Ethical consumption? There's an app for that. Digital technologies and everyday consumption practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 590-601
Author(s):  
Roberta Hawkins ◽  
Naomi Horst
2015 ◽  
pp. 1887-1900
Author(s):  
J. W. Dushan Chaminda ◽  
Nilanthi Ratnayake

Consumption is an essential everyday process. By very nature, it is a means of expressing our moral identities and an outlet for ethical obligations. In more recent years, ethical aspects of consumption have come under greater scrutiny with the emergence of ethical consumption discourses, and are currently associated with a range of consumer behaviours and responsible business practices. To this end, religion is an undeniably powerful and concurrently the most successful marketing force that can shape the ethical behaviour, yet under-investigated in consumption practices despite Corporate Socially Responsibility provoked ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption practices are regularly characterised as consumption activities that avoid harm to other people, animals or the environment where basic Buddhist teachings become more pertinent and practiced in Buddhist communities. This study conceptualises the importance of religious beliefs in ethical consumer behaviour and through researcher introspection methodology, the study empirically explore whether and how ethical consumerism is reflected through Five Precepts of Buddhism [i.e. (1) abstain from taking life, (2) abstain from stealing, (3) abstain from sexual misconduct, (4) abstain from false speech, and (5) abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind]. The study contributes to the theory and teaching in the marketing discipline by linking how religious beliefs enhance ethical consumerism that remains largely unexplored.


Author(s):  
Nilanthi Ratnayake ◽  
Dushan Chaminda Jayawickrama

Consumption is an essential everyday process. By very nature, it is a means of expressing our moral identities and an outlet for ethical obligations. In more recent years, ethical aspects of consumption have come under greater scrutiny with the emergence of ethical consumption discourses, and are currently associated with a range of consumer behaviours and responsible business practices. To this end, religion is considered an undeniably powerful and concurrently the most successful marketing force that can shape the ethical behaviour, yet under-investigated in consumption practices despite the Corporate Socially Responsibility provoked ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption practices are regularly characterised as consumption activities that avoid harm to other people, animals or the environment where basic Buddhist teachings become more pertinent and practiced in Buddhist communities. This Chapter aims to conceptualise the importance of religious beliefs in ethical consumer behaviour and present the findings of a study that explored whether and how ethical consumerism is reflected through Five Precepts of Buddhism [i.e. (1) abstain from taking life, (2) abstain from stealing, (3) abstain from sexual misconduct, (4) abstain from false speech, and (5) abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind]. The content of the Chapter contributes to the theory and teaching in the marketing discipline by linking how religious beliefs enhance ethical consumerism that remains largely unexplored.


Author(s):  
J. W. Dushan Chaminda ◽  
Nilanthi Ratnayake

Consumption is an essential everyday process. By very nature, it is a means of expressing our moral identities and an outlet for ethical obligations. In more recent years, ethical aspects of consumption have come under greater scrutiny with the emergence of ethical consumption discourses, and are currently associated with a range of consumer behaviours and responsible business practices. To this end, religion is an undeniably powerful and concurrently the most successful marketing force that can shape the ethical behaviour, yet under-investigated in consumption practices despite Corporate Socially Responsibility provoked ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption practices are regularly characterised as consumption activities that avoid harm to other people, animals or the environment where basic Buddhist teachings become more pertinent and practiced in Buddhist communities. This study conceptualises the importance of religious beliefs in ethical consumer behaviour and through researcher introspection methodology, the study empirically explore whether and how ethical consumerism is reflected through Five Precepts of Buddhism [i.e. (1) abstain from taking life, (2) abstain from stealing, (3) abstain from sexual misconduct, (4) abstain from false speech, and (5) abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind]. The study contributes to the theory and teaching in the marketing discipline by linking how religious beliefs enhance ethical consumerism that remains largely unexplored.


Author(s):  
Nilanthi Ratnayake ◽  
Dushan Chaminda Jayawickrama

Consumption is an essential everyday process. By very nature, it is a means of expressing our moral identities and an outlet for ethical obligations. In more recent years, ethical aspects of consumption have come under greater scrutiny with the emergence of ethical consumption discourses, and are currently associated with a range of consumer behaviours and responsible business practices. To this end, religion is considered an undeniably powerful and concurrently the most successful marketing force that can shape the ethical behaviour, yet under-investigated in consumption practices despite the Corporate Socially Responsibility provoked ethical behaviour. Ethical consumption practices are regularly characterised as consumption activities that avoid harm to other people, animals or the environment where basic Buddhist teachings become more pertinent and practiced in Buddhist communities. This Chapter aims to conceptualise the importance of religious beliefs in ethical consumer behaviour and present the findings of a study that explored whether and how ethical consumerism is reflected through Five Precepts of Buddhism [i.e. (1) abstain from taking life, (2) abstain from stealing, (3) abstain from sexual misconduct, (4) abstain from false speech, and (5) abstain from intoxicants that cloud the mind]. The content of the Chapter contributes to the theory and teaching in the marketing discipline by linking how religious beliefs enhance ethical consumerism that remains largely unexplored.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146954052110396
Author(s):  
Amber Martin-Woodhead

Minimalism is an increasingly popular lifestyle movement in western economies (predominantly in the USA, Japan and Europe) that involves voluntarily reducing consumption and limiting one’s possessions to a bare minimum. This is with the intention of making space for the ‘important’ (potentially immaterial) things that are seen to add meaning and value to one’s life. Drawing on interviews with minimalists in the UK, this article reveals that minimalists practice sustainable (non)consumption via limiting their consumption. This is achieved by actively buying less, using up and maintaining what is owned, and, when objects are acquired, only practising highly intentional, considered and (sometimes) ethical consumption. For some, such practices are predominantly based on strong ethical and environmental motivations or are seen as a positive ‘by-product’ of their minimalist lifestyles. Whilst for others, their motivations are primarily aligned to personal well-being. The article subsequently argues that the limited and considered practices of minimalist consumption can be seen as sustainable practices in outcome, if not always in intent.


Author(s):  
Andrey Gusev ◽  
◽  
Anastasia Korshikova ◽  
Tatyana Pokrovskaya ◽  
◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Garcia-Ruiz ◽  
Carlos Rodriguez-Lluesma

ABSTRACT:Ethical research on consumption has focused mainly on the obligations, principles and values guiding consumers' actions and reasons for action. In doing so, it has concerned itself mostly with such bounded contexts as voluntary simplifiers, anti-consumption movements or so-called ‘ethical consumers,’ thereby fostering an artificial opposition between ethical and non-ethical consumption. This paper proposes virtue ethics as a more apt conceptual framework for the ethical analysis of consumption because it takes into account the developmental dynamic triggered by engagement in consumption practices. We build on MacIntyre's goods-virtues-practices-institutions framework and Beabout's concept of a domain-relative practice and argue that when engaging in consumption activities, agents may pursue goods internal to practices, further their individual life narratives and contribute to the good of their communities, thus developing virtues that perfect themselves both as consumers and as ethical agents.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146954052110620
Author(s):  
Joep Onstenk

Recent scholarship has paid considerable attention to the emergence of the citizen-consumer in the interwar era. Drawing on the literature from the fields of ethical consumption and consumer history, this paper opts for a broader perspective on the emergence of the citizen-consumer in historical analysis. It combines the polysemic nature of the hybrid citizen-consumer from food studies and ethical consumption, and the socio-historic analysis concerning political and cultural citizenship, by showing how consumption practices have been used to shape Dutch national citizenship. In the Netherlands, the private association Vereeniging Nederlandsch Fabrikaat (VNF) was one of the earliest and most vocal organisations that linked consumerism with an ideal of citizenship. Scholars typically tend to see the rise of the citizen-consumer as a product of three interest groups: the consumers, the state, or the industry. The VNF did not just appeal to consumers themselves, but also the government, and the business community to play their part in the development of the ideal Dutch citizen-consumer. By studying the practices of this association this paper thus offers a new perspective on the emergence of the citizen-consumer within a transnational perspective.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Balsiger

Ethical consumption can take different forms, some more contentious like boycotts or public campaigns, some aiming at the establishment or promotion of alternative consumption practices (buycotts). This study looks at how these tactics are articulated by analyzing the development of an “ethical shopping map,” an action situated in the latter category of “supportive” actions. In 2007, a Swiss nongovernmental organization published this map as part of its ongoing campaign fighting for the respect of social standards in the global garment industry. A project pursued by a regional group of volunteers of the organization, the map listed stores where ethical clothes can be purchased in a big Swiss city. This article consists of an ethnographic analysis of the process of elaboration of the map and discusses its inclusion into the tactical repertoire of the anti-sweatshop campaign. Based on participant observation and interviews with volunteers and campaign staff, it examines what drives the activists’ concern with alternative forms of consumption. It looks at the rationales and meanings the volunteers put behind the map and the different uses of the map that are suggested, and examines the ultimate “failure” of making it a lasting part of the campaign’s tactical action repertoire. Doing so, the article reveals the inherent tension of “ethical consumption,” between supportive action forms based on buycotts and denunciatory actions of public shaming of firms whose practices are criticized.


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