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What's wrong with ethical consumption? / Jo Littler

- Questions -

Littler, Jo (2010) 'What's wrong with ethical consumption?'
A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, pp. 27-39

1) There are a lot of issues to be analysed in ethical consumption. The problem is - where is the starting point and where does it stop? It seems more of an endless analysation. The audience of consumption is very broad and varied that there isn't any way to specify ethical consumption. Individuals may be living in a good ethical way but this part is small in comparison to the whole earth population.

2) Consumption is based on a daily basis, it is everyone's personal choice. Then some don't have the choice as they may not have the funds (f.e in LDC's/ global south). Consumerism holds a much bigger network with society + government. It also has the responsibility of world trade organisations.

3) There is a clothing company with an anti communist approach called 'zero waste daniel' which has a fair wage for their workers and they use recycling which is helping our planet's climate. Another example could be sports/ outdoor clothing line Patagonia who have a similar approach. 

4) Ethical Consumption can be unreachable for those poorer people as said they don't have the funds to live this way. Even people thinking of themselves as being ethical when f.e purchasing Fair Trade might be 'fake' - it is actually contradictory consumption as there are air miles and a lot of pollution when being shipped across the globe.More efficient would be to buy local organic food around your house. People often just buy thinking what they purchase is ethical but don't think deeply.

5) Political consumption within the fashion industry is for example shown in Vivienne Westwood's work - she did this campaign ch she shot with Jürgen Teller in Kenya through which she got attention politically. A western women shooting her garments in Africa in a scene where the contrast between wealthy and poor is shown. Westwood encouraged different cultures to feel more valued.
Another label, Eckhaus Latta, New York based did a similar project. Really exiting! 

6) Greenwashing is when a company has the image of being well organised and environmentally friendly but actually proves to be wrong when you look into their strategies more deeply. So the main issue is that those are not trustworthy. They can be deceptive or misleading environmental marketing claims and could get the company into trouble.

7) It is talking about the responsibilities that individuals have in ethical consumption - they can be quite full on as the whole society can't keep up with individuals. Issues are money and location and therefore also housing and weather conditions etc.

8) More wealthy social classes are usually more responsible - ethical shopping is a challenge for the less developed countries and their population. I am split between if it discriminates the poorer as I feel that they don't have the mindset to shop ethically - there is no choice for them and they might to even know about organisations such as Fair Trade properly - this can be counted as a discrimination also in consideration with the less updated school systems. 

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