essay on ethical consumption

The rise of ethical consumption: A new era of consumerism

Consumerism changed consumption patterns in the mid- to late-18th century, after the industrial revolution. As economies around the world began to shift their attention towards being more liberalised and opening their trading doors to globalisation, consumerism changed consumption for the normal person.

If you step into the market today to buy an essential product like toothpaste or a luxury product, you will face a plethora of choices ranging from differences in price points to quality, shape, size, etc. With the vast number of products to pick from, from purchasing a pen to a smartphone, it is safe to say that a consumer in the contemporary era today has more choices than a consumer in the 18th century.

Consumerism has become such a principal part of our lives that it is almost impossible to think of or imagine a time before people’s purchasing habits were driven by consumerism. Wide and popular displays of opulence or wealth were only luxuries that a small percentage of people, mostly royalty, could afford.

Under consumerism, however, every ordinary person becomes a consumer. The display of wealth or opulence today is of great importance to attaining social capital. However, the pandemic has really changed how people look at their consumption patterns, and more so, the younger generations are making the choice to be environmentally conscious of their consumption.

Conscious consumption has changed consumer behaviour around the world, with people now being more mindful of their consumption and environmental issues.

Consumerism has long been a driving force in the global economy, with individuals constantly seeking out new products and services to satisfy their wants and needs. It’s crucial to remember that wants, not necessarily needs, are what drive consumerism. Companies that advertise and produce different versions of the same product further amplify this pattern of consumption.

What is ethical consumerism?

In recent years, a new trend has emerged: ethical consumerism. This trend in consumption is characterised by consumers making purchasing decisions based on the ethical and moral values of the companies they support.  

Let us take a closer look at what is driving the shift towards ethical consumption.

Growing awareness of social and environmental issues

Social media platforms have now evolved into more than just spaces for individuals to connect for socialising; activism, especially environmental activism, has sprung up as a sustained trend on all major social media platforms.

This provides a space for every user on said social media platform to easily access news about climate change, which in turn increases awareness of environmental issues.

Independent journalists leverage social media platforms to expose social and environmental issues through documentaries and news coverage that otherwise would drown in mainstream media.

The major factor driving the rising concern for issues such as climate change, human rights, and animal welfare is the autonomy that users have on social media which gives them the liberty to discuss topics of their choice with a wider social network at ease.

Influence of millennials and Gen Z

A Pew research study conducted in 2021 finds that Gen Z and Millennials prioritise social and environmental responsibility. With these generations being an active part of the consumerist culture, we are seeing a growing trend of ethical consumption.

Social media, as explored in the point above, is a useful tool that helps in disseminating and sharing information about environmental news.

Increasingly, social media platforms are also used to bring awareness to brands and companies that are environmentally conscious. Vegan diets, sustainable fashion collections, and tips to lead a sustainable lifestyle, among others, are all trends that are popular and influence many users through social media.

Impact of Corporate Scandals

Being environmentally conscious is not just an individual effort but needs a reform of practices at the systemic level, and this sentiment has been highly emphasised in recent environmental movements.

There is increased scrutiny over corporate practices and with the internet connecting people closer now than ever, brushing these malpractices under the rug is also impossible. High-profile scandals involving unethical business practices are often publicised, and in the online space, these corporate unethical scandals take on a life of their own.

Lack of transparency and greenwashing are common examples of how corporations take advantage of a consumer’s choice to engage in environmentally conscious consumption.

The loss of trust in traditional corporations due to unethical practices is on the rise, and this sentiment is compelling a lot of companies to seek out a strategy that aligns environmentally and aids social development.

It is no surprise that, with the rise of ethical consumption, consumers seek out alternative brands with transparent and ethical practices that align with their environmental and social beliefs. 

To conclude, ethical consumerism is a growing movement that is reshaping the way individuals make purchasing decisions. With increased awareness of social and environmental issues, the influence of younger generations, and the impact of corporate scandals, consumers are demanding more transparency and ethical practices from companies.

While there are challenges and limitations to ethical consumerism, the benefits of supporting ethical brands and making conscious consumption choices are undeniable. As this trend in consumption continues to gain momentum, it has the potential to create a new era of consumerism that prioritises a social and environmental responsibility.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ET Edge Insights, its management, or its members

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Ethical consumption practices, social practice theory, multilevel perspective, combination approach.

Revised Amendments from Version 1

We would like to appreciate the constructive comments and suggestions that we received from reviewers. As a response to reviewers' comments, this second version provides more clarifications on the following key issues raised by the reviewres: first we have developed more concise arguments explaining why the multilevel perspective can enhance the understanding of the formation of ethical consumption; second, we explain the difference between flat and veritical ontology; and lastly, we have included some suggestions for future research.

See the authors' detailed response to the review by Kirsten Gram-Hanssen and Line Kryger Aagaard See the authors' detailed response to the review by Philip Balsiger

1. Introduction

Studying consumption as a social phenomenon that represents the fabric of society has opened a broad research space for social practice theory (SPT) in consumption studies in the recent decades. It is well recognized in SPT studies that we ought to lift the sight from the individual as a unit of analysis towards that of social practices in the socio-material surrounding. We agree with this but find that social structure and culture on ‘higher’ levels still often get insufficient attention. In line with this, several scholars have suggested combining the SPT and multi-level perspective (MLP) to advance the understanding of sustainability in general 1 ( el Bilali, 2019 ; Hargreaves et al ., 2013 ; Hinrichs, 2014 ; Keller et al ., 2022 ; Laakso et al. , 2021 ; McMeekin & Southerton, 2012 ; Spaargaren et al ., 2012 ; Watson, 2012 ; Welch & Warde, 2015 ). In one recent systematic review, Keller et al. (2022) point out that the main empirical focuses of such a combined analytical framework to date had included practices in niche innovations, energy, food and agriculture, mobility, water and housing. This method of understanding can be extended to the study of ethical consumption, which is a partly overlapping phenomenon. Ethical consumption 2 refers to a set of consumption practices that are shaped by societal and environmental concerns related to green issues, workers’ rights and conditions, child labour, unfair trade, resource degradation, irresponsible marketing, animal testing, and oppressive regimes ( Berki-Kiss & Menrad, 2022 ; Carrigan et al ., 2004 ; Carrington et al ., 2010 ; de Pelsmacker et al ., 2005 ; Freestone & McGoldrick, 2008 ; Huddart Kennedy et al ., 2019 ; Wooliscroft et al ., 2014 ). However, it remains contested how the representations of the phenomenon are formed and actualized in different societies and among different people. A great bulk of the literature on ethical consumption, particularly such inspired by marketing and psychological models, has tended to investigate the impacts of individual factors such as values, preferences and motives ( de Pelsmacker et al ., 2005 ; Freestone & McGoldrick, 2008 ; Shove, 2010 ; and Zaikauskaitė et al ., 2022 ). For example, in a recent study, Berki-Kiss & Menrad (2022) , suggest that consumer knowledge, attitude and emotions are significant factors to push consumers to purchase agricultural non-food (fairtrade cut roses) ethical products ( Berki-Kiss & Menrad, 2022 ). Likewise, through investigating research models on consumption behaviour, Carrington et al. (2010) indicate that ethical purchasing intentions are mainly driven by factors such as personal values, moral norms, mental processes and internal ethics ( Carrington et al ., 2010 ). Can we claim that these factors are merely individual factors? Can we see consumers as autonomous and independent actors in social structures? However, the remarkable “intention-behaviour gap” among ethical consumers’ ( Belk et al ., 2005 ; Carrigan & Attalla, 2001 ; Zaikauskaitė et al ., 2022 ) indicates there might be “various constraints” in society and “competing demands” to hamper consumers from acting ethically ( Carrington et al ., 2010 ). In order to avoid oversimplifying consumer behaviour to linear psychological models ( Bagozzi, 2000 ) (like the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB); and Value-Belief-Norm (VBN)), it is important to understand ethical consumption as a context-dependent phenomenon ( Zaikauskaitė et al ., 2022 ) that is influenced by social structures, technical infrastructures, available knowledge, culture, public policies and social norms (see e.g. Boström et al. , 2019 ; Hysing, 2019 ; Wahlen & Dubuisson-Quellier, 2018 ). People, government, and businesses are, according to Stolle & Micheletti (2013) , the pillars of social change through consumption practices, whereas de Moor & Balsiger (2019) highlight the role of social movement organizations for initiating forms of consumption such as ethical consumption. Thus, we suggest placing ethical consumption at the intersection of two analytical frameworks, social practice theory and the multilevel perspective for two reasons: first to take into consideration a set of interrelated elements in different levels (micro, meso and micro) influencing ethically oriented consumption practices; and second to generate deepened understanding of the phenomenon. This is an attempt to uncover why for example, ethical consumption appears more institutionalized, broad-spread and easily available in some societies like north-western European countries ( de Moor & Balsiger, 2019 ) but not in others 3 .

Social practice theory is a theoretical upgrade in consumption studies that would be useful in the study of ethical consumption and in filling gaps in the scholarship. This theory introduces a proper framework for consumption studies by making interconnections between the roles of material, meaning and competencies in the creation of practices ( Gram-Hanssen, 2021 ). It argues that people’s actions are influenced by their socio-material context, what they understand and receive from their environment, as well as their obligation toward others ( Heisserer & Rau, 2017 ; Rinkinen et al ., 2020 ). Although by emphasizing mainly everyday life, the SPT has opened a broad theoretical area to consumption studies, key analytical critiques concern its insufficient attention paid to macro- or structural pre-requisite of various consumption forms ( Keller et al ., 2022 ; Greene, 2018 ; Welch, 2020 ), and “supply side dynamics (like firms, innovation systems, technical capabilities” ( Geels et al ., 2015 : p. 10). Also, the power issue and role of macro-scale social inequalities in the formation of daily routines are almost absent in its endeavours to theorize consumption practices ( Geels et al ., 2015 ; van Kesteren & Evans, 2020 ). A greater theoretical lens that gives a broader picture of the formation of ethical consumption will enrich our sociological understanding of the systemic and structural factors that delimit ethical consumption agency or (re)define it according to the specific sociotechnical context. It also helps to shed light on the phenomenon from different angles. The need is even more urgent if we want to address, for instance, firstly the very different conditions for ethical consumption practices in different geographical contexts, and secondly, newly established forms of consumption practices that are mainly associated with the structural attributes of the society in question. Therefore, understanding ethical consumption as practices that come about in multi-level frameworks, this paper provides a deeper conceptual insight into the social (im)possibilities of the formation of ethical consumption. It also contributes attention to how ethical consumption grows due to dialectical processes between levels, which also helps to avoid the tendency of overly individualized perspectives on ethical consumption.

The next section, by introducing the SPT and MLP, briefly discusses some late conceptual developments aiming to broaden the analytical power of SPT; the insufficiency of such development if not a broader analytical lens such as MLP framework is included; and how the SPT and MLP can mutually enrich a developed analytical perspective regarding ethical consumption. Section three provides examples of ethical consumption in different sociotechnical regimes across the world. Section four discusses the configuration of ethical consumption within social regimes and also the dialectics between the levels in forming ethical consumption practices. This section is followed by the conclusion and suggestions for future research avenues.

2. SPT and MLP: a combined perspective to explain the routinization and upscaling process of newly emerged consumption practices

By following insights gained from MLP ( Geels, 2002 ) and recent scholarship, ethical consumption can be considered as a complex multilevel phenomenon “which involves more than an individual’s behaviour and practices” ( Boström et al ., 2019 : p. 4). Applying a multi-level analysis frame is a way to understand how practices are formed within a pre-given set of heterogeneous elements such as norms, conventions, infrastructures, knowledge, technology and other structural conditions like systems of provision associated with consumption practices in different levels of society. Despite the possible conflicts and tensions, practices evolve due to interdependencies and interconnections among these elements ( Boström et al ., 2019 ) and are reflected in social practices like consumption.

To understand social practices as a combination of elements, a useful and much-cited framework in consumption studies is the one suggested by Shove et al. (2012) . They argue that a specific practice occurs through specific connections between three components: 1) materials and technology (artefacts, infrastructures, and hardware); 2) meanings (images, understandings, feelings, mental activities, emotions and motivational knowledge); and 3) competencies and skills (background knowledge, know-how, general understanding) ( Shove et al ., 2012 ). According to this, in the context of ethical consumption, the alignment of the meaning of ethical consumption (a culture of caring for the environment, community and society; that is, caring attitudes), competencies (how to do and develop this protection) and material (infrastructures and technologies that make this opportunity available for people, including market products) navigate this practice. Co-evolution between meaning, material and competencies may lead to a transition in (or transformation of) practices. In the absence of one of these elements, the ethical consumption practice would not be able to attract broader groups of practitioners in society. In other words, an external intervention to bring in new technology (material) or spread new knowledge and education (competence), along with supporting communities of practitioners that try to change conventions and norms (meanings) through niche innovations, may lead to a social shift that eventually is followed up by practice change. In comparison to previous research, social practice theory has undergone gradual conceptual developments to address neglected aspects such as culture, ethics of care, motivations and affectivity to understand the formation of practice (e.g. Gram-Hanssen, 2021 ; Welch, 2020 ). For example, Gram-Hanssen argues that variation in consumer practices and the way that ‘ethics takes part in changing practices’ can contribute to further developing theories of practice (2021: 1). She suggests that socioeconomic and demographic factors such as gender, life course and class must be considered in understanding the elements of practice theories, i.e., material possessions, competency and meaning. She also brings attention to the variety of “general understanding” of ethics among different people and in different fields like food, mobility, housing, or waste. A general understanding can operate on both discursive and more tacit (pre-reflexive) levels of knowing. In the case of ethics and consumption, such understanding may involve both more explicit ethical codes/principles (as “taking care of”) and appear in more mundane situations in everyday life (as “caring for”). Ethics in consumer practices can be seen as a general understanding of “threading through many different practices, depending on the specific context and situation” ( Gram-Hanssen, 2021 : 13). Similarly, by introducing the concept of ‘teleoaffective formation’, Welch (2020) offers a configurational concept within the SPT to understand (sustainable) consumption practices in a nexus composed of general understandings of material, economic and aesthetic relationships. And Evans contributes insights into how various material semiotic approaches can link consumer practices to wider economic processes around commodification, production, distribution, and exchange ( Evans, 2020 ). All these insights are welcome development within or close to SPT that help to pay analytic attention to more overarching social phenomena in the area of ethical consumption. Nonetheless, the MLP could progress further as it is not constrained by the ‘flat ontology’ of the SPT and address attention to a further span of factors like that of specific sociotechnical regimes of society. To better cover these too often neglected aspects in the study of ethical consumption, we believe we can better understand the function and interconnectivity of different factors in shaping interlocked practices such as ethical consumption through a multilevel framework. A key problem of combining the two approaches is that SPT is said to be based on a flat ontology whereas MLP relies on a vertical ontology (see Keller et al. , 2022 ). Our argument as regards ontological assumptions is more in line with the latter, but we do not think this would invalidate the core insights from SPT. Rather, as emphasized by Keller et al. (2002) , there are many ways these can be fruitfully combined (e.g. zooming out and zooming out, combining horizontal and vertical analysis; interactions/intersections among regimes/practices).

According to Geels (2002) , the MLP provides a multi-layer analysis that sees sustainable practices as the result of the dialectic interaction between three levels of the micro (niche), meso (sociotechnical regimes), and macro (landscape). In this framework, the micro level refers to the spaces where innovative activities led by niches take place on small scales. The meso level, consisting of regimes, refers to the existing sociotechnical systems including the network of actors and social groups, rules and related technical and material elements. Finally, the macro level or landscape includes a set of external heterogeneous events and trends such as cultural changes, macroeconomic trends, wars and crises, pandemics like COVID-19, climate change, etc . The MLP locates technological and organizational innovations at the center of its analysis and argues that broader sociotechnical, economic and political contexts create more or less favourable circumstances for such innovation ( McMeekin & Southerton, 2012 ). In this perspective, regimes are home to incremental innovations whereas radical innovations are generated in niches. However, change of dominant practices rarely happens without a level of co-evolution of all three levels.

To have a better insight into the gains of applying a combined framework of the social practice theories and the MLP in understanding ethical consumption, in the following paragraph, according to deficiencies of each theory, we shortly discuss why such a combined framework may be a constructive approach to understand how ethical consumption can be developed among broader group of audiences. This heuristic combination also targets critical factors that SPT and MLP lack in their explanations regarding consumption-related practices. Even though practice theorists do speak of how practices are embedded in socio-material arrangements in society, there is arguably insufficient attention paid on larger scales. Welch & Warde (2015; 12–13) raise several criticisms of the SPT, one of those criticisms is particularly the focus of this study: social practice theories fail in relating the “minutiae of everyday performances of practices and the macro-institutional context ”. Considering niche dynamics as fluid novelties that are created at the micro-level and which might be obstructed by incumbent regimes ( Keller et al ., 2022 ), we argue that more attention needs to pay on how dispersed practices are able to expand to a wider range through supportive mechanisms at the meso-level ( i.e . civic groups, environmental groups) and moreover shape and reshape the macro-level setting (while at the same time being shaped by macro-level factors). Furthermore, by locating ethical consumption practices in the social context and considering their interconnectivity to other practices ( e.g . food practices, cleaning practices, commuting, etc .), we argue there is a need to take into consideration different forms and perceptions of the phenomenon that are created in accordance with the specific contextual situations (geography, sector-wise). Broad contextual factors include material and technological development ( Heisserer & Rau, 2017 ; Warde, 2014 ), economy including production ( Evans, 2020 ), the system of provision ( Fine & Bayliss, 2022 ) and political democratic culture and discourse ( Gundelach, 2020 ; Portilho & Micheletti, 2019 ). The advantage of the combination of the MLP and SPT in this context is to theorize in a deeper sense the structural conditions in terms of market, suppliers and producers’ networks, policies, technology, science and knowledge (MLP), and bring further attention to cultural features such as the importance of meaning and competencies embedded in the immediate social and physical context (SPT).

While the SPT pays insufficient attention to macro-institutional elements, the MLP could be criticized for over-emphasizing them by prioritizing the role of sociotechnical regimes. A critique of the MLP is that it appears to propose a technical-based, mechanistic and over-determined view ( Geels et al. , 2015 ; Hinrichs, 2014 ). However, we argue it is important with a perspective that recognizes that inertia is built into the system, and where nested regimes are stabilized and rarely undergo transformation. Yet, change is not deemed impossible, but we need to be more aware that moving towards sustainable/ethical consumption requires, in addition to technological changes, changes in consumer practices, cultural meanings, infrastructures, and economic practices as well ( Geels, 2019 ). “[T]echnology of itself, has no power, does nothing” ( Geels, 2002 : 1257) and therefore the significance of human agency and organizational structure in moving towards societal transformation must be considered.

3. Ethical consumption in different contexts

By broadly viewing ethical consumption in different contexts, it becomes even clearer how both ‘landscape’ and ‘sociotechnical regimes’ shape conditions for (the organizing of) ethical consumption practices. It is mainly emphasized that ethical consumers “talk” through their consumption choices (read power) to buy or refrain from purchasing goods or services which do or do not meet their ethical criteria when it comes to social and/or environmental standards ( de Pelsmacker et al ., 2005 ). Although following this argument looks plausible in “open market” in “democratic” countries it is unclear whether this seemingly simple definition is feasible in every socio-political and/or sociotechnical regime.

Figures of ethical consumption in the western contexts reveal that the extent of ethical/political consumption in comparison to both non-Western Europe and non-European contexts is very high ( de Moor & Balsiger, 2019 ; Koos, 2012 ). In addition to the explanations raised by the TPB ( Ajzen, 1991 ) and the VBN ( Stern, 2000 ) that generally represent the significance of individual factors ( i.e. consumers’ values, attitudes, subjective norms and knowledge), other plausible explanations, from sociological perspectives, relate to the relatively high level of welfare in the region along with the emergence of post-material values. Moreover, well-educated populations and free access to means of communication are two effective factors according to Boström et al . (2019) . This finding is in line with the Jacobsen & Dulsrud (2007) report that ethical consumption emerges in a more liberal world economy where new consumption forms are supported by non-governmental organizations, promote sovereign consumers’ ideas and provide alternative products and businesses ( Jacobsen & Dulsrud, 2007 ). Contrary to the nature of the phenomenon – which supposedly is to target governmental inefficiency pertaining pro-social and pro-environmental actions - interventions by both governmental and non-governmental actors play supportive role in the expansion of ethical consumption practices in the north-western countries. Examples include eco-labaling ( Boström & Klintman, 2011 ; Dubuisson-Quellier, 2013 ), how ethical criteria is incorporated in public procurement schemes ( Boström & Karlsson, 2013 ) and the encouragement to engage companies in “ethical competition” ( de Moor & Balsiger, 2019 ; 447). Erik Hysing (2019) demonstrates a range of different ways in how governments have shaped the institutional context, provided incentives, legitimized, and in other ways facilitated and integrated – and they can obviously also counteract – ethical (political) consumerism. Nevertheless, the west is not the exclusive home of ethical consumption. Comparative studies reveal the importance of historical and geographical factors in the formation of various ethical consumption patterns among different populations (see Boström et al ., 2019 ).

There are some studies uncovering different interpretations of ethical consumption in different geographies. Principles like justice, fairness, environmental protection, social solidarity and sustainability more broadly can appear in different ways and shapes. Hence, ethical consumption is a phenomenon that can be formed, realized, interpreted and demonstrated differently thanks to time, place, and circumstances. For example, in Africa, political/ethical consumption has been a response to the corrupted social and political system while in the MENA 4 region, consumption practices are greatly influenced by rapid economic transition, social development, democratic uprising, wars, political violence and religious contradictions ( Oosterveer et al ., 2019 ). Moreover, Hughes et al. (2015) brought up that in the context of Africa, “localized expression of ethical consumption” is essential in transformations on the supply-side ( Hughes et al ., 2015 ). Oosterveer et al . (2019) yet highlight the significance of the insufficient (social) base to explain the absence of ethical/political consumption in African and MENA countries. As regards Latin America, Portilho & Micheletti (2019) discussed the role of social movement struggles to push for a stronger state to regulate the market and revealed the significance of public policies and state regulation in promoting sustainable products and ethical consumption ( Portilho & Micheletti, 2019 ). In Thailand, there has been rapid industrialization, which has provided opportunities for social movements to encourage Thai consumers to influence consumption-related policymaking and participate in discussions, for instance via social media, about changed social practices ( Kantamaturapoj et al ., 2019 ). In China ( Lei et al. , 2019 ) argue that political/ethical consumption has its own characteristics and “consumer choices remain very much structured by governmental measures” ( Lei et al ., 2019: 599 ). Research indicates in social systems that provide a limited assortment of ethically framed goods and services the creation of such phenomena requires more creative and individualized initiatives ( de Moor & Balsiger, 2019 ; Koos, 2012 ). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also a key factor in the promotion of ethical consumption ( Sudbury-Riley & Kohlbacher, 2016 ) due to its positive role in encouraging producers to produce under ethical standards (even though sometimes targeted for greenwashing and watered-down ethical standards) and facilitating choice infrastructures for consumers. However, the main focus here is associated with more infrastructural supply-side factors. In a social structure with transparent regulations and laws regarding the social responsibilities of cooperation, producers are obliged to reflect the interests of stakeholders like employees, investors and the environment in their actions and policies and it directs, in turn, consumers to ethical decisions ( Adams & Zutshi, 2004 ). Whereby corporations' policy to maximise their interest via CSR facilitates ethical decisions among consumers. From a multi-level perspective, in the lack of an efficient regulatory regime as well as technical and cultural support, CSR will prove insufficient to meet ethical consumers’ demands from the market.

Based on the knowledge of ethical consumption scholarship obtained from different social contexts, it becomes clear that ethical consumption must be considered as an intertwined phenomenon with sociotechnical regimes that shape market structures, laws and regulations, infrastructure and materials as well as culture and norms. Markets, governance structure and the settings of everyday life frame consumers’ decisions and practices ( Jacobsen & Dulsrud, 2007 ). Therefore, niche novelties regarding ethical consumption are created in and influenced by the given situation ( i.e ., available knowledge, systems of provision, alternative markets and democratic governances). Therefore, studying ethical consumption practices in the light of the multilevel perspective brings attention to how everyday practices are formed and changed within particular sociotechnical regimes. It should also be kept in mind that due to the niche’s capacity to fuel changes, any corporation or conflict between the elements of the micro and meso level can act as an assistance or obstacle to expanding niche novelties to more routinized and integrated practices.

4. Configuration of ethical consumption within multi-level interactions

When it comes to ethical consumption, niche innovations are often recognized as resistance to mainstream consumption and markets. Examples include asking for fair-waged, organic, and cruelty-free cosmetic and clothing products (buycotting), creating household initiatives to produce less waste or consume less energy, supporting local agriculture and products, and refusing from buying products or services with unfair work conditions or problematic production and distributing processes (boycotting). Some of these initiatives have become mainstream in some western societies, but appear radical, confrontative and/or illegal in several other contexts. Furthermore, decreasing the volumes of consumption, using second-hand stuff, and trying to challenge public attitudes by criticizing excessive consumerist lifestyles or encouraging other people to support eco-friendly and/or socio-friendly products (discursive ethical consumption) are other examples of mainly niche ethical consumption performances. These niche efforts are linked with efforts to, in the long run, reconfigure existing regimes ( Hargreaves et al ., 2013 ). This indicates that the embodiment of ethical initiatives in everyday life is conducted in sets of interdependencies within the different systems of provision, regimes and practices like eating, commuting, and cleaning. The concepts of zooming in and zooming out ( Keller et al ., 2022 ; Nicolini, 2009 ) can be related to each other as a tool to understand ethical consumption in the cross edge of regimes and embedded practices. While zooming in refers to deeper attention on mundane everyday practices, zooming out by adopting the bird’s eye could entail observing how ‘practices connect with each other’ ( Keller et al. , 2022 : 20) and on how sociotechnical regimes may integrate/separate different practices.

Niche practices, like various trends in ethical consumption, reflect perceived deficiencies in regimes and landscapes. Nevertheless, they are configured and developed within existing regimes’ capacities. Greene indicates that “a complex web of contextual processes including technological change, economic transitions and planning policies” are significant factors in the formation of consumption practices ( Greene, 2018 : 1). Therefore, one question that should be considered seriously relates to how socio-technical regimes constrain and fashion the development of ethical consumption practices. We argue that the formation of collective ethical consumption practices is contingent upon various determinants in sociotechnical regimes (e.i., policy, infrastructures, cultural meanings and conventions, markets, knowledge systems and (semi-) dominant discourse). Thus, ethical consumption practices can be deconstructed into their components by zooming in to better understand how these components are influenced, shaped, and reshaped by different regimes’ components (zooming out). Perceiving ethical consumption practices such as supporting fairtrade or fair paid products, waste segregation, collaborative consumption, ethical lifestyle, etc . as autonomous and independent novelties which are led only by individuals’ decisions and preferences misleads us in understanding the whole story of ethical consumption subject. Oosterveer et al . (2019: 135) indicate that “ethical consumption goes beyond individualistic choices” and relates to sociotechnical systems. This means that although niche innovations germinate separately among detached actors they are still being created inside the social setting and a level of regime support is necessary for their upscaling. For example, a regime may support a niche activity such as a boycott campaign either by providing space for democratic expression and media space for its promotion or by declaring new regulations and policies regarding the production processes that niche actors can rely on 5 . Furthermore, social movement campaigns can take advantage of the social and democratic space and support that is given to their claims and objectives ( Forno, 2019 ). All societies do not provide such opportunities for niches to pursue their novel objective on a bigger scale, but this knowledge is too often taken for granted in theorizing about the opportunities for niche practices to grow. Therefore, we need to be aware that although ethical consumption practices try to make changes in the existing regimes, they are at the same time created within the given opportunities in the same regimes, receiving support and targeting the very same system.

Nevertheless, sociotechnical regimes might have two edges: supportive or deterrent or a mix of both. In this vein, many niche dynamics have been oppressed or marginalized in many social regimes to date or at least had a very small chance to scale up. For example, Marsden (2013) points out some food niche initiatives that are marginalized in the nested food governance regimes and proposes the necessity of policy spaces to facilitate niche paths through multilevel regulations. Similarly, van Kesteren & Evans (2020) argue how socio-economic inequalities through delimiting the capacity of practitioners affect cooking practice in terms of competencies, materials and meaning. Therefore, structural conditions in terms of top-down governance, upstream policies, institutions, actor networks, capabilities and resources should be considered as enablers and constrainers in forming niche initiatives ( Boström, 2020 ; Slingerland & Schut, 2014 ). On the level of sociotechnical regimes, their role to develop ethical consumption on a large scale relates largely to existing structures/relations of power. This regards resource distribution, opportunities to pose new regulations, controlling markets, financial flows and international trade relations, investment in new technologies and materials, controlling media and making room for public debate, and providing public education. All these factors can prevent or enable the normalizing of novel ethical consumption practices.

When it comes to the creation and spread of ethical consumption initiatives, regimes and niches are not the only underlying elements. Geels argues that niche innovations will not spread widely unless external landscape developments create pressures on the regime, destabilize it, and then create space for novelties ( Geels, 2005 ). Therefore, a synergetic mode between macro factors and micro initiatives facilitates the deconstruction of the nested regimes and the construction of new ones. For instance, a landscape change as the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted many conventional practices, has been seen to provide a window of opportunity for more “mindful consumption”, in which issues of health and environmental protection are considered more among broad segments of consumers and less demand for transportation due to the possibilities of a more homebound life ( Boström, 2021 ; Echegaray et al ., 2021 ). However, landscape-level factors can appear as obstacles as well. For example, poverty in all its forms doesn’t allow deprived people to (re)form their consumption practices aligned to the routinized consumption practices or niche novelties. A number of studies moreover indicate that “privileged groups” in terms of higher-income levels and more education are more likely to be ethical/political consumers ( e.g . Salonen, 2021 ).The above discussion shows there is a dialectical process between the levels. That is, to normalize a new practice both niches and regimes need each other, facilitated by broad landscape movements in the early stage, knowledge and information that consumers obtain from formal or informal learning environments are critical to developing niche ethical consumption practices. The perceived meaning of ethical consumption among niches, the skills and competencies that they obtain being an ethical consumer and the materials that are given to equip them in doing ethical consumption practices, are all generated in part through the sociotechnical regimes that surround them as well as by overarching landscape change such as digitalization, democratization and the like. At the same time, gradual or rapid changes in consumption patterns could trigger different forms of reforms within existing regimes to meet those changes. For instance, protein shift 6 , which has increased in popularity recently, either because of ethical concerns (animal welfare) or health issues, could bring changes in sociotechnical regimes to synch policy, regulations, market and norms with this new trend. While such dynamics implicates the interdependencies of ethical consumption practices on one another, it also indicates how they can be embedded in particular sociotechnical regimes ( Keller et al ., 2022 ), including how they are benefited from specific policies. For example, Wahlen & Dubuisson-Quellier (2018: 8) discuss policy instruments that promote consumer awareness through education and information, while at the same time arguing that policy measures should address a collective dimension of sustainability practices, for instance informed by SPT. Geels et al. (2015) argue that dispersed niche practices are less likely to be developed to the broader scale of meso-level unless taking advantage of broad learning processes and social network building ( Geels et al ., 2015 ). In a social structure that through different ways (i.e., media debates, civil society organizations, alternative markets and labaling) make consumers becoming aware and informed regarding consumption-related issues, practitioners are more likely to broadly engage in ethical consumption and have better know-how skills to implement it. This reading also challenges the psychological and marketing approaches that advocate consumer sovereignty to make wide-range changes in unsustainable consumption cultures. Such processes can be referred to as a sort of teleoaffective understanding that makes ethical consumption meaningful. Teleoaffective understanding integrates practices through goals and the meanings that practitioners perceive and carry out. It means that through practical intelligibility, practitioners carry on actions that make sense to them ( Heisserer & Rau, 2017 ) and are doable. Desires, beliefs and expectations are examples of teleoaffectivity ( Schatzki, 2001 ) that help to create a general understanding of the subject. In the ethical consumption context, practitioners may organize themselves into an overarching cultural formation via development of a common understanding. In the lack of such understanding (culture, teloaffectivity), this phenomenon can only remain as a dispersed practice among individual practitioners and cannot spread to a large scale.

5. Conclusion

This article discusses the importance of a multilevel and intertwined understanding of ethical consumption given its conjunction with other social practices. Social Practice theory, by understanding consumption as a multifaceted practice and interconnected to other social practices offers a promising perspective to studying consumption practices. However, this article argues that although this is a useful approach to theorizing consumption practices, it is not sufficient to shed light on all aspects of a phenomenon such as ethical consumption, which is a very context-related concept. We argue that ethical consumption should be understood as a practice interrelated to other ones and associated with different levels of agency and structure. Therefore, it needs to be analysed by applying a form of multilevel perspective. Even if the role of meso-factors is recognized in various studies, we believe they tend to be too much taken for granted. The different extent, shapes, and ways of ethical consumption practices throughout the world illustrate the importance of not bracketing factors relating to ‘landscape’ and ‘sociotechnical regimes’. Putting ethically oriented consumption into practice requires structural, including infrastructural possibilities. In the literature on ethical consumption, which is mainly West-oriented, there is insufficient attention to social and structural obstacles that make it very demanding and costly (more than in an economic sense) to be involved in such niche innovations. There is great potential for future research to uncover a variety of structural obstacles in different geographic and sector-wise contexts, which limit the spread and upscaling of ethical consumption.

Following the above conclusion, and drawing on recent research ( Keller et al. , 2022 ; Laakso et al. , 2021 ) that refer to the critical role of tensions among niche and regime practices in understanding sustainability transitions, we have suggested that ethical consumption practices are developed and organized through dialectical processes within a multi-level context. That is, although ethical consumption can be perceived in terms of a “general understanding” in a horizontal conjunction with other practices ( Gram-Hanssen, 2021 ; Welch, 2020 ), the system of practices must also be understood as shaped along a vertical dimension. To put it simply, the structure of sociotechnical regimes in every society and their associated practices open spaces for local forms of ethical consumption, and these local forms may in turn trigger change of structure on ‘higher’ levels in the long run. By acknowledging such interplay, we can better grasp the conditions for organizing and upscaling ethical consumption practices in different sectors/sets of practices (e.g., food, clothing, energy) and countries around the world. Attention to such multi-level dynamics shows that every form of ethical consumption practice can simultaneously challenge and rely on existing regimes. This approach opens up many possibilities for further studies, and we can here end with indicating just a few. For example, the more known forms of ethical consumption (boycotting, buycotting, discursive ethical consumption and ethical consumption lifestyle) could be fruitfully studied within the combined framework of MLP and SPT, which provide a good analytical platform for the study on how ethical consumption both shape and are shaped by contextual circumstances. This apply also to the study how niche initiatives can be upscaled and (or fail to) become mainstream, and even set off change processes on the regime and landscape level. Studies could also focus how these forms of ethical consumption are indirectly affected by other practice changes, for instance in areas such as food, mobility, commuting, housing, shopping, and how these in turn relate to broader changes on the regime or landscape level. Studies can contribute with further insights by studying how landscape change (e.g. the Covid-19 pandemic, political (de)stabilisations, cost crises due to conflicts, digitalization, etc) and sociotechnical regimes in different social contexts (re)generate, hold and/or perish a variety of practices in such consumption areas, which in turn impact on the prospect of integrating ethical consideration in the practices. This also applies to the study of social movements and teleoaffective formation surrounding ethical consumption. Another interesting focus for further studies would be to study how different systems of provision in sectors like energy, mobility, housing, food, etc, here understood as socio-technical regimes, facilitate or obstruct ethical considerations in consumers’ practices (see Boström et al. , 2019 for examples). Finally, we see a great potential for future studies to study the material and non-material costs of developing ethical consumption within specific socio-political regimes; that is, in different countries and regions throughout the world with very contrasting political cultures, economies, welfare arrangements and conditions for democratic dialogue.

Ethics and consent

Ethical approval and consent were not required.

Data availability statement

Underlying data.

No underlying data are associated with this article.

1 About similarities and differences between the SPT and MLP and the advantages of co-employing them in consumption-related topics see Keller et al . (2022)

2 similar concept is political consumption. See The Oxford Handbook of Political Consumerism Edited by Boström et al . (2019) .

3 It doesn’t mean that we overlook the possibility of the creation of different versions of ethical consumption worldwide.

4 Middle East and North Africa

5 Similar to what happened against the Apartheid regime in South Africa, there are also examples of international boycott campaigns that have mobilized people through market-based strategies to act against oppressive regimes (for more examples see Boström et al ., 2019 ).

6 https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/research_and_innovation/research_by_area/documents/2020.2057_en_05.pdf

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Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.

Reviewer Expertise: consumption and theories of practice

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• COMMENT ON THIS REPORT

Reviewer Expertise: Ethical consumption, social movement studies, economic sociology

• First, some improvements could be made in the presentation of the relevant literature. While the authors present evidence for the prominence of studies on ethical consumption using an individual (and often psychological) perspective, there are studies in this realm that are more attentive to context (without using SPT or MLP). For instance, scholars putting forward the importance of social movements as a meso-level context, or the significance of supply. This is discussed widely in de Moor & Balsiger (2019).  
• A second critique concerns section 3 of the article (Ethical consumption in different contexts). This section does show studies from geographically dispersed contexts showing how ethical consumption often follows different logics and functions quite differently. However, the impression appears that sometimes, the differences pointed out are more due to the scholarly interests and foci of the different scholars. For instance, the role of public policies in driving ethical consumption has also been highlighted for European contexts (see Dubuisson-Quellier et al. , 2016 1 and Wahlen and Dubuisson-Quellier, 2018 2 ) – not just in Latin America.  
• Third, the paper is quite uneven with regard to its dual objective of advocating for the usefulness of SPT and MLP. It does present both of them in part 2 (without however discussing their compatibility), but then in the more illustrative parts (especially section 4), the discussion concerns almost exclusively the multi-level perspective. It might be better to focus the paper solely on the MLP, since this is already a little bit the case in terms of focus, and since it is theoretically quite dense otherwise.  
• Fourth, in terms of the integration of the MLP in the study of ethical consumption, the paper makes some very valuable suggestions of the potential contributions of this. These could be presented more systematically. There is in particular the double question of a) how socio-technical regimes constrain and fashion the development of ethical consumption practices, and b) how ethical consumption niches can spread and change landscapes and regimes.

Is the topic of the essay discussed accurately in the context of the current literature?

Is the work clearly and cogently presented?

Is the argument persuasive and supported by appropriate evidence?

Does the essay contribute to the cultural, historical, social understanding of the field?

• First, some improvements could be made in the presentation of the relevant literature. While the authors present evidence for the prominence of studies on ethical consumption using an individual (and often psychological) perspective, there are studies in this realm that are more attentive to context (without using SPT or MLP). For instance, scholars putting forward the importance of social movements as a meso-level context, or the significance of supply. This is discussed widely in de Moor & Balsiger (2019).
• A second critique concerns section 3 of the article (Ethical consumption in different contexts). This section does show studies from geographically dispersed contexts showing how ethical consumption often follows different logics and functions quite differently. However, the impression appears that sometimes, the differences pointed out are more due to the scholarly interests and foci of the different scholars. For instance, the role of public policies in driving ethical consumption has also been highlighted for European contexts (see Dubuisson-Quellier  et al. , 2016 1  and Wahlen and Dubuisson-Quellier, 2018 2 ) – not just in Latin America.
• Third, the paper is quite uneven with regard to its dual objective of advocating for the usefulness of SPT  and  MLP. It does present both of them in part 2 (without however discussing their compatibility), but then in the more illustrative parts (especially section 4), the discussion concerns almost exclusively the multi-level perspective. It might be better to focus the paper solely on the MLP, since this is already a little bit the case in terms of focus, and since it is theoretically quite dense otherwise.
• Finally, and building on the above point, since the paper advocates for the use of SPT and MLP in the study of ethical consumption, it might be useful to have some kind of a research agenda at the end. To suggest a number of research avenues and questions such a theoretical approach implies.
• First, part of the literature already referenced in the paper has suggested to stay within SPT and from there find ways of including more overarching phenomena, including using the concept of Teleoaffective Formations (Welch 2020), the concept of General Understandings (Gram-Hanssen 2021) or discussions of how SPT relates to wider economic process (Evans, 2020). We think the paper would be highly improved if the authors went more into dialogue with these papers and their different attempts to close the gaps in SPT, before arguing for a move to include MLP.  
• Second, many authors have before this paper sought to combine SPT and MLP, as the authors of this paper also acknowledge. However, we miss a more thorough discussion on what is achieved by this combination and which problems it raises. The paper by Keller et al. 2022, has some relevant discussions on this, which we think this paper should go more into dialogue with.  
• Third, specifically (and related to the Keller et al. paper) a discussion on combining MLP and SPT with each other needs to be included, as most of the leading authors of SPT would argue that SPT is a flat ontology which is not the case with the levels of MLP. This is in our view not an argument for not discussing the gains of combining the approaches, however, the authors need to go into this discussion, at least to show they are aware of it, and how they suggest to overcome it, or work with it.
• First, part of the literature already referenced in the paper has suggested to stay within SPT and from there find ways of including more overarching phenomena, including using the concept of Teleoaffective Formations (Welch 2020), the concept of General Understandings (Gram-Hanssen 2021) or discussions of how SPT relates to wider economic process (Evans, 2020). We think the paper would be highly improved if the authors went more into dialogue with these papers and their different attempts to close the gaps in SPT, before arguing for a move to include MLP.
• Second, many authors have before this paper sought to combine SPT and MLP, as the authors of this paper also acknowledge. However, we miss a more thorough discussion on what is achieved by this combination and which problems it raises. The paper by Keller  et al.  2022, has some relevant discussions on this, which we think this paper should go more into dialogue with.
• Third, specifically (and related to the Keller  et al.  paper) a discussion on combining MLP and SPT with each other needs to be included, as most of the leading authors of SPT would argue that SPT is a flat ontology which is not the case with the levels of MLP. This is in our view not an argument for not discussing the gains of combining the approaches, however, the authors need to go into this discussion, at least to show they are aware of it, and how they suggest to overcome it, or work with it.

Reviewer Status

Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:

Reviewer Reports

• Kirsten Gram-Hanssen , Aalborg University Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Line Kryger Aagaard , Aalborg University Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
• Philip Balsiger , University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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29 Ethical Consumption

Keith Brown, Saint Joseph’s University

• Published: 09 October 2018
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In markets around the world, more and more products are being sold with attributes promoting their economic, environmental, political, and social attributes. This growth in ethical consumption reflects increased demand for product narratives describing the ethical implications of shopping. This chapter examines the research in the emerging field of ethical consumption. Although it prioritizes research coming from sociology, it highlights an array of interdisciplinary research. Ultimately, this chapter makes three recommendations: (1) Markets should not be abandoned as a site for social change, (2) Scholars should pay closer attention to the supply chains shaping markets for ethically labeled goods, and (3) Scholars should continue to pursue research on the emotional processes that lead to brand allegiance within these markets.

It is both an exciting and frustrating time to be thinking about ethical consumption. There are a seemingly endless number of products that we can buy or boycott to support an equally endless array of causes. Rapid changes in social media mean some consumer campaigns are restructuring corporate practices in hours instead of years. And technology has reduced both the real and symbolic distance between producers and consumers who often live in vastly different locations. But this excitement is tempered by increasing costs that are associated with this seemingly enhanced consumer agency. Neo-liberal policies put the burden of economic, environmental, and social change on consumers instead of governments. Consumers now have to think deeply about complicated issues such as whether fair trade certified coffee is better than direct trade or whether the latest cancer fundraiser will reduce mortality rates or simply bolster corporate profits. Consumers, activists, and scholars are smart to pause and consider the limits of what their money can’t buy (Sandel 2012 ).

In recent years, we have begun to see tremendous scholarship growth in the field of ethical consumption, political consumption, and consumer activism (Boström, Micheletti, and Oosterveer 2018 ; Brown 2015 ; Glickman 2009 ; Hyman and Tohill 2017 ; Lewis and Potter 2011 ; Newholm and Shaw 2007 ). European scholars were pioneers in taking consumer studies seriously, laying the theoretical foundation to look at consumption’s role in expressing our ethical identities and reproducing inequalities (Ritzer, Goodman and Wiedenhoft 2001 ; Zukin and Maguire 2004 ). Scholars in the United States, many of whose training privileges empiricism over theory, have been late to the party—an especially ironic occurrence given the significance of free-market capitalism in American ideology and practice. But the growth of scholarship of both consumer studies and ethical consumption in a global context seems like an enduring trend. This is a welcome and much-needed correction to the literature, as those who own the “means of consumption” (Ritzer 2010 ) are in an increasingly powerful position within our consumer societies.

This chapter defines ethical consumption somewhat narrowly and then categorizes significant historical and theoretical trends showing the enduring significance of ethical consumption as an issue worthy of study. It then discusses how in the last three decades, there has been an ethical turn in markets leading to a wider array of ways for consumers to shop for a cause.

Finally, and most importantly, this chapter introduces three recommendations for future scholarship in the field of ethical consumption. First, markets still matter . As others have noted, there are significant limitations to consumer activism, but this does not mean that ethical consumption should be discarded as a tool for change. In fact, there are many reasons to think that market-based activism may be more effective now than ever before. Second, we need to keep the focus on supply chains . One of the strengths of the sociology of consumption is its ability to show how symbolic meanings circulate among, and legitimate, power relations. Symbols bring us together and tear us apart. But in markets with global supply chains, it has become increasingly difficult to track down the direct impacts of consumer practices on the environment, labor, and social relations. Looking more closely at supply chains will allow a more grounded focus on the social and environmental implications of our market actions. And third, we occasionally need to forget the facts and find the feelings . We are seeing a renewed focus on the sociology of emotions (Stets and Turner 2014 ), but scholars are often blinded to the power of emotions in shaping consumer practices. Sometimes we need to readjust our theoretical lenses and avoid rationalizing behaviors that only make sense when seen through the prism of emotions. Doing so will better highlight the limitations of consumer education and better explain seemingly irrational consumer behavior.

Defining Ethical Consumption

If we want to define ethical consumption with broad brushstrokes, we can imagine all forms of consumption as having an ethical dimension. If you want to improve soil composition, you should buy organic vegetables. If you want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, buy local. If you want to improve the economic lives of coffee farmers, then fair trade is for you. If you are concerned about plastics in our oceans or water privatization, then avoid bottled water. All of these actions can be conceived as having an ethical implication.

But even consumers who are not consciously thinking about how they should consume are making choices that have profound implications on the environment, on labor standards, and even on rates of inequality. Put another way, consumers who believe that unregulated, free markets will best improve society may feel that shopping for their self-interest is an efficient and moral way to act. In essence, there are ethical implications to all forms of consumption. However, this framework is too broad to bring analytical insight into what makes ethical consumption distinct. By narrowing the concept to only focus on product attributes that are explicitly framed as moral, we gain insights into the different ways ethics have been grafted into the meanings of consumption, and the ways consumers think about these products and the world around them.

This somewhat narrow definition still implies that the “point of purchase” remains a site where we create and recreate meanings (Zukin 2004 ). It is where we pass on cultural norms about ourselves, about the person we want to become, and about the real and imagined identities we share with other communities (Bourdieu 1984 ; Muniz and O’Guinn 2001 ). Purchasing products inherently involves ethical trade-offs about the causes we want to support, the causes we want to avoid, the people who are like us, and the people who are unlike us. In some ways, consumption is a ritual that tells us a story about our culture (See Geertz 1973 ). In every way, consumption is a social process, connecting us to meaningful groups, issues, and places.

Theoretical Foundations and Major Trends in the Field

Much of the research on ethical consumption cites a range of interdisciplinary scholarship that is applied to understand consumption, such as the meanings and obligations associated with gift giving (Blau 1964 ; Mauss 1997 ; Miller 1998 ; Ruth, Otnes, and Brunel 1999 ; Sherry 1983 ); the use of rituals (Durkheim 1915/1995 ) to shape brand communities (Muniz and O’Guinn 2001 ); status displays (Griskevicius, Tybur, and Van den Bergh 2010 ; Veblen 1899/1953 ); the fetishism of commodities (Marx 1978 ) and the growth of the culture industries (Horkheimer and Adorno 2002 ); the routinization of the means of production (Leidner 1993 ; Ritzer 2015 ; Weber 1958 ) and the subsequent search for authenticity resulting from this process (Fine 2003 ; Grazian 2003 ; Ocejo 2017 ; Wherry 2006 ); the threat of growing individualism (Bauman 1997 ; Connolly and Prothero 2008 ; Szasz 2007 ); the reproduction of inequalities (Bourdieu 1984 ; Halle 1993 ; Holt 2000 ; Marx 1978 ); the ways people talk about, downplay, or ignore moral issues (Ehrich and Irwin 2005 ; Eliasoph 1998 ; Johnston and Baumann 2010 ; Lamont 1992 , 2000 ; Norgaard 2006 ; Brown 2009 ); and the social meaning of money (Bandelj, Wherry, and Zelizer 2017 ; Zelizer 1997 ).

Others are seeking to understand how markets influence the seemingly individualistic process of consumption (Johnston 2008 ; Lyon and Moberg 2010 ). Scholars are also conducting comparative work to understand what drives demand across cultures (Doherty, Benzencon, and Balineau 2015 ; Ferrer-Fons and Fraile 2013 ). “Consumer culture theorists,” largely coming from marketing departments, are showing the ways meanings are constructed in a wide array of markets while balancing psychological, sociological, and anthropological approaches to research (Arnould and Thompson 2005 ).

Much of the research on ethical consumption examines the ways activists and advertisers encourage consumers to reimagine supply chains and think about the implications of their purchases on the environment, labor, and citizenship. The following sections are roughly organized in order of the strength of the emotional appeal of these ethical attributes to consumers. They start with citizenship and the quest for social justice, as many of our most prominent social movements involve ethical consumption. Here ethical and political consumption are treated as synonymous, so long as a product is promoted with an attribute emphasizing how consumers should consume. The following section examines research on food, the environment, health, and animal rights. This hodge-podge collection of issues has often included deep, emotional appeals to create change in markets. Next, Marx’s commodity fetishism and the oft-hidden labor implications of our purchases is discussed in detail. Finally, neo-liberalism and market-based thinking is presented as a unique category, as these issues are consistently framed as contextual factors influencing our current demand for goods with ethical attributes.

Citizenship, Social Justice, and Consumption

The connection between “citizenship” and “consumption” seems paradoxical in the sense that consumption is defined as “use of something” (Merriam-Webster 2018 ) and thus often has a wasteful connotation. Nonetheless, consumption is often the means by which ideas of citizenship are put into action. Rather than odd bedfellows, Glickman shows us that “boycotts and other forms of consumer activism were . . . a means to reconcile consumption and citizenship” (2009:xi). Similarly, Canclini explains that “when we consume we also think, select, and re-elaborate social meaning [and thus,] we should ask ourselves if consumption does not entail doing something that sustains, nourishes, and to a certain extent constitutes a new mode of being citizens” (Canclini 2001 :26).

Many scholars of ethical consumption point to the powerful role that consumer boycotts have played throughout history (Cohen 2003 ). They cite the boycott of British tea and fabrics prior to the American Revolution, the role of salt boycotts during India’s decolonization movement, or the importance of the lunch counter and bus boycotts during the Civil Rights movement in the United States. These scholars are correct in noting that the modern consumer-rights movement in the United States really began to gain momentum in the twentieth century (Cohen 2003 ; McGovern 2006 ), but they neglect both the free produce movement (goods produced without slave labor during the 1790s–1860s) that set the foundation for modern forms of ethical consumption (Brown 2015 ; Glickman 2004 ) and the radical origins of the black cooperative movement that was promoted heavily by W.E.B. DuBois in The Crisis (Carreiro 2017 ). Both of these movements failed to provide significant, material changes in their respective markets, but both had significant consciousness-raising impacts. Current research is looking at contemporary and historical case studies through the lens of ethical consumption to examine the strengths and weaknesses of these movements (Hyman and Tohil 2017 ).

The invigoration of interest in these historical cases allows us to see the deep roots of ethical consumption. Whereas many of these campaigns did not have significant economic impacts on the causes they supported, almost all of them had significant social impacts. Glickman ( 2009 ) explains that by unpacking what worked and what failed in the past, consumer activists will avoid repeating similar mistakes.

Environmental, Food, Health, and Animal Rights Issues

Some of the most influential books about the environment, food, health, and animal rights have come from outside of academia. Books such as Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation ( 2001 ) and Pollen’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma ( 2007 ) have become New York Times bestsellers, while trying to establish a place alongside twentieth-century classics like Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle ( 1905/1960 ) or Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring ( 1962 ). But in recent years, an impressive array of academic research has begun to examine ethical consumption. Research on consumption’s link to the environment, health, food, and animal rights offers a bridge between consumers’ moral ideals and seemingly intractable social problems. Common themes examine the co-optation of these movements by big business, the pathways to participation in these forms of consumption, and the social class issues that limit who can afford to shop for these causes.

Changing practices and policies in our food production systems inspired much of this research. The reduction in local farms and subsequent growth of factory farms, the increasingly rationalized food production systems, the increased use of hormones in animals and their effects on human health, and the impact of these food production techniques on the environment are all gaining attention and often changing the meanings of terms such as organic, local, and natural (Haedicke 2016 ; Kingsolver 2007 ; Miller 2017 ; Pollen 2007 ; Thompson and Coskuner-Balli 2007 ). Questions about whether mission-driven movements for food justice have been co-opted by corporate influences mirrors debates over corporate influences in exposure to everyday toxins (MacKendrick 2018 ), whether fair trade certification is driven by the needs of farmers or corporations (Jaffee 2007 ; Lyon and Moberg 2010 ; Raynolds and Bennett 2015 ), and whether corporations should be able to claim rights to public water supplies (Royte 2008 ).

These discussions inevitably lead to debates over the extent to which consumers have agency in their desires for social change. Are naïve consumers just being duped by advertisers looking to turn a profit by marketing identity lifestyles? Or are these consumers better thought of as freedom fighters pushing companies to act in a more sustainable manner? The truth is somewhere in the middle. As it becomes increasingly apparent that consumers are seeking green products, companies have a motive to position themselves as eco-friendly. Whereas consumers are reshaping markets by demanding more socially responsible actions from corporations, corporations are also co-opting the motives of consumers and coercing them into thinking they are buying green or eco-friendly products when that is not necessarily the case (Micheletti and Follesdal 2007 ; Simon 2009 ).

Similarly, scholars have been debating the extent to which ethical consumption discourages other forms of social activism by granting “license” to consumers to shop for other products that they do not view as ethical (Mazar and Zhong 2010 ). Sociologists refer to a similar process as “earmarking” (Zelizer 1997 ). This occurs when consumers designate some types of products as being appropriate for sustainable shopping (such as food) but not others (such as clothing). Among fair trade certified products, consumers seem to care more deeply about buying ethically labeled food rather than other ethically sourced products such as handicrafts. However, this form of earmarking does not necessarily mean that consumers will not give to other charitable causes or buy fewer ethical goods because they bought some ethically sourced coffee (Brown 2013 ). In fact, the idea of licensing or the notion that shopping for a cause “crowds out” other forms of activism has been convincingly challenged by others arguing that consumers are aware of their limitations in markets and see ethical consumption as just one part of a process of creating the person they wish to become (Lorenzen 2012 ; Willis and Schor 2012 ).

Economic Issues and Labor

Karl Marx’s emphasis on commodity fetishism offered a framework for scholars to look behind the commodity itself to understand the labor implications of consumption. Marx emphasized that the value of commodities was not established through their relationship to other goods but through the labor that went into producing the commodity (Marx 1978 ). Marx inspired a mid-twentieth-century reinvigoration of consumer studies, largely triggered by research coming from the Frankfurt School. Much of this work is critical and laden with moral judgments about how consumers should behave. The critiques of mass consumption coming from the Frankfurt school maintained a productivist bias, where scholars maintained focus on the point of production, rather than the diverse meanings associated with consumption in different socioeconomic contexts. The Frankfurt School’s critique lies largely outside the framework of this definition of ethical consumption, as critics of the culture industries were not particularly interested in the ethical attributes associated with individual products. Nevertheless, the Frankfurt School helps us understand the resistance to mass consumption and the resulting search for authenticity that began in the late twentieth century as consumers sought more and more information about where the products they were buying came from.

The search for authenticity is a strong cultural belief often motivating concern about economic issues and ethical consumption. In a time when many products are manufactured overseas and food is produced on factory farms, consumers are seeking more authentic products and services (Fine 2003 ; Grazian 2003 ; Peterson 1997 ; Zavestoski 2002 ; Zukin 2004 ). With increased outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and the consolidation of family farms, consumers are less likely to know the people who make and grow the products they buy. This has led to a push by a segment of consumers who seek more organic, fair, and local products. These consumers want goods produced by artisans and food grown by local farmers. At its extreme, this search for authenticity has led some consumers to become “voluntary simplifiers” (Zavestoski 2002 ). Zavestoski’s research emphasizes that consumers may be reducing the amount they are consuming, not solely because of environmental concerns but because of a failed search for authenticity in a consumer culture full of mass-produced products and experiences.

Consistent with this cultural trend, there seems to be an increasing number of Americans who are downshifting because they want “more time, less stress, and more balance in life (Schor 1998 :114). Downshifting occurs when “. . . Americans [make] a voluntary lifestyle change . . . that [entails] earning less money” (113). Downshifting stems from people believing that they were becoming obsessed with work in order to be able to afford more materialistic things. Consistent with Schor’s work, Cohen, Comrov, and Hoffner ( 2005 ) found that efforts to promote more sustainable lifestyles arise from public discomfort with the amount of time spent at work and the lack of time spent on leisure activities and family life. This shift to a more sustainable lifestyle through consumption requires significant investments in time to understand the ethical implications of the stuff we buy. This requisite time investment acts as another barrier preventing many from incorporating ethical concerns into shopping patterns (Schoolman 2016 ).

Concern for labor and the anti-sweatshop movement became a hot topic in the late 1990s and continues to be an influential issue on college and university campuses throughout the United States. Using a Marxist lens, activists have emphasized the importance of looking beyond the logo and examining the dark side of garment production (Bonacich and Appelbaum 2000 ; Timmerman 2012 ). Some recent scholarship highlights a success story among garment workers in the Dominican Republic who unionized and took greater control over the production of garments (Adler-Milstein and Kline 2017 ). Products from Alta-Gracia are now routinely found in college bookstores across the United States.

A final question arising from research on economics and labor issues deals with the attitude-behavior gap. How willing are consumers to put their ideals into practice through shopping? Although a majority of consumers often say they will pay a price premium for products that are advertised as socially responsible (Nielsen 2015 ), little research examines what they actually do. An interesting strand of research shows that even price-conscious consumers are willing to pay a premium for socks that are produced in a sweatshop-free factory (Kimeldorf et al. 2006 ; Prasad et al. 2004 ). This research suggests that survey research about consumers’ willingness to pay extra for socially responsible products may be reliable, but it is unclear whether this finding about anti-sweatshop behaviors can apply to other forms of ethical consumption.

Neo-liberalization and Market-based Thinking

Much of the research on current ethical consumption initiatives is framed in a neo-liberal moment where markets, instead of governments, are increasingly relied on to solve social problems. Sandel ( 2012 ) explicitly utilized this framework as he examined the growing ways we have come to rely on market-based thinking as a way to incentivize desirable behaviors. Using a somewhat extreme example, he describes how some conservationists are allowing hunting of endangered black rhinos so that the large licensing fees from the hunt can be used to encourage ranchers to protect the rhinos from poachers. Sandel asks us to look at how market-based thinking can corrupt our mindsets; he asks us to pause and reflect on whether this framework has gone too far.

Many of the researchers who explicitly emphasize the role of neo-liberalism in shaping markets for goods with ethical attributes emphasize the irony in searching for market- based solutions to market-based problems (Lyon and Moberg 2010 ). At the most critical end of this continuum, scholars argue that ethical consumption is simply a means to lubricate the growth of capitalism, shielding large corporations from the harshest critiques while still allowing market-based ways of thinking to flourish (Richey and Ponte 2011 ; Szasz 2007 ). These scholars also tend to emphasize many of the paradoxes involved in specific instances of ethical consumption. King’s ( 2006 ) analysis of the Susan G. Komen foundation, for instance, shows how products can be presented as ethical by attaching a pink ribbon to it. But although a ribbon-endorsed product may raise funds for cancer research or cancer awareness, the product itself may be made from known carcinogens.

Scholars who take a more optimistic approach to ethical consumption tend to acknowledge the critiques involved in market-based thinking. Bryant Simon, in Everything but the Coffee ( 2009 ), challenges the hollow facade that Starbucks deploys to position itself as an ethical corporation. Simon shows how many of the initiatives Starbucks promotes are self-serving and grounded in identity-based marketing. But Simon ( 2011 ), like many others, refuses to give up hope for ethical consumption, arguing that it can result in a “rough democracy of buying” that leads to positive social changes.

An Ethical Turn

During the 1990s and gaining momentum around the 1999 anti-World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, we entered a unique stage in the history of ethical consumption (Brown 2013 ; Glickman 2009 ; Hyman and Tohill 2017 ). Of course, the parallels between contemporary and past movements remain, but the rise of social media and the proliferation of a much wider range of products with ethical attributes make this period distinct. A discussion of the social factors leading to this ethical turn is warranted.

The protests in Seattle both created an awakening in consumers’ minds and reflected growing criticism toward developmental policies of agencies like the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s we saw increased educational campaigns in books, newspapers, and even popular culture highlighting the ills of overconsumption, the impact of rising rates of inequality, and the increasingly tangible impacts of global warming. These sentiments, not surprisingly, were well-understood by marketing professionals who sold this form of resistance back to consumers with an array of new products to solve these “new” social problems.

But increased awareness and identity marketing are not the only reasons why we have reached a new stage in the history of ethical consumption. Wide fluctuations in the price of oil also led consumers (and, not incidentally, large corporations) to seek out other more eco-friendly energy sources. Rising prices of oil, coupled with cheaper solar panels produced in China, led consumers who may not even have cared about the environment to consider solar power. Similarly, the economic shockwaves resulting from the Great Recession led to a growing number of young people who sought alternative ways to live their lives, emphasizing issues like downshifting and privileging leisure over time at work. Many sought social status in new and unique ways that emphasized their ability to take care of the environment and think more deeply about where the products they bought came from. These issues combined with a growing lack of faith in the federal government (PEW Research Center 2014 ). This increased alienation from the political sphere and the growing inequality of markets led many consumers to search for a cure, somewhat paradoxically, through markets.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, the early twenty-first century ushered in a mainstream acceptance of new forms of social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These platforms have often reduced the consumer-producer spatial gap that arose from outsourcing and de-industrialization. These social media platforms allow boycotts and “buycotts” to spread rapidly. Even if consumers continue to show hypocritical consumption patterns between their ideals and actions, brand managers, CEOs, and boards of directors are still taking their consumers’ negative feedback seriously. Corporate changes that used to take months or years are occurring in days and weeks.

Three Emerging Issues in the Field of Ethical Consumption

Markets still matter.

Ethical consumption researchers often seek to understand the strengths and limitations of market-based activism pertaining to their individual case studies. This chapter looks across many of these studies to find patterns. One conclusion seems clear: markets still matter and should not be abandoned as a mechanism for social change.

Of course, there is not unanimous support for this position. Andrew Szasz ( 2007 ) has been an especially sharp critic, arguing that ethical consumption promotes individualistic ways of thinking that primarily benefit those with discretionary income. Ethical consumption, he argues, is not really a social movement, as it discourages collective action from consumers. Many others have highlighted weaknesses in ethical consumption such as this inherent class bias, the pro-capitalist tendencies of these initiatives, and the seemingly paradoxical nature of many of these campaigns (Johnston, Szabo, and Rodney 2011 ; Lyon and Moberg 2010 ; Richey and Ponte 2011 ). Maybe most importantly, Glickman ( 2009 ) shows that the majority of ethical consumption initiatives have had little economic impacts on the causes they support.

All of these critiques have some merit. Nevertheless, there is growing consensus that we should not throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater (Brown and Lyon 2017 ; Glickman 2009 ; Hyman and Tohill 2017 ). There are two major reasons why ethical consumption should not be abandoned as a mechanism for social change.

First, as Dauvergne and Lister ( 2013 ) show, some corporations are acting in progressive ways that go far beyond what many governments require. These scholars are not necessarily arguing that the big brand takeover of sustainability is a good thing, but they are highlighting the fact that many corporations are acting in self-interested ways that still benefit labor, the environment, and consumers. Dauvergne and Lister’s findings show that scholars need to avoid overly simplistic models that treat corporations as single-minded entities bent on destroying the planet.

Second, consumers are often aware of many of the criticisms of ethical consumption. Using interviews with self-identified ethical consumers, both Lorenzen ( 2012 ) and Brown ( 2013 ) show that consumers are aware of the limitations of ethical consumption as a strategy for social change. They do not view consuming for a cause as an end in and of itself. Rather, they view ethical consumption as just one strategy to seek change. Many are aware that shopping alone will only have a minimal impact, but they feel it is still a better option than shopping in a manner that ignores the ethical implications of their actions. They also view consumption as a social (rather than individualistic) process. Shopping for a cause becomes a site where they can create and recreate their ethical identities and feel as if they are a part of a movement that is bigger than themselves.

Follow the Supply Chains

Research on ethical consumption is showing how meaning is created in markets, how symbols and brand logos bring us together and tear us apart, and how some campaigns simply serve to “green,” “fair,” or “pink” wash these initiatives in order to gain consumer support without contributing to the causes they claim to support. This research is much needed, plugging an important hole in the field about how meanings circulate within networks and markets. But future scholarship needs to continue to go beyond the symbolic and look at what is actually happening along supply chains. We need more sociological insights into decision makers who are working along the supply chain and shaping the meaning of these goods. We need greater insights into what influences these decision makers and what factors, if any, encourage them to make sustainability and justice a priority over economic concerns.

We do know that many corporations are making ethical decisions that would likely surprise many consumer activists (Dauvergne and Lister 2013 ). These decisions are not made because of consumer demands but are done in order to protect supply chains. For instance, some chocolate suppliers are examining carbon outputs and the salary of their farmers with the immediate goal of decreasing the former and increasing the latter. This is not primarily due to consumer demands, but because of fear of losing supplies of cocoa because of environmental changes linked to global warming and because of more lucrative opportunities for cocoa farmers in other markets. Only by navigating away from the point of purchase can we see the motivations for these supply-chain innovations and their impacts on labor and the environment.

Juliet Schor’s book True Wealth ( 2011 ) takes this supply-chain approach seriously when examining the environmental impacts of fast fashion and American’s throw-away consumer culture. Schor examines the percentage increase in the weight of imports of a wide range of products from 1998 to 2007. During the nine-year period leading up to the Great Recession of 2008, the weight of many imports increased by some staggering rates: 155 percent for furniture; 75 percent for electronics such as computers, MP3 players, cell phones, and televisions; 83 percent for ceramics; 59 percent for toys and games; and 70 percent for textiles. The numbers become significant when we factor in the environmental impacts of producing, shipping, and ultimately disposing of these products. Schor shows that many products are moving in and out of style faster than ever before. As a result, individuals who want to stay in style must buy the latest clothing, electronics, and even furniture. Cheap, stylish furniture from stores like IKEA spurs consumers to buy more fashionable sofas; and rapid technological advances encourage desires for the newest electronic devices. Schor convincingly argues that this path leads in only one direction: planetary ecocide.

By following the supply chain to examine the labor and environmental impacts of consumption, we can also avoid the distractions inherent in many discussions of consumer culture. Stewart ( 2017 ) reiterates this point when showing how Wal-Mart and Target’s business models are remarkably similar, yet Wal-Mart endures most of the public attacks from unions and liberal consumers. Many consumers read a lot about Wal-Mart and believe the company is evil while “willfully ignoring” (Ehrich and Irwin 2005 ) the policies of Target, where they routinely shop. Stewart extends this idea by arguing that we should care less about the symbolic meanings of these stores and keep our focus on the similarities of each supply chain: “Focused actions at key points along the supply chain could allow labour to regain some of the power it has lost during recent decades and set the stage for a new era of labour militancy and victory” (2017:269).

Forget the Facts and Find the Feelings (Emotions)

Consumer education is a necessary first step to any form of ethical consumption. But it is unrealistic to think consumers will be able to know about the social, environmental, and labor implications of all their purchases. An optimist may note that this is what all the independent certifying labels are supposed to remedy. Organic, fair trade, Rainforest Alliance, and other certifications all seek to guide consumers toward a socially just destination, but the proliferation of these labels leads to more confusion and stress in the minds of consumers (Schwarts 2004 ; Conroy 2007 ). But there is a further limitation to education. Even some of the best and well-funded campaigns are unable to convince consumers to change their behaviors.

As we know, emotions have a significant impact on whether or not consumers will become willing to commit themselves to a sustainable lifestyle. Daniel Kahneman ( 2011 ) explains that our perceptions of the world are filtered through our emotions. Thus, we may be more willing to support climate change initiatives after an emotionally significant experience dealing with weather than if we are simply presented with a litany of facts (Borick and Rabe 2012 ). In contemporary consumer culture, many corporations are aware of the importance of emotions and seek to create “magical” and “enchanting” experiences that will attract consumers and allow them to temporarily forget about the stresses of modern life (Ritzer 2010 ). Thompson and Coskuner-Balli ( 2007 ) argue that ethical consumer movements will remain marginal within American consumer culture unless they can create “emotionally engaging” and “experientially captivating” experiences that can compete with mainstream consumer culture. They argue that Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is one example of an enchanting consumer-producer relationship that encourages consumers to resist more cost effective and more efficient ways of obtaining produce. The emotional connection of the consumer to the farmer, and occasionally to the farm itself, helps create an emotional bond that trumps an emphasis on only finding cheap foods.

Much of the research on ethical consumption is centered in highly developed countries in North America and Europe. But this is changing quickly, and cross-cultural work is starting to examine the sociocultural, economic, and political reasons for the wide divergence in demand for ethically sourced goods. This work will soon provide answers to interesting questions such as how wealthy consumers in emerging markets such as China and India think about issues such as sweatshops. We will also need to examine what influences the different price points consumers will pay for ethical goods in different cultures. Due to the productivist bias in academia, working-class people are often framed as the most important actors in labor movements, but what are the implications for change when this group is less present in consumer-based movements? And when is the growth of ethical consumption due to consumer demand or due to changes made higher up on the supply chain?

In addition to these questions, sociologists should remind themselves that the study of ethical consumption is interdisciplinary, and there is much to be gained from different perspectives. As it continues to grow, the sociology of ethical consumption should continue to borrow from these other fields while emphasizing what is unique from these other approaches. Sociologists need to take economists theoretical models seriously while still critiquing their overemphasis on “rational” and “efficient” consumer behaviors. They need to show how social contexts reshape the idea of rationality itself, and that altering these models to reflect environmental forces will lead to more robust theories. In essence, we need to destabilize the individual as the unit of analysis and examine how an individual’s interaction with others and the surrounding environment shapes behavior.

Sociologists need to learn from psychologists and behavioral economists’ findings about how consumers think and act within markets, while emphasizing that these patterns occur only in specific socio-historical contexts. In other words, patterned thinking only becomes significant when consumers confront similar environmental conditions. For instance, the idea of “loss aversion” is having success at explaining a wide range of behaviors inside markets (Kahneman 2011 ). (Loss aversion is the idea that individuals will choose to avoid a loss over acquiring an equivalent gain. Thus, potential losses impact decision-making more than potential gains). But the contexts in which this consumer mentality is activated cannot be ignored. Rather than an idea that simply resides inside a consumer’s mind, we should conceptualize loss aversion as a mindset that is only activated when a consumer interacts with a specific situation.

Sociologists should also take from the storytelling capabilities of many of the great journalists who have had tremendous impacts on sustainability and consumer culture but still maintain the systematic research methods that make the social sciences distinct. And finally, sociologists need to continue borrowing from market researchers who often have the resources to see changes in consumer behavior quickly but are often unable or unwilling to examine the social, historical, political, and economic forces that drive that behavior.

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The dilemma of ethical consumption: how much are your ethics worth to you?

Everyone, rich and poor alike, should be able to buy the cheapest product with a clean conscience

I n the lead-up to a recent buck’s party, the group chat turned to the age-old question: will there be strippers? After some back and forth (for the record, I was opposed), the groom-to-be stepped in with the veto. “No strippers!” he declared.

His reasoning demonstrated a remarkable level of self-knowledge. He explained that he was planning on the weekend being filled with inhibition-reducing substances and didn’t trust his addled self to make smart decisions.

In doing so, he gave voice to a basic moral principle: better to avoid temptation than to overcome it. From Mufasa to Gandalf – and the Lord’s Prayer – we’re told that while it’s good to be able to resist vice when it calls to us, there’s wisdom in arranging our lives in a way that minimises our exposure to vice altogether.

Unfortunately, that advice is nearly impossible to follow when it comes to participating in the market. Increasingly our decisions around what we buy come with a trade-off: the more sustainable, ethical, fair trade option or the cheaper, potentially dodgier one.

Take an easy example: eggs. Do you want to buy them from the farms that give the chooks the best quality of life (comparably speaking)? Free range, organic and more than twice the price of the quick-and-dirty caged eggs stashed at the bottom of the shelves. For many of us, this is a fairly straightforward choice – the price to put our money where our morals are is relatively low, though even here, the lower your budget, the harder the ethical choice becomes. What happens when we increase the costs?

If we stop thinking with our stomachs, the problems get even larger. I recently informed my financial planner that I wanted to move my superannuation to an ethical investment fund. He did his job and showed me the comparison. If fees and returns for each fund performed as they had been, in 30 years’ time my superannuation would be $300,000 worse off investing in an ethical fund. Lead us not into temptation indeed.

There are a few perversities here. The most galling to me is that pitting money against morality is a regressive dilemma. The people who can most afford to pay their ethical way are the uber rich; those battling against the poverty line don’t have the option but to become complicit in animal wellbeing issues and clothing made in questionable conditions. They certainly can’t justify moving to a higher-fee fund just because it doesn’t invest in coal or tobacco.

There seems to be something uniquely cruel about creating a system that determines ethical seriousness by purchasing behaviour, thereby stigmatising the poor and lightening the load on the wealthy. This only becomes more egregious when you consider the various ways in which wealth is accumulated under capitalism – often on the backs of the same workers who can’t afford not to be complicit in the ethical missteps that often end up lining the pockets of the very same elites who can then afford a clean conscience.

However, the choice remains difficult even for those who ostensibly can afford to take the financial hit for their ethics. It’s easy to compare the immediate, measurable and tangible cost difference of two products. Making a judgement regarding the vague, unquantifiable moral value of not investing in unethical practices or investing in exemplary ones is ambiguous. There’s no obvious benefit, and thanks to the anonymity of the global market, we usually don’t see the harms inherent in the products we’re being offered. That’s a recipe for rationalising the choice that’s better for us and ours, no matter what the costs are to anonymous people, animals and ecosystems.

There appears to be little out for those wanting to be ethical consumers on a budget. Compromises and trade-offs will need to be made. You’ll likely need to benefit from practices that don’t align with what you think is right. However, the lie at the heart of the ethical consumption movement is to tell you this is your fault. It’s not. It’s the fault of a much larger system offering you choices that, in many cases, you simply shouldn’t be permitted to make.

I don’t want to be given the choice between forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars and compromising on my values. I don’t want to be offered the opportunity to buy clothes that are cheaper for me because disempowered workers paid the price in underpayment and subjugation. It’s too easy to justify the worse option. It’s too easy to be tempted.

Thinking this way has reframed slightly the way I think about ethical consumption. In the past, I’ve assumed the appropriate emotion to accompany making a good moral purchase is pride. Recently, I’ve started to feel like resentment is a more accurate – and more motivating – emotion.

I resent that the same store from which I’m buying free range eggs is profiting not only from my ethical purchase but from the choice to render others complicit in animal cruelty. I resent that superannuation companies, refusing to divest from unethical and harmful products, are using the promise of a greater retirement fund and more money to pass on to future generations as bribes to make me compromise on my morality. I can’t be proud participating in a system where my ability to make ethical choices is based more on my bank balance than my character.

When the cheapest product, available to rich and poor alike, can also be purchased with a clean conscience? That’s when I think we’ll be able to take pride in our purchases.

• Consumer affairs
• Ethical and green living

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Fast Fashion and Ethical Consumption Essay (Literature Review)

Introduction, outline of the topic, methodology reflection, literature review, analysis and critical discussion (implications), conclusions, reference list.

The industry of fast fashion offers a wide range of available garments, which makes it attractive for many people around the world. The widespread consumption of cheap clothing is used by companies to maximise their profits and sell as many products as possible. The global apparel market grows rapidly by 3-6% per year (O’Connell, 2019). Chang and Jai (2015) state that this dominant business model promotes greater consumption that is led by the claims for the so-called democratisation of fashion when the latest trends are made available for all consumers. In this context, fast fashion is understood as cheap clothing that was created based on celebrity culture and high street stores (Chang and Jai, 2015). The main idea behind fast fashion is to copy and produce clothing for the mass market as soon as possible, catching the moment of their popularity.

Fast fashion leads to overproduction and overconsumption that compose one of the key problems in the 21st century. Stringer, Mortimer and Payne (2020) emphasise that a lack of sustainable consumption, environmental pollution, and changing consumer preferences compose the adverse consequences of these problems. Considering that globalisation facilitates international relations, fast fashion develops across the countries. Western companies, such as Gap or Walmart, tend to cooperate with the developing countries due to cheap labour; Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China are the leading exporters for fast fashion (Taplin, 2014). A lack of ethical consumption minors global morality and erodes society since those who buy do not think about the influence of their purchasing decisions, while those who produce have to work for minimal wages in dangerous environments.

The environmental impact of fast fashion is another concern that is discussed in the literature. Many retailers use the cheapest fabrics that are produced from fossil fuels, which promote global warming, and the use of microspheres multiplies plastic trash (Zamani, Sandin and Peters, 2017). The use of these materials requires a lot of water and electricity, which can result in soil quality and biodiversity issues. Bowers (2019) reports that the fast fashion industry produces 10% of carbon emissions and causes 20% of water pollution, while 85% of garments is sent to landfills annually. At the same time, fast fashion encourages the culture of throwing away and overconsumption. Such clothing implies rapid obsolesce and the need to constantly buy more products as a way of satisfaction (Kim, Park and Glovinsky, 2018). The pressure on the environment and people is enormous, and it is likely to grow without changing people’s attitudes towards fast fashion. Therefore, it is critical to pay attention to how fast fashion impacts society, understanding the current trends and gaps.

The issue of fast fashion is of contemporary, topical, and academic interest since it should be considered from different perspectives. For academics, research is the main instrument to identify underlying problems and suggest decisions. The organisation and structuring of the existing literature is another beneficial step towards determining the areas to improve the identified situation. For policymakers, the findings of academics seem to be useful to adjust the policies for reducing environmental pollution and making the choices of consumers more deliberate. In turn, practicing managers may gain valuable insights by understanding the buying intentions of customers and the ways to make consumption more sustainable (Li et al. , 2014). A collaborative approach to the solution of the given problem seems to be the most relevant option.

The research shows that society tends to become more and more aware of the need to reconsider purchasing behaviours. The emergence of calls for sustainable consumption and environmental pollution prevention tend to be pronounced within the last decade (Li et al ., 2014). In this connection, both the production end and consumers should transform their approaches to fashion consumption. Consequently, it is important to understand motivations that underpin customers’ choices and also explore the impact of fast fashion on the environment. One of the promising areas for improvement is the concept brand sustainability, which may increase customer loyalty and the perceived value of clothing. By paying attention to how companies build their business models and integrate environmental issues, it is possible to better understand the problem and come up with pertinent solutions. Without further research and practical actions, the identified issues would escalate, leading to disruptive outcomes. In other words, the timeliness of this review is justified by the urgent nature of the mentioned problems.

The main advantage of this narrative literature review is the presentation of a variety of perspectives. As stated by Bhattacharya (2017), reviews encourage scholarly discussions that, in turn, stimulate both scholars and readers to ponder over the target problem. Another benefit is associated with the method of information collection and analysis, which is transparent and reproducible by others. The qualitative nature of the review also allows for detailed explorations of the context, methods, and results of the studies. However, the disadvantages of this narrative review comprise the risk of biased conclusions that can be caused by the subjectivity of a researcher, as well as the potential failure to merely describe data instead of synthesis (Maruyama and Ryan, 2014). The limitations that should be mentioned are the restricted number of articles under the review and the journals included in the ABS list.

A narrative literature review is selected to analyse and synthesise available information on the impact of fast fashion on society. The findings are structured in three tables (streams), each of which focuses on a particular sub-topic, including ethical consumption, environmental impact, and customer preferences and intentions. The investigation of three areas is useful for presenting a broad perspective on the issue being reviewed. Based on the condensed format of data in tables, the details are discussed in a written format. Consistent with Juntunen and Lehenkari (2019), this narrative literature review pulls different pieces of evidence into a readable version. The integration of articles is expected to reveal the gaps, tendencies, and limitations that exist in the contemporary literature.

For this literature review, data is obtained from academic articles published in peer-reviewed journals and enumerated on the ABS list. The use of this academic journal guide ensures that information is of high quality. In addition, all of the reviewed articles are empirical as they include data collection and analysis. The inclusion criteria are the relevance to the target topic, study design, and publication date (2013-2020). Among the exclusion criteria, there are systematic reviews, conceptual papers and outdated sources. Before including a study in the review, the abstracts were thoroughly examined and integrated according to common issues being researched. This allowed the researcher to use the time more effectively, avoiding non-pertinent sources. After that, the full texts of the selected articles were read to make sure that all the necessary details will be noted. In the process of writing this report, some supporting articles were found and cited to make the paper more comprehensive and beneficial to accomplish the goal of clarifying implications for managers, management education and policy makers.

The Discover search engine was used to search the relevant literature and select the articles that fit the inclusion criteria. The key words for the stream of ethical consumption involved such words as “ethical consumption”, “sustainable consumption” and fast fashion consumption. The query returned 9,456 articles, of which 10 were selected due to their potential contribution to the theme of this literature review paper. For the second stream of fast fashion impact on customers’ behaviours, the following search key words were considered: “fast fashion”, “hedonism”, “utilitarianism”, “circular clothing perception”, and “awareness of sustainable clothing”. After filtering 6,254 findings, 11 studies were included in the review. The third stream of the review focuses on the role of fast fashion in environmental pollution. It turned out that this sub-topic included plenty of technologic and environmental studies, but the relations between the mentioned issues were researched insufficiently. The initial return of 12,262 sources was sorted based on both exclusion and inclusion criteria to arrive at 10 articles. The repeated sources were also eliminated, and common sense was applied to avoid out of topic studies.

The fast fashion literature includes a range of academic articles that explore several companies and resources to identify the current tendencies and problems. Considering the nature of collected articles and the themes they highlight, it was decided to organise this literature review according to the following three streams: ethical consumption, environmental impact and customer preferences / intentions. Namely, the streams are summarised in the format of tables.

Ethical Consumption

Ethical customer identification: motivation.

Fast fashion revolutionised the clothing industry by making it more accessible to different categories of customers. This low-cost production is made of cheap materials and rapidly replaced by new models, which creates overconsumption threats (Coskun, Gupta and Burnaz, 2020; Pantano, Giglio and Dennis, 2019). With the emergence and rapid development of sustainable consumption agenda, many researchers turned to focusing on the links between fast fashion and ethical consumption. In their study, McNeill and Moore (2015) employed the developmental theory, which implies that human cognition can be classified to stages, to understand the attitudes of customers regarding sustainable consumption. The data was collected by means of open-ended interviews with 28 participants (Table 1). The authors arrived at the conclusion that there are three types of customers with various values. In particular, “self” consumers are oriented towards hedonistic principles that declare the importance of pleasure (McNeill and Moore, 2015). “Sacrifice” consumers try to decrease their influence on the world, while “social” clients are engaged in social image concerns.

A more detailed customer identification of ethical consumption of clothing is presented by Bly, Gwozdz, and Reisch (2015) and Reimers, Magnuson and Chao (2016). These scholars focused on the research of the so-called sustainable fashion consumption pioneers, who tend to actively engage in the discussion of the need to buy green apparel. Using passive netnography and semi-structured interviews, it was revealed that for them, ethical consumption means decreasing measurable environmental or social impact (Bly, Gwozdz, and Reisch, 2015). In other words, for people valuing green consumption, the concepts of fashion and one’s personal style are much wider compared to average customers, who cannot imagine their lives without the constant purchase of fast fashion clothes. At the same time, Reimers, Magnuson and Chao (2016) add to the evidence by investigating how consumers identify and measure sustainability of fast fashion. They reported that environmental responsibility, animal welfare, employee welfare and slow fashion attributes are the key areas of concern.

Customers’ Perception Patterns

While speaking about how customers perceive ethical consumption, it is beneficial to review several studies that study eco-friendliness in the context of fast fashion. Blasi, Brigato and Sedita (2020) reviewed the accounts of Twitter users to test the hypothesis that greater eco-friendliness improves a brand’s image. The authors applied a novel data mining technology to synthesise social media conversations. Such key words as style, glamour, fashion, ethical business and environment were targeted. As a result, they computed the similarity and found the correlation between luxury brands’ images and positive perceptions of customers. However, this correlation is weaker for fast fashion brands, which indicates the insufficient consideration of ethical clothing from retailers (see Table 1 for details). The potential extension of H&M and Zara was examined by the above authors based on the online survey that was completed by 598 customers (Hill and Lee, 2015). It is essential to note that customers consider that fast fashion can be sustainable.

Another issue discussed by McNeill and Moore (2015) refers to the perceived barriers to ethical consumption of fast fashion. The authors rationally state that the fear to look worse and less fashionable, social conditioning and costs that can be significantly higher. In turn, the barriers that impede customers from ethical consumption are investigated by Wiederhold and Martinez (2018), who focus on 13 participants from Germany (Table 1). In both articles, it is emphasised that green purchasing behaviour is a trend, but there is a gap between customers’ views and their purchasing. The analysis of interviews allowed revealing the following list of barriers: barriers are price, transparency, availability, knowledge, consumption habits, image and inertia. Price and a lack of proper information are regarded as the most widely discussed barriers, which means that better awareness of consumers and more affordable prices would improve the situation. These inhibiting determinants are noted as useful for retailers and managers to consider them while planning new collections and interacting with customers.

A lack of sustainable fast fashion is mentioned by customers as one of the most challenging issues on the way to green apparel purchasing. Consistent with Wiederhold and Martinez (2018), Lundblad and Davies (2015) found that ethical brands are rarely presented in this sector. The interviewees’ concerns refer to the association between trendy designs and synthetic fabrics. More to the point, the majority of ethical brands look non-fashionable, boring, and alternative, as reported by consumers (Wiederhold and Martinez, 2018). This leads to the distorted perceptions of green apparel as of poor image clothing. The means-end approach that was employed by Lundblad and Davies (2015) also showed that the need for self-expression and self-esteem play a critical role in the fact that customers underestimate sustainable fashion consumption. The details of the above study are given in Table 1.

Sustainable Marketing Activities

The study of sustainable marketing activities can be identified as another area of research even though it is not sufficient yet. According to Jung, Kim and Kim (2020), brands’ sustainable approaches improve customers’ satisfaction and trust. This article adopted the quantitative method of data collection and analysis to determine the key characteristics of sustainability increase in the fashion industry. The ethical brand image was confirmed to impact brand loyalty and customer satisfaction, which is also stated by other articles involved in this literature review. Stringer, Mortimer and Payne (2020) and Turker and Altuntas (2014) claim that supplier amenableness with their code of conduct is one of the ways to build a sustainable product. Such values as self-transcendence and openness to changes are two more aspects that make a positive influence on customer awareness. Authenticity and trust were also found to be linked with the purchasing intentions of customers, who are interested in fast fashion ethical consumption (Jung, Kim and Kim (2020). As it can be understood from the last three studies, companies have not yet adopted ethical approaches, while they tend to be increasingly interested in the future changes.

The issue of ethical consumption of fast fashion products is widely explored in the academic literature, which points to the interest among scholars and practitioners. The articles included in this stream are varied in their focus of analysis and areas of coverage. Since these studies reflect the key findings of the recent research, it is possible to state that they are influential regarding the required changes. It becomes transparent that the call for a more ethical clothing consumption contributes to further studies. The awareness of customers’ perceptions, attitudes, motivational factors and barriers allows for understanding how to promote sustainability. The practical implications for managers, policy makers and retailers are clarified in the Analysis and Critical Discussion section of this paper.

Table 1. Fast fashion and ethical consumption

Impact of Fast Fashion Industry on Changing Consumer Preferences and Intentions

Responsiveness to consumer needs.

The increased responsiveness to the demands of customers is one of the key features of fast fashion. The process of developing and launching new products is quite rapid as retailers are likely to present new clothes and accessories weekly or even daily (Gabrielli, Baghi and Codeluppi, 2013; Miller, 2013). This requires involving a range of actors, such as designers, managers, marketers, textile and technical specialists, et cetera. Such a collaborative approach to fast fashion products impacts customers by making them savvy for continuous purchasing. There is a range of ways to interact with customers and collect data regarding their expectations. For example, Payne (2016) listed celebrity styles and magazines, sales data and other brands as the determining factors (Table 2). Accordingly, fast fashion companies strive to support the modern negative trend of overconsumption (Payne, 2016). Although some brands offer recycled clothes, others seem to disregard the calls for sustainable consumption.

Emotional Connection

The loyalty to fast fashion brands is one of the major areas of concern that are presented in the academic literature. According to the mixed method study by Kim, Park and Glovinsky (2018), customer involvement allows for changing their consciousness and improving their trust to the brand. This study included 306 female participants, who were interviewed for collecting the necessary data. The emotional connection is also stressed by Gabrielli, Baghi and Codeluppi (2013), stating that the analysis of fast fashion from the standpoint for a customer is poorly researched, while this approach has a great potential to clarify the preferences of particular consumers. This exploratory study included 64 consumers who were asked to share their attitudes towards fast fashion clothing (Gabrielli, Baghi and Codeluppi, 2013) (Table 2). The main benefit of this article is that it introduces a new perspective on evaluating customers’ intentions. By being aware of this perspective, it is possible to better comprehend their needs and influence their purchasing decisions.

To remain aware of the fast fashion industry, customers visit online sources, celebrity blogs and online stores. The statistical analysis conducted by Payne (2016) showed that consensus was targeted by the companies to gather relevant information from inspiration sources and interpret it with regard to customers’ preferences. This method is mentioned as useful for not only providing customers with a wide choice of options but also motivate them to look better. Embodiment is another method that is applied by fast fashion retailers either deliberately or unconsciously, thus tapping to their interests. The so-called gut feeling is reported by the interviewed designers (Payne, 2016). Linking the above article with the rest of the literature, one can refer to the statement that ephemeral fashion and uniqueness drive customers’ pleasure seeking-activities (Miller, 2013). It is clear that hedonistic consumer responses are caused by the appeal to have fun and enjoyment and develop one’s fantasy. For example, Zara launched the mobile application that allows customers to mix clothes and see prices without visiting their stores.

Hedonistic Consumption and Purchase Urgency

Along with inviting customers to have a pleasant experience, fast fashion creates a sense of urgency for purchasing. In this connection, Mrad et al. (2020) explored the phenomenon of brand addiction, concluding that hedonic consumption is associated with the transfer of symbolic meaning and emotional excitement, a stream of fantasies, feelings and impressions, regardless of the connection with the direct attributes of the purchased product. Su and Chang (2018) also stressed that the fantasy aspect of hedonistic consumption refers to a consumer’s reproduction of emotional images. In turn, by means of focus groups and interviews, Zarley Watson and Yan (2013) pointed to utilitarianism, self-image congruence and remorse avoidance as the driving forces that make customers purchase more (Table 2). As noted by these authors, the continued satisfaction with the purchased product is another issue that was found to be useful for brand loyalty.

The belongingness to the fast fashion trend does not prevent it from the opportunity of being perfectly combined with the clothing of the luxury segment, because it has a rich palette of colours and line-up (Zarley Watson and Yan (2013). Namely, it is not complicated to create such collaboration as fashion brings trends to people, high design is a of peak state, a starting point, and fast fashion is a flow directed specifically towards a consumer. A customer can always come and choose an ultra-fashionable cloth for a special price, depending on his or her preferences. Zarley Watson and Yan (2013) and Shen, Choi and Chow (2017) claim that it is convenient, especially since the choice is always huge, these things are easy to combine with each other and complement, and they are available. The motive of pleasure is becoming more and more important in the consumption of fast fashion and luxury fashion as well (Shen, Choi and Chow (2017). For example, a growing number of jewellery purchases are made by women not for the purpose of long-term investments or the acquisition of symbols of social success, but for the sake of satisfying the desire to pamper and please themselves.

Business Strategies: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

The available literature on the impact of fast fashion on customer intentions is associated with the business strategies. Camargo, Pereira and Scarpin, (2020) compared fast fashion and emerging ultra-fast fashion, which refers to online stores and a focus on social media, to understand the differences in their supply chain management. The authors reported that the new fast fashion trend prevents excess inventory, works with local manufactures and uses a set of lean and agile strategies (see Table 2 for details). On the contrary to fast fashion’s poor stickiness to sustainable consumption, ultra fashion is likely to make customers closer to their preferred clothes, allowing practising ethical purchasing behaviours (Camargo, Pereira and Scarpin, 2020). However, the other side of this trend is even faster production rates and greater overconsumption. These results can be supplemented by the findings of Chang and Jai (2015), proposing that corporate social responsibility of fast fashion retailers can be achieved via proper positioning that prioritises a positive impact on society. The use of the between-subject Web experiment, allowed the authors to find that corporate social responsibility correlates with the intentions of customers to buy clothes, along with brand equity and price value.

Reuse and recycle trends compose one more area of impact fast fashion retailers made on their consumers. The online consumer interviews (Owela) with 83 participants was conducted by Vehmas et al. (2018) with the purpose of examining the changes in customers’ perceptions regarding circular clothing (Table 2). It was discovered that the offers of sustainable clothing lines find responses and activity from consumers, who ask for more information about circular products. Therefore, communication of these issues should be timely and comprehensive, including all the aspects that are of interest for target audiences (Cook and Yurchisin, 2017; Chang and Fan, 2017). In general, research on the impact of companies on customers’ views of recycled clothes is limited. The majority of studies lack the identification of customers being interviewed, while some of them included college students and different age consumers. Therefore, the insights provided in this stream can be used by scholars to conduct further studies for addressing the existing gaps.

Table 2. Impact of Fast Fashion Industry on Changing Consumer Preferences and Intentions

Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion

Fast fashion’s negative environmental imprint.

The industry of fast fashion is one of the largest sectors that make a significant negative environmental imprint (Belzagui et al., 2019). The studies by Haseeb et al . (2020) and Zamani et al. (2015) point to the enormous resource consumption and toxic production processes that are the main environmental concerns. In turn, Mukherjee (2015) adds that greenhouse gas emissions impact the air pollution since synthetic textiles are made of polyester and other products. The production of clothing is extremely damaging to the environment. The share of light industry in CO2 emissions is higher than that of aviation and shipping combined (Mukherjee, 2015). Over the past 15 years, fast fashion apparel sales worldwide have doubled, while their average life has dropped dramatically (Haseeb et al ., 2020). The textile industry produces over a billion tonnes of CO2 annually, more than all international air travel and shipping (Shirvanimoghaddam et al. , 2020).

Considering that environmental pollution is a critical problem, fast fashion businesses should contribute to its minimization. It should be added that there is the pollution of the oceans by microplastics from textile fibres and the use of toxic chemicals. Polyester, nylon, acrylic and other synthetic materials are forms of plastic that make up 60% of the material from which clothes are made (Shirvanimoghaddam et al. , 2020). These fibres contribute to the subtle but pervasive plastic pollution of the ocean. A single load of laundry can drain hundreds of thousands of textile from our clothing into the plumbing (Arrigo, 2020). It is a global problem: synthetic fabrics are common in developing countries that do not have powerful treatment facilities; the garments will take hundreds of years to completely decompose.

Ways Businesses Can Improve Their Impact

These commitments indicate that major fashion manufacturers have realised that sustainability is in trend today. However, this is not just a marketing issue as it also concerns production and after use processes. Ganesan et al. (2015) see the transition to sustainable production as inevitable. The global demand for clothing is constantly growing – not least due to the emerging Asian and African markets. At the current rate of apparel production, by 2050, its volume is expected to triple (Arrigo, 2020). According to a study by Mair, Druckman and Jackson (2016), if the textile industry does not change, the environmental impact will be catastrophic. The solution to the problem is waste-free production: one of the actively explored ways to make the garment industry greener is the so-called circular economy. It suggests that the resources used in production should be used as long as possible. Ideally, such a scheme should only work with renewable energy sources. In terms of ethical consumption, Joung and Park‐Poaps (2013) note that donation and resale are the most widely cited opportunities.

Despite the fact that the governments of different countries are already passing laws prohibiting the use of plastic bags and disposable plastic items, the problem is far from being solved. The main result is that the problem has become widely discussed, and the environmental agenda has become relevant not only for small eco-brands, but also for companies of the higher level, such as Zara, Nike, H&M and others (Bick, Halsey and Ekenga, 2018). In contrast to the fast fashion that has emerged in recent decades, slow fashion is rapidly developing – a movement that calls for observing the above rules. The term was coined by the writer and designer Keith Fletcher. The movement rejects mass production and only recognises things that are individually handcrafted. The followers of slow fashion prefer to buy vintage items, boycott the mass market and choose universal clothes that will be stylish regardless of fashion trends and the latest design solutions (Akhter, Rutherford and Chu, 2017; Park and Lin, 2018). The representatives of this direction learn to sew, repair and recycle clothes on their own to buy less.

Speaking of the environmental impact of fast fashion, it is also important to pay attention to the position of workers in textile plants. To reduce costs, fast fashion companies are outsourcing their production to economically developing countries, where labour is much cheaper, and related policies are almost absent (Iran and Schrader, 2017; Niinimäki et al., 2020). Repeated scandals due to poor working conditions, disregard for basic safety measures, low wages, workplace violence and the use of child labour created discussions. For example, in 2013, the explosion occurred at a textile factory on the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital – Dhaka. According to Taplin (2014), citing information from the detailed content analysis of reports, a gas boiler exploded. At the time of the collapse, there were several hundred people inside the building, including workers of the textile factory. The inadequate approach to workers is also mentioned by Mair, Druckman and Jackson (2016), who used a sub-system global multi-regional input output analysis and found that Western European workers have low wages. These studies demonstrated that not only environmental impact but also social footprint of textile factories is negative.

Table 3. Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion

Thus, the literature review revealed that today, customers’ purchasing preferences are driven by a range of factors, including hedonism, sustainable consumption, social image, and so on. In their turn, businesses try to meet and anticipate their customers’ expectations to enrich their experience. Since the industry of fast fashion tends to grow, and its’ environmental impact is adverse, there is a need to formulate recommendations for different stakeholders, such as managers, designers, policy makers, and researchers.

Marketers and Managers

The studies included in this literature review allow for clarifying practical implications for managers who work directly with customers. Speaking more precisely, the motivations and barriers of consumers to follow green purchasing should be understood by companies who decided to shift towards sustainability. Even though the prices of ethical clothing can be higher, it is important to explain to customers that they are more durable and contributing to the environment protection. In this connection, proper sustainability communication is the key recommendation for managers and leaders of fast fashion retails (Wiederhold and Martinez, 2018). For example, the value of unique designs, natural materials and health benefits can be included in the appealing message to customers. In other words, the creation of emotional benefits and application of appropriate communication strategy should be prioritised. Considering the growing digitalisation of society, social media, blogs and other online means of communication can be implemented.

Speaking of the implications that are related to the environment, one should state that manufacturers must take responsibility for the entire supply chain and control the initial stages. Bly, Gwozdz, and Reisch (2015) argue that fast fashion has affected the economies of developing countries, giving people jobs but violating workers’ rights. It is important to do the best to use less water in the production process and definitely share with all our best practices. The ambitious package of solutions also includes a variety of measures to set new standards for manufacturers of fabrics, washing machines and detergents and to stimulate a culture of less consumption through taxes and increased liability of manufacturers and sellers of clothing (Reimers, Magnuson and Chao, 2016). The next direction is to extend the life of clothes through the mutual exchange of used clothing on special websites or the return of old clothing in the store in exchange for a new one at a discount.

To meet the demands of those customers who want to look fashionable and purchase clothes at an affordable price, retailers can change their business models towards ultra-fast fashion. The presentation to local manufacturers and avoidance of excess inventory are likely to be useful to make their products more sustainable to prevent environmental pollution. In addition, such a decision can increase a brand’s image and strengthen customer loyalty (Joung and Park‐Poaps, 2013). For new start-ups, it is also a promising way to use their limited resources and handle the challenges of the highly competitive fashion industry. For practitioners, it seems to be critical to carefully adopt proper positioning strategies so that their customers would be involved. For example, they can be engaged in the process of product creation that is achievable by requesting feedback regarding the existing products and expected new clothing lines (Park and Lin, 2018). The appeal to customers’ creativity and imagination can also be viewed by managers as the potential features to implement in their positioning strategies.

The evidence on brand addiction and customer involvement shows that managers need to pay attention to building trustful relationships with customers. Different communication channels can be applied to reach them, and interact to interpret their needs and design products accordingly, also using inspiration sources such as designers and luxury brands. The cooperation of fast fashion and luxury fashion retailers is another recommendation for practitioners to take into account to create unique products with several price and form options (Shen, Choi and Chow, 2017). As for management education, the analysis of the current cooperation’s can be included in the curriculum so that students better understood this promising strategy. Studies conducted showed that the attitude to fast fashion among the majority of consumers, especially young ones, is ambiguous. For now, most consumers are not ready to give up the benefits of fast fashion, but the attitude towards fashion is becoming more and more conscious.

Fast Fashion Designers

It should be noted that consumer demand is starting to shift, with more focus on products that are less dependent on natural resources. Designers should increasingly respond to this to become an active part of the market. Fashion can be more sustainable, and people in the supply chain can be fairly rewarded (Hill and Lee, 2015). To create this positive effect, it is vital to rethink how design is created, resources are obtained, production operates, and clothing is consumed and distributed. Designers are the source of inspiration for every model they create, and the ethics and sustainability of a product ultimately depend on themselves. In other words, designers and retailers can have a positive impact on the fast fashion industry by sourcing and selecting materials, using different design techniques and choosing a place of production. They can even influence customers at the stage of clothing use, as well as the final disposal methods (Lundblad and Davies, 2015). By looking at the environmental aspect of the production, distribution and post-consumption, it is possible to make environmental protection and sustainability the great sources of inspiration.

Policy Makers

There are calls for the governments to invest in sustainable fashion and develop standards for the durability of garments, and for manufacturers, to become more responsible. According to Gabrielli, Baghi and Codeluppi (2013), consumers need to reconsider their approach to buying clothes to perceive fashion and clothing more as a functional product than as entertainment, and be willing to pay a higher price for clothing, which takes into account the impact of fashion on the environment. At the same time, attention should be paid to the employees working in textile factories to ensure that they have appropriate wages and safe working environments (Druckman and Jackson, 2016). In the stores, managers should be attentive to customers’ requests, being ready to provide information about the place of production and fabrics used in the clothes.

Researchers

Future research is necessary to explore the perceptions and existing knowledge of consumers with the aim of designing appropriate product sustainability communication strategies. One of the extensive areas to explore refers to the extent to which customers are ready to pay more for ethical clothes in the fast fashion market. For those who value fashionable apparel more than a sustainable approach to society, certain measures should be researched to show them that their contribution is critical. In a larger context, overconsumption should be discussed regarding its current amount and expected consequences, as well as the ways to stop unconscious purchasing behaviours. In this connection, there is a need to create the cooperation across countries, governments and companies since only a comprehensive approach can help in resolving the problem of the adverse impact of fast fashion on society and environment.

To conclude, it should be emphasised that this literature review was expected to integrate the relevant evidence and present it to the readers to identify implications for practitioners, policymakers and management education. The use of sustainable fast fashion clothing is not only a tendency that wearing dresses made from recycled materials becomes fashionable and prestigious. Instead, the concept of ethical clothing is slowly but surely shifting towards the concern for the health of the planet and humanity, which is expressed in the increasing interest regarding the protection of the environment. Thus, despite fast fashion overconsumption, a more conscious culture of buying clothes is beginning to form across the world, and a course has been taken to ensure that the concept of fast fashion includes designs as a more meaningful, responsible and environmentally friendly approach to clothing.

The coverage of the literature that is provided in this report is appropriate since it includes more than 30 empirical articles. All of the sources were thoroughly studied and sorted according to their pertinence to the topic being discussed, research methods and high quality. Data collection and analysis are the integral parts of all the articles included. The sample sizes are the weaknesses of this review since many articles focused on a limited number of participants and reports. As for the geographical area of coverage, such countries as Sweden, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Vietnam and Western Europe in general were mentioned. Thus, this review seems to contribute to a wider body of evidence by presenting a detailed review of available academic literature.

Learning Statement

While working on this narrative literature review, I have learned that it is a complex process that requires collecting relevant sources and synthesising them to achieve the stated goal. For this project, the topic of fast fashion’s impact on society was chosen, with such streams as ethical consumption, the impact on customer preferences and intentions and environmental influence. The most challenging issue was related to reviewing the articles and revealing common features, difference and gaps existing in the literature.

A review of sources and literature always began with a description of the relevance of the studied problem. I tried to describe the existing views on the problem, the main representatives and their achievements. The bulk of the review of the literature was created based on publications containing direct research materials. In accordance with the guidelines, the review started with a brief description of the main results and conclusions drawn in the articles, which are applicable to the research topic. I understood that it is not necessary to reproduce all the data in its entirety (tables, conclusions and so on) as it is better to restrict to only individual indicators, facts, results that have the greatest value for research.

The review of sources and literature was analytical, which allowed making the presentation of facts critical, but without personal judgements. In this connection, the literature analysis was established around the problem, not articles. In carrying out the analysis, I emphasised both the similarity in the practical results, along with discrepancies and insufficient coverage of certain issues. Analysing the sources, it is required to identify weaknesses in the works, finding previously unexplored aspects. At the same time, I did not state my vision of the issue since the central task of analysing the literature is to identify problems and familiarise with the present state of the research area.

The use of the tabular analysis was the main issue that contributed to the structuration and organisation of information from the review articles. It is possible to suggest that without this strategy, I would probably spend much more time and efforts to reveal key information and compare it across the articles. Therefore, I believe that the use of this analysis strategy was quite important for the successful completion of this report. Since the tables were created for all three streams, it allowed for keeping data clear and easily finding the key trends of the literature. The analysis and interpretation of the studies were directed towards discussing the current significance of outcomes and their relation to the future research needs.

Considering that there were a lot of articles, the coordination of ideas was the difficulty I faced. The guidelines regarding the content of the narrative literature review imply no specific issues to be included, which made it quite challenging to decide personally. I was confused to start the review as I though it can be incorrect. However, my critical thinking skills allowed me to detect differences and similarities across the articles, which can be found in the report. I have learned that it is critical to constantly review the results of the tabular analysis to remain focused on the ideas being discussed.

After completing this report, I can state that I would organise the process of writing the narrative literature review differently. Although it was not required by the instructions, I would probably identify the connections across the three streams to reflect on the interdependent nature of the topics. In my point of view, such an approach would promote greater awareness of how fast fashion impacts society across various dimensions. I will do my best to make my future literature review would be more elaborate and detailed. I believe that this experience is of great importance for practising organisation, critical review and argumentation skills. Thus, this assignment was significant for me to practice my skills and apply my theoretical knowledge in practice.

Along with my personal benefits that are mentioned above, this narrative literature review will be useful for other students and scholars, who can employ its result to determine the areas for further research. Based on this report, it is possible to understand that the fast fashion retailers should change their business models to make production and clothing sustainable and ethical. The ways to achieve this goal, related challenges and the attitudes of customers are the potential gaps to study. In addition, my future employer seems to benefit as well since this research shows my analytic and critical thinking skills that I can apply in my work.

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IvyPanda. (2024, April 20). Fast Fashion and Ethical Consumption. https://ivypanda.com/essays/fast-fashion-and-ethical-consumption/

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Ethical Consumerism

The overview will delve into the concept of ethical consumerism, examining how consumer choices impact the environment, society, and the economy. It will explore the rise of ethically conscious consumers who consider factors like sustainability, fair trade, and corporate responsibility. The essay will discuss the challenges and opportunities in ethical consumerism, including how businesses are responding to this trend. It will also provide insights into how individuals can make more ethical choices in their consumption patterns. Also at PapersOwl you can find more free essay examples related to Communication.

How it works

Advertising is a method to gain attention and target customers to sell products. This is also known as targeting. Not all companies follow the ethical rules to reach out to consumers. Many businesses use manipulation and deception to achieve their sales goals. Ironically, some consumers trust the business to look out for not only their interest but also their full knowledge of the product to ensure their satisfaction and even their safety. What we fail to see is that consumers are a part of the problem by not being knowledgeable about the products they buy.

It is ethical to target uninformed consumers.

People may think targeting uninformed customers is just unethical as selling fast food is considered unethical by some people. “If it’s harmful, then it should be unethical”. But is it the business’s fault or is the customer the one to blame? A Harvard study shows that well-informed customers tend to choose store-brand products instead of national – more expensive – ones. Being well informed as a client not only helps you save money but also leads you to choose better, healthier options. People are just as able to research the products they buy just as much as businesses can deceive them.

Unless it is stated by some sort of law, it is not the brand’s duty to advertise the reality behind their product. Most people don’t seem to want to buy reality. Propaganda focuses on that: selling the good parts of the product. Coca-Cola does not fly off the shelves for having the amount of sugar it takes to make it taste like that, but because it promises you and your family happiness and a great tasty experience. It is in the hands of the customer to seek information. Nowadays, it is everywhere. All of the media, especially the internet, will give you everything you need to know about what you’re curious about.

Let us say you choose to buy a certain car. You can ask the salesperson at the dealer’s for information and they will give it to you. You may ask people who own that car for information and they will give it to you. You may look it up online and you will find the information right there. There are many resources around you to get more information about the car but you choose to do none. All of a sudden, you have a car without the functions you wanted. The fuel consumption is high, maintenance is expensive, repairing it after a minor crash costs a fortune… As much as you may be tempted to blame the manufacturer, you have to admit you have not been deceived. It was your choice not to go after the information out there.

As customers, we hope markets lookout for all of our needs. They don’t use any harmful ingredients, don’t charge high prices, and specify any risks to them. But unfortunately, businesses have needs also, and that is money. They will sprinkle a few lies to sell their products. A lot has changed for the better and companies do have a responsibility for their clients, rules to follow so that they won’t harm us too much. Their goal, however, is still to profit. That hasn’t changed. It is up to us to choose to who we give our money, which brand is worthy of it and why. It is the ethical thing to do: research and then decides.

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Perspectives, Opportunities and Tensions in Ethical and Sustainable Luxury: Introduction to the Thematic Symposium

• Editorial Essay
• Published: 27 March 2020
• Volume 169 , pages 201–210, ( 2021 )

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• Victoria-Sophie Osburg 1 ,
• Iain Davies 2 ,
• Vignesh Yoganathan 3 &
• Fraser McLeay 1  

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Scholars agree that the environmental and societal impacts of consumption require greater attention, and need examining in more diverse market contexts. This editorial essay focuses on the nascent area of ethical/sustainable luxury, and critically considers how the scope of ethical/sustainable consumption can be broadened in the luxury sector. We address the compatibility of ethicality/sustainability and luxury by examining a range of opportunities (e.g., durability, rarity, quality, local embedment) and inherent tensions (e.g., excess, prestige, self-gratification, uniqueness) in relation to improving the ethical/sustainable consumption practices within the luxury sector. We also introduce several original articles published as part of this Thematic Symposium, whose arguments underscore both the merits, and flaws, of ethical/sustainable luxury. On the basis of this and prior research, we present a balanced perspective by identifying various factors that facilitate or inhibit the acceptance and furtherance of ethicality/sustainability within sector. Thus, this essay serves as a springboard for further research and development in ethical/sustainable luxury whilst simultaneously highlighting the importance of the topic in general.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr Arno Kourula, Special Section Editor of the Journal of Business Ethics, for his guidance throughout the process of this Thematic Symposium. Additionally, we would like to thank all authors, who have submitted their research to our Thematic Symposium, and who documented great interest in, and relevance of, the research area of ethical/sustainable luxury. We also thank the authors, whose work is published as part of this Thematic Symposium, for their patience and thorough work throughout multiple rounds of revisions. Finally, we are grateful to all reviewers without whom this Thematic Symposium would not have been possible.

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Osburg, VS., Davies, I., Yoganathan, V. et al. Perspectives, Opportunities and Tensions in Ethical and Sustainable Luxury: Introduction to the Thematic Symposium. J Bus Ethics 169 , 201–210 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04487-4

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Received : 06 February 2020

Accepted : 14 March 2020

Published : 27 March 2020

Issue Date : March 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04487-4

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