Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction

ISBN-13: 9780415558259 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 284 str.

Tania Lewis

Opis

A not-so-quiet revolution seems to be occurring in wealthy capitalist societies - supermarkets selling 'guilt free' Fairtrade products; lifestyle TV gurus exhorting us to eat less, buy local and go green; neighbourhood action groups bent on 'swopping not shopping'. And this is happening not at the margins of society but at its heart, in the shopping centres and homes of ordinary people. Today we are seeing a mainstreaming of ethical concerns around consumption that reflects an increasing anxiety with - and accompanying sense of responsibility for - the risks and excesses of contemporary lifestyles in the 'global north'. This collection of essays provides a range of critical tools for understanding the turn towards responsible or conscience consumption and, in the process, interrogates the notion that we can shop our way to a more ethical, sustainable future. Written by leading international scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds - and drawing upon examples from across the globe - Ethical Consumption makes a major contribution to the still fledgling field of ethical consumption studies. This collection is a must-read for anyone interested in the relationship between consumer culture and contemporary social life.

Recenzje

'Edited by Lewis (RMIT Univ., Australia) and Potter (Deakin Univ., Australia), this collection of essays is replete with critical analyses of a wide range of ethically salient issues such as global food production and distribution; fair trade and the commodification of poverty; commodity fetishism camouflaged as local, natural, and traditional consumption; ethically branded bottled water; green renovation; slow living; and more. These topics are brilliantly dissected by experts in human geography, cultural and media studies, and ethnography....Simple solutions are not to be found, but valuable case studies of collaboration across geographical distance and disciplinary affiliations reveal the possibilities of innovative solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems. Summing Up: Recommended.'
-S. A. Mason, Concordia University in Choice, September 2011

Spis treści

Preface  Part 1: Introduction  1. Introducing Ethical Consumption  Part 2: Politics  2. What's Wrong with Ethical Consumption? 3. The Simple and the Good: Ethical Consumption as Anti-Consumerism 4. Fair Trade in Cyberspace: The Commodification of Poverty and the Marketing of Crafts on the Internet 5. Neo-liberalism, the 'Obesity Epidemic' and the Challenge to Theory  Part 3: Commodities and Materiality  6. Placing Alternative Consumption: Commodity Fetishism in Borough Fine Foods Market, London 7. Feeding the World: Towards a Messy Ethics of Eating 8. Drinking to Live: The Work of Ethically-Branded Bottled Water 9. Ethical Consumption, Sustainable Production, and Wine 10. Eco-ethical Electronic Consumption in the 'Smart-design' Economy 11. The Ethics of Second Hand Consumption 12. Is Green the New Black? Exploring Ethical Fashion Consumption  Part 4: Practices, Sites and Representatives  13. Slow Living and the Temporalities of Sustainable Consumption 14. Ethical Consumption Begins at Home: Green Renovations, Eco-Homes and Sustainable Home Improvement 15. Cultivating Citizen-subjects Through Collective Praxis: Organized Gardening Projects in Australia and Philippines 16. Lifestyle Television: Gardening and the Good Life 17. 'Caring at a Distance': The Ambiguity and Negotiations of Ethical Investment18. The Moral Terrains of Ecotourism and the Ethics of Consumption