What Can Sociology Say About FairTrade? Class, Reflexivity and Ethical Consumption

This article critically considers the 'fit' between FairTrade consumption and conceptualizations of the reflexive project of selfhood By outlining the ways in which FairTrade products am marketed, we argue that a particular and partial reflexivity is invoked and mobilized Following from re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology (Oxford) 2008-12, Vol.42 (6), p.1165-1182
Main Authors: Adams, Matthew, Raisborough, Jayne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Class
Conceptualization
Consumer economics
Consumer psychology
Consumption
Consumption patterns
Environmental ethics
Ethical consumerism
Ethics
Fair trade
International Trade
Marketing
Middle class
Morality
Production Consumption Relationship
Psychosocial Factors
Reflexivity
Self-concept
Social Class
Social classes
Social ethics
Social Justice
Social psychology
Social reflexivity
Sociology
Studies
The Good Consumer
Working class
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Summary:This article critically considers the 'fit' between FairTrade consumption and conceptualizations of the reflexive project of selfhood By outlining the ways in which FairTrade products am marketed, we argue that a particular and partial reflexivity is invoked and mobilized Following from recent class debates which apply a Bourdieusian analysis to explore the operations of everyday class distinctions, we explore what such an analysis can offer to the project of critically mapping out Hie dynamics of this particular neflexivity and ethical consumption. However, FairTrade's emphasis on 'just' consumption and invocation of a deserving farmer/works allows some scope for problemafetion here too. By turning to an emerging literature on the 'moral economy' we reach past the homogenizing tendency in some 'new' class analyses to suggest possibilities both for a psychosocial imagining of ethical consumption and for fleshing out the conceptualization of a 'situated reflexivfty' demanded by recent social theory.
ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/0038038508096939