Globalizing Responsibility
The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption
RGS-IBG Book Series
1. Edition November 2010
248 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption presents an innovative reinterpretation of the forces that have shaped the remarkable growth of ethical consumption.
* Develops a theoretically informed new approach to shape our understanding of the pragmatic nature of ethical action in consumption processes
* Provides empirical research on everyday consumers, social networks, and campaigns
* Fills a gap in research on the topic with its distinctive focus on fair trade consumption
* Locates ethical consumption within a range of social theoretical debates -on neoliberalism, governmentality, and globalisation
* Challenges the moralism of much of the analysis of ethical consumption, which sees it as a retreat from proper citizenly politics and an expression of individualised consumerism
Preface and Acknowledgements.
1 Introduction: Politicizing Consumption in an Unequal World.
1.1 The Moralization of Consumption.
1.2 Justice, Responsibility and the Politics of Consumption.
1.3 Relocating Agency in Ethical Consumption.
1.4 Problematizing Consumption.
Part One Theorizing Consumption Differently.
2 The Ethical Problematization of 'The Consumer'.
2.1 Teleologies of Consumerism and Individualization.
2.2 Theorizing Consumers as Political Subjects.
2.3 The Responsibilization of the Consumer.
2.4 What Type of Subject Is 'The Consumer'?
2.5 Does Governing Consumption Involve Governing the Consumer?
2.6 The Ethical Problematization of the Consumer.
2.7 Conclusion.
3 Practising Consumption.
3.1 The Antinomies of Consumer Choice.
3.2 Theorizing Consumption Practices.
3.3 Problematizing Choice.
3.4 Articulating Background.
3.5 Conclusion.
4 Problematizing Consumption.
4.1 Consumer Choice and Citizenly Acts.
4.2 Articulating Consumption and the Consumer.
4.3 Mobilizing the Ethical Consumer.
4.4 Articulating the Ethical Consumer.
4.5 Conclusion.
Part Two Doing Consumption Differently.
5 Grammars of Responsibility.
5.1 Justifying Practices.
5.2 Researching the (Ir)responsible Consumer.
5.3 Versions of Responsibility.
5.4 Dilemmas of Responsibility.
5.5 Conclusion.
6 Local Networks of Global Feeling.
6.1 Locating the Fair Trade Consumer.
6.2 Re-evaluating Fair Trade Consumption.
6.3 Managing Fair Trade, Mobilizing Networks.
6.4 Doing Fair Trade: Buying, Giving, Campaigning.
6.5 Conclusion.
7 Fairtrade Urbanism.
7.1 Rethinking the Spatialities of Fair Trade.
7.2 Re-imagining Bristol: From Slave Trade to Fair Trade.
7.3 Putting Fair Trade in Place.
7.4 Fair Trade and 'The Politics of Place Beyond Place'.
7.5 Conclusion.
8 Conclusion: Doing Politics in an Ethical Register.
8.1 Beyond the Consumer.
8.2 Doing Responsibility.
Notes.
References.
Index.
Ethical Consumption presents an innovative reinterpretation of
the forces that have shaped the remarkable growth of ethical
consumption." (Breitbart.com: Business Wire, 29 November
2010)
"Based on original research and innovative thinking, this profound
and insightful book challenges conventional thinking about 'ethical
consumption.' Approaching the subject as a distinctive form of
political mobilisation, Globalizing Responsibility shows how
our everyday consumption practices are related to wider narratives
of social justice and collective responsibility."
--Peter Jackson, University of Sheffield
"By viewing ethical consumption patterns as a political
phenomenon, the authors deliver a far deeper understanding of this
growing movement than a whole raft of marketing and business
literature which has gone before."
--Rob Harrison, Ethical Consumer Magazine
Social Sciences, The Open University.
Paul Cloke is Professor of Human Geography, Department of
Geography, University of Exeter.
Nick Clarke is Lecturer in Human Geography, Department of
Geography, University of Southampton.
Alice Malpass is Research Associate, Primary Health Care,
University of Bristol.