Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption

by Clive Barnett, Paul Cloke, Nick Clarke, Alice Malpass

Overview

Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption presents an innovative reinterpretation of the forces that have shaped the remarkable growth of ethical consumption.

• Develops a theoretically informed new approach to shape our understanding of the pragmatic nature of ethical action in consumption processes
• Provides empirical research on everyday consumers, social networks, and campaigns
• Fills a gap in research on the topic with its distinctive focus on fair trade consumption
• Locates ethical consumption within a range of social theoretical debates -on neoliberalism, governmentality, and globalisation
• Challenges the moralism of much of the analysis of ethical consumption, which sees it as a retreat from proper citizenly politics and an expression of individualised consumerism

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781405145589
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	12/13/2010
Series:	RGS-IBG Book Series , #31
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Clive Barnett is Reader in Human Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University.

Paul Cloke is Professor of Human Geography, Department of Geography, University of Exeter.

Nick Clarke is Lecturer in Human Geography, Department of Geography, University of Southampton.

Alice Malpass is Research Associate, Primary Health Care, University of Bristol.

Read an Excerpt

Click to read or download

Table of Contents

Series Editors' Preface.

Preface and Acknowledgements.

1 Introduction: Politicizing Consumption in an Unequal World.

1.1 The Moralization of Consumption.

1.2 Justice, Responsibility and the Politics of Consumption.

1.3 Relocating Agency in Ethical Consumption.

1.4 Problematizing Consumption.

Part One Theorizing Consumption Differently.

2 The Ethical Problematization of 'The Consumer'.

2.1 Teleologies of Consumerism and Individualization.

2.2 Theorizing Consumers as Political Subjects.

2.3 The Responsibilization of the Consumer.

2.4 What Type of Subject Is 'The Consumer'?

2.5 Does Governing Consumption Involve Governing the Consumer?

2.6 The Ethical Problematization of the Consumer.

2.7 Conclusion.

3 Practising Consumption.

3.1 The Antinomies of Consumer Choice.

3.2 Theorizing Consumption Practices.

3.3 Problematizing Choice.

3.4 Articulating Background.

3.5 Conclusion.

4 Problematizing Consumption.

4.1 Consumer Choice and Citizenly Acts.

4.2 Articulating Consumption and the Consumer.

4.3 Mobilizing the Ethical Consumer.

4.4 Articulating the Ethical Consumer.

4.5 Conclusion.

Part Two Doing Consumption Differently.

5 Grammars of Responsibility.

5.1 Justifying Practices.

5.2 Researching the (Ir)responsible Consumer.

5.3 Versions of Responsibility.

5.4 Dilemmas of Responsibility.

5.5 Conclusion.

6 Local Networks of Global Feeling.

6.1 Locating the Fair Trade Consumer.

6.2 Re-evaluating Fair Trade Consumption.

6.3 Managing Fair Trade, Mobilizing Networks.

6.4 Doing Fair Trade: Buying, Giving, Campaigning.

6.5 Conclusion.

7 Fairtrade Urbanism.

7.1 Rethinking the Spatialities of Fair Trade.

7.2 Re-imagining Bristol: From Slave Trade to Fair Trade.

7.3 Putting Fair Trade in Place.

7.4 Fair Trade and 'The Politics of Place Beyond Place'.

7.5 Conclusion.

8 Conclusion: Doing Politics in an Ethical Register.

8.1 Beyond the Consumer.

8.2 Doing Responsibility.

Notes.

References.

Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Based on original research and innovative thinking, this profound and insightful book challenges conventional thinking about 'ethical consumption.' Approaching the subject as a distinctive form of political mobilisation, Globalizing Responsibility shows how our everyday consumption practices are related to wider narratives of social justice and collective responsibility."
—Peter Jackson, University of Sheffield

"By viewing ethical consumption patterns as a political phenomenon, the authors deliver a far deeper understanding of this growing movement than a whole raft of marketing and business literature which has gone before."
—Rob Harrison, Ethical Consumer Magazine

Editorial Reviews

"Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption presents an innovative reinterpretation of the forces that have shaped the remarkable growth of ethical consumption." (Breitbart.com: Business Wire, 29 November 2010)

From the Publisher