Understanding the Ethical Consumer

This Book is about ethical consumers. In some business circles ethical consumers are treated simply as one kind of consumer in a market society where a niche can be created to satisfy every preference. Conversely others propose consumer activism as part of a movement that will force ethical considerations into the decision-making of businesses and governments. Questions about ethics are central to consumer society. The research presented here analyses consumer decisions in their social context. Sixteen case studies of ethical consumers in differing circumstances are developed in considerable detail. Starting from the theoretical observation that being an ethical consumer presents seemingly daunting challenges, the research uses bounded rationality theory to explain how these cases maintain their self-image as ethical. I suggest thinking of ethical consumers as adopting strategies to reduce the scope and/or difficulty of decision making: 'distancing' themselves from practices they consider unethical, 'integrating' their lives around addressing the issues in ethical consumer discourse and/or 'rationalising' their ethical consumption against their acceptance of consumer capitalism.