in ethically contested consumption practices by drawing from practice theory (e.g., Schoolman ; Warde ). Critically, practice theory suggests that people don't always consume deliberately but rely on unconscious routines/habits.…”

“…:126; Ruby :145). Sociologists have only begun to address the puzzle of sustained meat consumption, yet recent scholarship (on meat and other forms of ethically laden consumption) emphasizes the practical, embedded, contextual nature of consumption choices (e.g., Chiles ; Schoolman ; Thorslun and Lassen ; Warde ). We build on these insights, drawing from a highly diverse set of consumer interviews that includes consumers from varied ethnoracial backgrounds and socioeconomic positions.…”

“…We deem this an especially significant task since many important studies of vegetarianism and meat eating (e.g., Rothgerber 2013) have focused on white eaters, with far less understanding of how meat eating is understood cross-culturally (Piazza et al 2015:126;Ruby 2012:145). Sociologists have only begun to address the puzzle of sustained meat consumption, yet recent scholarship (on meat and other forms of ethically laden consumption) emphasizes the practical, embedded, contextual nature of consumption choices (e.g., Chiles 2017;Schoolman 2016;Thorslun and Lassen 2017;Warde 2016). We build on these insights, drawing from a highly diverse set of consumer interviews that includes consumers from varied ethnoracial backgrounds and socioeconomic positions.…”

Dominion, Stewardship and Reconciliation in the Accounts of Ordinary People Eating Animals

“…Research that aims at understanding and reimagining human and nonhuman relationships often concentrates on the active efforts of individuals and groups to better the world (e.g., Beaman 2017; Warners et al 2014). However, while intriguing findings have been yielded by these analyses, it is also important to study those people who are not particularly invested in social action, and those practices that are not deeply reflected upon on an ethical level (Schoolman 2016). In other words, in addition to "world repairing" activities (see Beaman 2017), there is a need to study "world maintaining" conduct.…”

Escaping the Interpersonal Power Game: Online Shopping in China

“…Moreover, social factors, such as time constraints, influence whether people incorporate ethical concerns into everyday shopping (Schoolman 2016).…”