Except for some economists, who think about the consumer society as a way to the political stability and economic progress, the philosophical and sociological view on consumptionism and consumer society is predominantly pejorative. Depending on their axiological starting points, theorists of consumptionism stress its destroying forces for societies, like social idleness, an implosion of social institutions, deepening of social divisions and social exclusion and, last but not least, ecocide. Criticism of the consumer society is (...) also of growing significance for the theological agenda of various Christian Churches and the teaching of ecumenical organizations like the World Council of Churches. The article aims to summarise different approaches to consumptionism and its definitions, which are ordered in two categories: analytical and historical. It also discusses the teaching of Pope Francis, who contributes to the theological perspective of the criticism of the consumer society and focuses on the term of anthropological error as a hermeneutical instrument of this criticism. This task requires employing two main research methods: analysis of selected and relevant literature and synthesising exposition of the results of research. The discourse consists of two parts. The first one presents the term of consumptionism and highlights the scope of discussions on the definitions of this phenomenon. The second demonstrates the Christian interpretation of the problem. The first and the second chapters create a hermeneutical background to the third one; they even might be regarded as its contextualisation. The theological critique of consumer society contributes to the interdisciplinary theory of consumptionism. Contribution: The theological critique of consumer society contributes to the interdisciplinary theory of consumptionism. It also shows how theology might refer to social studies. Such a juxtaposition of the theological and sociological fields of reflection converges with the focus and scope of the journal to promote multidisciplinary aspects of studies in the general theological area. (shrink)

박물관은 지금까지 주로 과거를 저장하고 전시하는 수동적인 공간으로 인식되어왔다. 따라서 박물관을 현재 그리고 미래와의 연관성 안에서 이해하는 연구는 부족한 실정이다. 특히, 박물관, 그 중에서도 추모 박물관들이 다수 존재함에도 불구하고, “두 번 다시는(Never Again)”의 메시지는 박물관 공간 안에서만 공허하게 울릴 뿐 전시된 과거의 끔찍했던 인권탄압은 전 세계적으로 반복되고 있다. 본 연구는 바로 이러한 추모 박물관의 과거와 현재 사이에 부재하는 연결고리에 집중하여 현대사회에서 박물관이 어떻게 소비되고 있는지 논의하고, 이를 통해 박물관 분석에 관한 새로운 접근방식을 모색하고자 한다.BR과거를 전시하는 박물관을 현재에 위치시키기 위해 본 (...) 연구는 과거와 현재의 다리 역할을 하는 방문자들의 경험을 쫓아 박물관을 탐색한다. 기존 박물관 연구는 전시와 그 전시를 기획한 배경 그리고 인물들에 관심을 집중한 반면 방문객들의 경험에 대해서는 무관심한 경향이 있다. 따라서 현재를 살고 있는 방문객들이 과거의 공간인 박물관을 어떻게 경험하는지 살핌으로서 과거에 머물러 있던 박물관에 대한 논의를 확장하여 현대사회에서 박물관이 어떠한 위치에 있으며 영향을 주는지 살펴보고자 한다. 다시 말해, 지금까지의 박물관 연구가 박물관 자체에 머물러 있었다면, 본 연구는 사회라는 넓은 틀 안에서 박물관의 역할을 분석함으로써 박물관에 대한 논의를 확대시키고자 하며 이를 통해 박물관의 사회적 역할을 재조명하려고 한다.BR이를 위해 추모 박물관은 두 갈래로 논의된다. 첫 번째로, 보드리야르(Jean Baudrillard)의 시뮬라크럼(Simulacrum) 이론을 통해 박물관 전시와 방문객들의 경험을 분석하고, 그의 현대 소비사회에 대한 이론을 바탕으로 추모 박물관이 소비사회 중심에 살고 있는 방문객들에 의해 어떻게 즐겁게 소비되고 있는지 논의한다. 두 번째로, 사라 아메드(Sara Ahmed)의 행복함(Happiness)에 대한 이론을 통해 추모 박물관이 어떻게 인권유린의 역사를 해피엔딩이라는 “완벽한 결말”로 왜곡시킴으로서 현재까지 지속되고 있는 사회갈등을 의도치 않게 감추는지 논의한다. (shrink)

Psychologists have traditionally been reluctant to investigate not just the historical nature of their subject matter — humans as acting, thinking and feeling beings — but even more so the historical nature of their discipline, its theories and practices. In this article, I will try to take seriously the historical transformation in the West from industrial society to consumer society. After having introduced these socio-economic designations, I shall try to illustrate how the transformation relates to changes in (...) significant societal practices with a particular attention to education and work. Since its inception, psychology has been deeply involved in the management of human beings in and through these practices, and considerable changes have taken place in the dominant psychologies with the change from industrial to consumer society. I interpret psychoanalysis and behaviourism as psychologies of industrial society, and humanistic psychology and the more recent wave of social constructionism as psychologies of consumer society. With shifting psychologies also come shifting life problems and pathologies, which I briefly address. (shrink)

소비사회가 이 세계에 일으키는 근본적인 문제는 사유의 무능이다. 여기에서 사유의 무능이란 소비행위가 가져오는 쾌락에 휩싸여 삶에 대한 성찰을 제대로 수행하지 못하는 사태를 말한다. 이러한 사유의 무능은 오늘날 우리가 직면한 문제들을 해결해 나갈 수 있는 능력 몇 가지를 약화시킨다. 첫째는 관계적 무능이다. 사유의 무능은 타인에 대한 이해와 공감 능력을 약화시킨다. 소비를 통한 감각적 쾌락이 삶의 목적이 되면서 개인은 자신의 이익과 행복을 중심으로 움직이게 된다. 자신의 행동을 타인의 입장에서 생각하지 못하고 타인을 소통의 대상이 아닌 단순히 쾌락 경쟁과 경제적 가치 증식의 대상으로 바라봄으로써 (...) 관계에 무능력해진다. 둘째는 정치적 무능이다. 사유의 무능은 우리들의 관심사를 자질구레한 세속적 쾌락에 집중시킨다. 때문에 우리는 정치에 자발적으로 참여하여 공동의 선을 고민하고 결정해나갈 수 있는 시민적 역량을 제대로 발휘하지 못하게 된다. 셋째는 경제적 무능이다. 사유의 무능은 우리로 하여금 더 큰 욕망의 충족에서 비롯되는 더 큰 쾌락을 위해서는 더 많은 돈이 필요하다는 생각을 내면화하도록 만든다. 동시에 더 많은 돈을 얻기 위해서는 자본주의가 내세우는 경쟁에서 승리해야 한다는 생각을 수용하도록 이끌면서 우리 자신을 소진시키는 경제질서를 개선해나갈 수 있는 능력을 약화시킨다. 마지막으로 환경적 무능이다. 사유의 무능은 우리가 끊임없이 세계를 상품화하고 소비하는 과정에서 거스르게 되는 자연의 속도에 대한 예민한 감각과 비판적 사고를 가로막는다. 때문에 우리는 당면한 심각한 환경문제를 해결해 나갈 수 있는 능력을 제대로 발휘하지 못하게 된다. 우리는 먼저 소비주의와 밀접한 관련을 맺고 있는 자본주의의 역사를 살펴볼 것이다. 이어서 자본주의와 소비주의가 만들어낸 소비사회의 특징을 간략히 정리한 후에 소비사회가 일으키는 몇 가지 무능을 검토할 것이다. 결론에서는 이런 무능들에서 우리가 벗어나기 위해서는 반성적 삶의 복원을 통해 인간의 욕망과 행복에 대한 성찰을 수행하고 소박한 삶의 양식을 추구하는 일이 필요하다고 주장할 것이다. (shrink)

In the paper we analyze the educational rationality closely associated with a neoliberal cultural logic that causes various lifestyles which seek only the satisfaction of unreal or symbolic needs where the ideal of education appears as one more among others. Furthermore, we consider educational policies subordinated to an expansive cultural logic of post-industrial capitalism, having as a historical reference the neoliberal turn of the Peruvian educational policy and a symbolic structure deeply established in the psyche of the society transformed (...) by the social pathologies of mercantilism and consumerism. This insight will allow us to propose a socio-philosophical critique of postmodernity. (shrink)

The paper “Crisis of the consumer society: searching for a new ideology” studies the ideology of the consumer society and its main tendencies such as values substitution, human self-isolation and loneliness and the dehumanization of the world. Based on the analysis of contemporary mass art and advertisements the author traces the growing gap between the real life of people and the dominating consumerist model of society. The author evaluates different radical movements (nationalist, racial, religious) as (...) people’s attempt to discover their identity, to find genuine feelings and experiences in the consumerist society. This results in the increase of xenophobia and intolerance in the intertwined and fragile modern world. The paper also states the possible solution to this problem – ajoint effort of the philosophers of the world to create a new, nonconsumerism ideology that would be able to overcome the existing detachment among people. (shrink)

The present article explores the inner tensions of the legal culture in consumer society as a consequence of the interaction between democracy, liberalism and market economy under globalization. The interaction between democracy and modern political thought has given rise to liberal democratic society, moral and religious pluralism, and modern law. The interplay between liberal democracy and the market (“new liberalism”) has generated the idea of “instrumental reason”, whose penetration into many realms of life has transformed the structure (...) of society and democracy itself: consumer society and a dangerous tendency of social decline prevail. Under the expansion of globalization and social decline, instrumental law may not be enough to ensure the functioning of society. Consumer society does not understand modern law and thus renders it inefficient. (shrink)

When Western Marxist sociologists, such as Jean Buadrillard, constructed their critical theory of consumer society, they took the consumer society as an objective fact and methodologically restricted themselves to the non-historical method of sociology, making them unable to grasp the correct meaning of Karl Marx's historical materialist methodology. Thus, they were unable to adequately critique and transcend consumer society. After spending the early 1850s building a theoretical foundation, Marx pointed out in 1857–1858 Economical Manuscript (...) and 1861–1863 Economical Manuscript that the governing model of capital was so complicated that it made consumption very important to the socio-economic form. Moreover, he explained the way of surpassing the conscious form of fetishism developed in consumer society from the perspective of the development of capitalist production. (shrink)

This article examines women's bodies in South Korea and the modes of Neo-Confucian governmentality at work within this consumer society. The concealed woman's body under Neo-Confucianism appears to have been supplanted by a liberated consumer body. This seems to represent a major shift in what the body means today. Nonetheless, the techniques of governmentality that controlled women's bodies under strict Neo-Confucian codes remain active in Korea's consumer society, so that despite the appearance of a striking (...) shift in body presentation, the methods of control remain remarkably similar. This article first examines the Neo-Confucian conception of the body, focusing on Neo-Confucian discourses on the female body and self, and the Neo-Confucian techniques of governmentality employed to control women's bodies. Next it observes how women live out the capitalist body in Korea's consumer society, using mostly journals, magazines and various women's views. Finally, it attempts to show how the new principles of consumer culture combine with Neo-Confucian techniques of governmentality to control women's bodies. (shrink)

Abstract Our growing demand for meat and dairy food products is unsustainable. It is hard to imagine that this global issue can be solved solely by more efficient technologies. Lowering our meat consumption seems inescapable. Yet, the question is whether modern consumers can be considered as reliable allies to achieve this shift in meat consumption pattern. Is there not a yawning gap between our responsible intentions as citizens and our hedonic desires as consumers? We will argue that consumers can and (...) should be considered as partners that must be involved in realizing new ways of protein consumption that contribute to a more sustainable world. In particular the large food consumer group of flexitarians offer promising opportunities for transforming our meat consumption patterns. We propose a pragmatic approach that explicitly goes beyond the standard suggestion of persuasion strategies and suggests different routes of change, coined sustainability by stealth, moderate involvement, and cultural change respectively. The recognition of more routes of change to a more plant-based diet implies that the ethical debate on meat should not only associate consumer change with rational persuasion strategies and food citizens that instantiate “strong” sustainable consumption. Such a focus narrows the debate on sustainable protein consumption and easily results in disappointment about consumers’ participation. A more wide-ranging concept of ethical consumption can leave the negative verdict behind that consumers are mainly an obstacle for sustainability and lead to a more optimistic view on modern consumers as allies and agents of change. Content Type Journal Article Category Articles Pages 1-18 DOI 10.1007/s10806-011-9345-z Authors Erik de Bakker, LEI Wageningen UR (Agricultural Economics Research Institute), P.O. Box 29703, 2505 LS The Hague, The Netherlands Hans Dagevos, LEI Wageningen UR (Agricultural Economics Research Institute), P.O. Box 29703, 2505 LS The Hague, The Netherlands Journal Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics Online ISSN 1573-322X Print ISSN 1187-7863. (shrink)

Fines and monetary damages account for the majority of legal sanctions across the whole spectrum of legal governance. Money is, in key respects, the primary tool law has to achieve compliance. Yet money has largely been ignored by social analyses of law, and especially by social theory. _The Currency of Justice_ examines the differing rationalities, aims and assumptions built into money’s deployment in diverse legal fields and sanctions. This raises major questions about the extent to which money appears as an (...) abstract universal or whether it takes on more particular meanings when deployed in various areas of law. Indeed, money may be unique in that it can take on the meanings of punishment, compensation, denunciation or regulation. _The Currency of Justice_ examines the implications of the ‘monetization of justice’ as life is increasingly regulated through this single medium. Money not only links diverse domains of law; it also links legal sanctions to other monetary techniques which govern everyday life. Like these, the concern with monetary sanctions is not who pays, but that money is paid. Money is perhaps the only form of legal sanction where the burden need not be borne by the wrongdoer. In this respect, this book explores the view that contemporary governance is less concerned with disciplining individuals and more concerned with regulating distributions and flows of behaviours and the harms and costs linked with these. (shrink)

Hoy nos movemos en un mundo altamente cambiante y atestado de desarrollo científico, técnico y tecnológico. Un mundo condicionado por los intereses de una globalización económica, donde el imperativo es consumir, y donde aquellos que producen de manera individual y distinta son absorbidos, en el mejor de los casos, o anulados por el sistema capitalista. Ahora bien, ese estado de cosas ha puesto en riesgo de pérdida al sujeto racional heredado y caracterizado desde la modernidad y que es requerido hoy (...) día como sujeto de racionalidad tecnológica. El sujeto-persona-agente racional se encuentra en una encrucijada ante la sociedad de consumo y el sistema económico de producción. La encrucijada consiste en si sigue aceptando el ser considerado y utilizado como un objeto, cosa, instrumento, artefacto más dentro del sistema artefactual o recobrar la capacidad de racionalidad, heredada desde la Modernidad y refrendada como racionalidad tecnológica desde la Revolución Industrial. (shrink)

This paper considers the place of education within our “consumers’ society”, beginning with Hannah Arendt’s account of the rise of consumerism to a position of political dominance and the resulting eclipse of public life. Connections are then made between Arendt’s account of this rise and Jean Baudrillard’s account of the postmodern proliferation of signs and the transformation of the sign into a commodity. This radical “semiurgy” accelerates into a self-referential series of signs which entails the loss of reality – (...) it contributes to the disappearance of the human subjectivity behind the creation of images. I argue that Baudrillard does not respond adequately to the dynamic that he describes so well. By contrast, Arendt’s concept of natality, I suggest, prepares the ground for a response to the forces of commodification that colonize the educational environment and threaten its critical possibilities. As youth and schools receive more and more attention from advertisers, students are sold by educational institutions to commercial interests who seek unfettered access to this “captive audience”. Yet education is profoundly compromised when youths are viewed as consumers and not as a social investment, when education is viewed merely as an opportunity to secure a new market. (shrink)

Identifying Consumption illustrates how an individual’s buying habits are shaped by the dynamics of the consumer marketplace—and thus how consumption and identity inform each other. Robert Dunn brings together the various theories of spending and develops a mode of analysis concentrating on the individual subjectivity of consumption. By doing so, he addresses how we spend and its relationship with status and lifestyle. Dunn provides a comprehensive guide to the study of modern consumer behavior before summarizing and critiquing the (...) major theories of consumption. At this juncture, he proposes a method of analysis that focuses on the significance of status and lifestyle in social relations that can help explain how the consumer marketplace is shaped. He concludes by raising issues about different ways of consuming and the relationship between consumption and identity. (shrink)

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

Although scholars have long been interested in the relationships among civil society, the state and the market in advanced industrial democracies, the implications of state disengagement from the affairs of private firms for civil society have yet to be explored in the contemporary literature. My purpose in this essay has been to address this issue by examining the effects of deregulation on Japanese consumer society, paying particular attention to how legislative and bureaucratic changes in the wake (...) of regulatory reform have affected consumer relations with business and, more significantly, state actors. (shrink)

Why have Korean Protestants been enthusiastic for Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, and Orthodox books in recent years? This article proposes that apophatic spirituality and desert asceticism, influential in both Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, can help assuage the thirst of Korean Protestants exhausted by the excesses of positivity and the exploitation of self. I focus on the insatiable consuming passions of Korean Protestant religious consumerism as symptoms of the burnout society. I then explore the major contribution of apophatic spirituality (...) and desert asceticism, which have much to teach contemporary Korean Protestantism. (shrink)

Modern consumer society leads a superficial and individualized life characterized by trivial values and ultimately the loss of all purpose. The problem is cultural distortion and the resulting diversification of values, ethics, and meaning. In this regard, consumer culture is a threat to well-being through the environment, health and social structure. The importance of critical discourse on this issue is that it highlights the tension between individual freedom and social justice, feelings of happiness, and levels of consumption.

In his 2004 article “Hannah Arendt and Jean Baudrillard: Pedagogy in the Consumer Society,” Trevor Norris bemoans the degree to which contemporary education’s focus can increasingly be described as primarily nurturing “consumers in training.” He goes on to add that the consequences of such “mindless” consumerism is that it “erodes democratic life, reduces education to the reproduction of private accumulation, prevents social resistance from expressing itself as anything other than political apathy, and transforms all human relations into commercial (...) transactions of calculated exchange.” This, then, is the challenge of the age: to articulate the sort of education that might prompt our youngsters to imagine a genuine alternative to this consumer madness—a challenge that the authors of this paper attempt to tackle. (shrink)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging global infrastructure that employs wireless sensors to collect, store, and exchange data. Increasingly, applications for marketing and advertising have been articulated as a means to enhance the consumer shopping experience, in addition to improving efficiency. However, privacy advocates have challenged the mass aggregation of personally-identifiable information in databases and geotracking, the use of location-based services to identify one’s precise location over time. This paper employs the framework of contextual integrity related to (...) privacy developed by Nissenbaum (Privacy in context: technology, policy, and the integrity of social life. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2010) as a tool to understand citizen response to implementation IoT-related technology in the supermarket. The purpose of the study was to identify and understand specific changes in information practices brought about by the IoT that may be perceived as privacy violations. Citizens were interviewed, read a scenario of near-term IoT implementation, and were asked to reflect on changes in the key actors involved, information attributes, and principles of transmission. Areas where new practices may occur with the IoT were then highlighted as potential problems (privacy violations). Issues identified included the mining of medical data, invasive targeted advertising, and loss of autonomy through marketing profiles or personal affect monitoring. While there were numerous aspects deemed desirable by the participants, some developments appeared to tip the balance between consumer benefit and corporate gain. This surveillance power creates an imbalance between the consumer and the corporation that may also impact individual autonomy. The ethical dimensions of this problem are discussed. (shrink)

The call for business practices that create benefits for companies, customers, and society is getting louder. This article analyzes a new implementation of such a win–win–win approach: the carrotmob. Activists and managers jointly organize a shopping flashmob in which consumers collectively purchase the products of a target company to reward its intent to act more socially responsible. Given that carrotmobs are only efficient if they are supported by a critical mass of consumers, a survey study of 337 young consumers (...) explores the critical drivers of carrotmob participation. Accordingly, object-oriented, personal, and social motives jointly determine carrotmob participation with social motives having the strongest impact. (shrink)

Previous studies have found Forsyth’s Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ) to vary between countries, but none has made a systematic evaluation of its psychometric properties across consumers from many countries. Using confirmatory factor analysis and multi-group LISREL analysis, this paper explores the factor structure of the EPQ and the measurement equivalence in five societies: Austria, Britain, Brunei, Hong Kong and USA. The results suggest that the modified scale, measuring idealism and relativism, was applicable in all five societies. Equivalence was found across (...) Britain, Brunei and USA, but the original scale cannot be used validly. (shrink)

The global corporate scandals such as Enron, Worldcom and Global Crossing have raised fundamental issues of business ethics as well as economic, social and anthropological questions concerning the nature of business competition and global capitalism. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to introduce the concept of "welfare exchange" to the existing notions of economic, social and anthropological notions of business and exchange in markets and society in the 21st century. Global competition and business success in the 21st century (...) continue to raise the nature of economic value and the interaction among diverse actors in international markets, institutions and society. We believe that the nature of such exchange between consumers and organizations, which can also be termed social marketing, need to increasingly take into account a welfare and ethical component. In this paper, we introduce our concept of welfare exchange to emphasize the importance of such welfare and ethical issues in the global business environment of the 21st century. (shrink)

As the distance between science and society is collapsed with the growth of contemporary knowledge societies, so a range of different approaches to the democratic governance of science superseding its Enlightenment government is emerging. In light of these different approaches, this article focuses on the figure of the scientific citizen and the variable dimensions of a new scientific citizenship. Three models of democracy - advanced consumer, deliberative and radical/pluralist - are put forward as both partly competing and partly (...) complementary frameworks within which the new rights and responsibilities of the scientific citizen can be articulated and discussed. In each case the theory and practice of scientific citizenship are viewed against the background of contemporary developments within the field of science communication; the rise of the public understanding of science movement; the new enthusiasm for advancing public engagements with science, and the legitimate place of different forms of public protest and dissent within new designs for democratic governance. (shrink)

PurposeWithin a larger mandate of reviewing the key global trends concerning consumer protection in the electronic commerce (e-commerce) literature, this study aims to study the legal framework concerning e-commerce and consumer protection in the Sultanate of Oman and to analyse the current regulations concerning e-commerce and consumer protection.Design/methodology/approachThis study followed the normative legal research approach and resorted to the desk research process to facilitate content analysis of literature containing consumer protection legislation and regulatory provisions in Oman (...) in particular and the rest of the world in general.FindingsThe study reveals that consumer protection initiatives in Oman are well entrenched for offline transactions, but are relatively new and limited for e-commerce. In spite of the promulgation of consumer protection laws, electronic transaction law and cybercrime law, consumer protection measures for e-commerce in Oman do not address a large number of the global concerns necessary to build consumer confidence and trust in the online environment.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a dearth of information concerning Oman on this topic in the extant literature. The research also witnessed the lack of empirical data on the issue of consumer protection and e-commerce in Oman that offer a detailed database of consumer complaints and associated outcomes.Practical implicationsThe mechanism of consumer protection in electronic transactions is not robust in many countries. Because of the lack of comprehensive and robust legislation, consumers remain vulnerable in the online contractual purchase process. Moving beyond the fragmented legislation, many countries are currently mulling an all-comprehensive e-commerce law, implications of this paper will help the policymakers in identifying the focus areas.Social implicationsConsumer protection is a burning global issue in this era of consumerism. It is important to build consumer trust, transparency and integrity of transactions to reduce the risk and uncertainties of purchase.Originality/valueConsumer protection studies conducted in the context of Oman, hitherto, deal more with data protection and dispute resolution mechanisms, and less with legal provisions, regulations and consumer confidence. The study shares newer insights based on a systematic review of legal and business databases. It is the first study of its kind in the context of Oman and the Middle East in general. (shrink)

The use of biotechnology in food productiongives rise to consumer concerns. The term ``consumerconcern'' is often used as a container notion. Itincludes concerns about food safety, environmental andanimal welfare consequences of food productionsystems, and intrinsic moral objections againstgenetic modification. In order to create clarity adistinction between three different kinds of consumerconcern is proposed. Consumer concerns can be seen assigns of loss of trust. Maintaining consumer trustasks for governmental action. Towards consumerconcerns, governments seem to have limitedpossibilities for public (...) policy. Under current WTOregulations designed to prevent trade disputes,governments can only limit their policies to 1) safetyregulation based upon sound scientific evidence and 2)the stimulation of a system of product labeling. Ananalysis of trust, however, can show that ifgovernments limit their efforts in this way, they willnot do enough to avoid the types of consumer concernsthat diminish trust. The establishment of a technicalbody for food safety – although perhaps necessary –is in itself not enough, because concerns that relatedirectly to food safety cannot be solved by ``pure''science alone. And labeling can only be a good way totake consumer concerns seriously if these concerns arerelated to consumer autonomy. For consumer concernsthat are linked to ideas about a good society,labeling can only provide a solution if it is seen asan addition to political action rather than as itssubstitution. Labeling can help consumers take uptheir political responsibility. As citizens, consumershave certain reasonable concerns that can justifiableinfluence the market. In a free-market society, theyare, as buyers, co-creators of the market, andsocietal steering is partly done by the market.Therefore, they need the information to co-create thatmarket. The basis of labeling in these cases, however,is not the good life of the individual but thepolitical responsibility people have in their role asparticipants in a free-market. Then, public concernsare taken seriously. Labeling in that case does nottake away the possibilities of reaching politicalgoals, but it adds a possibility. (shrink)

This study identifies the roles of consumers’ ethical orientations and CSR motives and the dynamics of these two variables on the subsequent consumers’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to CSR—perceived corporate authenticity and pro-firm behavioral intentions. To examine the impact of individual consumers’ ethical orientations, the authors measured consumers’ ethical orientations such as deontology and consequentialism through a Web-based survey conducted in Korea and in the USA. Further, to investigate the role of perceived CSR motives, the authors measured the perception of (...) a company’s business-oriented motives and society-oriented motives in conducting CSR. Results demonstrate the different role of ethical orientation in impacting consumers’ responses across these countries. Consumers’ consequentialist orientation appears to be positively associated with pro-firm behavioral intention in both the Korean and the US studies. In the Korean study, Consumers’ deontological orientation reduces perceived corporate authenticity when corporate motives seem business-oriented. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

The article analyses the common notion that the consumer society is a reflection of those principles in the market that also provide the ideas of democracy and liberal constitutionalism with legitimacy in the political realm. The inalienable right to self-development and self-determination makes the individual the starting and ending point of life, rendering all spheres of market and society a ‘republic of choice’. But if consumer society shares the essentials of liberal constitutionalism and the rational, (...) processual nature of democratic representation, then its ontology needs to be investigated for the same reason and in the same manner as legal and political philosophy dissects the legitimacy and validity of the parliamentary institutions of modern democracy. Just as in the political philosophy of the constitutional structure of the democratic state, the question of who is sovereign is key to understanding the ontology of consumer society. But rather than simply placing sovereignty into the hands of the independent, self-determined consumer, the earliest ontologists of the consumer society took recourse to medieval political theology and presented the consumer market as a new corpus mysticum. Thus, it is medieval political theology, not modern liberal thought, which provided for an ontologization of the consumer. This, in turn, directly pertains to the questions of the legitimacy of consumer society per se, of consumer decisions in particular and of their sources of legitimacy. (shrink)

Consumer driven and globally competitive financial markets are crucial for the future prosperity of the Finnish society (Laitamäki, Lehti and Paasio 1996). The largest transfer of wealth in history is currently taking place as Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) prepare for their retirement and inherit the assets of the previous generation. Due to cognitive limitations and emotional biases these consumers don’t always make rational decisions with financial services. This conceptual study addresses irrational financial consumer behavior and its impact (...) on the Finnish business and society. The study focuses on two research questions: 1) What type of behavioral finance concepts explain irrational consumer behavior? 2) What are the implications of these behaviors for the Finnish business and society? The purpose of this study is to assist individual consumers, business leaders and policy makers in making better financial services related decisions in Finland. The need for better decisions has been illustrated during Finnish and international financial crises including the US sub-prime loan turmoil in 2008. (shrink)

The Office of Communications, established by an Act of Parliament in 2003, is a new sector wide regulator in the UK, required to further the interests of what has been termed the ‘citizen-consumer’. Using a critical discursive approach, this article charts the unfolding debate among stakeholders in the new regulatory environment as they attempt to define the interests of citizens, consumers and the citizen-consumer. Ofcom has preferred to align the terms ‘citizen’ and ‘consumer’ so that the interests (...) of both may be met, as far as possible, through an economic agenda of market regulation. Among civil society groups, there is growing concern that the citizen interest is becoming marginalized as the consumer discourse becomes more widespread. We conclude by advocating the development of a positive definition of the citizen interests, distinct from the consumer interests, for the media and communications environment. (shrink)

Governments, producers, and international free tradeorganizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO) areincreasingly confronted with consumers who not only buy (or don'tbuy) goods, but also demand that those goods are producedconforming to certain ethical (often diverse) standards. Not onlysafety and health belong to these ethical ideals, but animalwelfare, environmental concerns, labor circumstances, and fairtrade. However, this phantom haunts the dusty world of social andpolitical philosophy as well. The new concept ``consumersovereignty'' bypasses the conceptual dichotomy of consumer andcitizen.According to the (...) narrow liberal response to this newconstellation, with respect to food one should conceptualizeconsumer sovereignty as the right of the individual consumer toget information on food products and to make his or her ownchoice on the market of food products. In this conception, thereis a very strong emphasis on rules and principles with respect tothe autonomy of individuals.I argue that these narrow liberal concepts are not sufficient forappropriate public policy-making in democratic societies, andthat they only enable us to identify problems; they do not helpnon-experts (and experts, if it comes to that, as well) inweighing the different ethical claims. Besides, not onlyprinciples play a role in the outcome, but all kinds of ideals aswell, like roles, values, and norms. My principal argument isthat analysis or justification of norms or principles is notsufficient to get a synthesis or construction of ethicalsolutions: we need some value orientation to guide us inbalancing the different ethical claims by solving an ethicalproblem. Moreover, this balancing is something that requiressocial space and social time, i.e., public debates. With theconcept of public debates a whole new dimension enters ethicalanalysis, because the attention of ethicists shifts toformulating criteria of successful and rational public debates.However, in the broad liberal view these concepts aresupplemented with values, preferences, practices of care, andinvolvement. I argue firstly for a broadened perspective on foodas an integral part of life styles and not only as something thatpresents risks. That is the reason that food gets such intensiveattention from the public, which is summarized in the concept ofconsumer concerns. Secondly, I defend the argument that not only(rational) public debates, but intensive commitments of bothproducers and consumers in every link of the chain in so calledcare practices or consumer councils can enhance confidence in thefood production system and the way we extract our daily intakefrom nature. (shrink)

The use of biotechnology in food productiongives rise to consumer concerns. The term ``consumerconcern'' is often used as a container notion. Itincludes concerns about food safety, environmental andanimal welfare consequences of food productionsystems, and intrinsic moral objections againstgenetic modification. In order to create clarity adistinction between three different kinds of consumerconcern is proposed. Consumer concerns can be seen assigns of loss of trust. Maintaining consumer trustasks for governmental action. Towards consumerconcerns, governments seem to have limitedpossibilities for public (...) policy. Under current WTOregulations designed to prevent trade disputes,governments can only limit their policies to 1) safetyregulation based upon sound scientific evidence and 2)the stimulation of a system of product labeling. Ananalysis of trust, however, can show that ifgovernments limit their efforts in this way, they willnot do enough to avoid the types of consumer concernsthat diminish trust. The establishment of a technicalbody for food safety – although perhaps necessary –is in itself not enough, because concerns that relatedirectly to food safety cannot be solved by ``pure''science alone. And labeling can only be a good way totake consumer concerns seriously if these concerns arerelated to consumer autonomy. For consumer concernsthat are linked to ideas about a good society,labeling can only provide a solution if it is seen asan addition to political action rather than as itssubstitution. Labeling can help consumers take uptheir political responsibility. As citizens, consumershave certain reasonable concerns that can justifiableinfluence the market. In a free-market society, theyare, as buyers, co-creators of the market, andsocietal steering is partly done by the market.Therefore, they need the information to co-create thatmarket. The basis of labeling in these cases, however,is not the good life of the individual but thepolitical responsibility people have in their role asparticipants in a free-market. Then, public concernsare taken seriously. Labeling in that case does nottake away the possibilities of reaching politicalgoals, but it adds a possibility. (shrink)

Are consumers of meat morally responsible for harms caused to animals in the produciton of that meat? One common argument for the negative states that in a global market, the decisions of an individual consumer makes little or no difference to whether and how a product is produced, hence the individual consumer cannot be held morally responsible. I argue that this same reasoning would imply that consumers of child-pornography cannot be held morally responsible for the harms done to (...) children in its production. Since society does (rightly) hold consumers of child-pornography responsible for harms done to children depicted, we are being inconsistent if we do not hold consumers in general rsponsible for harms done in the production of that which they consume. (shrink)

Collaborative consumption activities like saving food and buying used clothes are an important and rapidly growing part of sustainable consumer behavior. Many political and commercial campaigns promote collaborative consumption practices by highlighting subsets of normative motives, such as sustainable, social, and ecological effects. Whether or not consumers can comprehend these claims and incorporate them into their decision-making process is, however, unclear. This article introduces a new experimental study design to ethical consumer research—an adapted version of the Defining Issues (...) Test—that enables to assess consumers’ ability to cognitively and intuitively understand moral arguments in collaborative consumption contexts. The experiment was conducted with N = 435 collaborative consumers from Germany. The findings indicate that in different collaborative consumption contexts, consumers consider different moral arguments as important. Furthermore, the findings also indicate that consumers can incorporate the provider’s point of view in their moral judgment. (shrink)

The purpose of our study is to investigate the effects of the number of products, product attributes, and prices on consumer confusion, conduct a numerical analysis to check the robustness of the results, and present an example of the cell phone market in Japan. Following an ideal point model and embedding the number of products and product attributes, we clarify how these factors affect consumer confusion and purchase probability. We show that as the number of product attributes increases, (...) the choice probability of each product becomes equal, implying that consumer confusion occurs. This result is robust to the introduction of prices as strategic variables. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:The Christian Consumer: Living Faithfully in a Fragile World by Laura M. HartmanDavid CloutierThe Christian Consumer: Living Faithfully in a Fragile World LAURA M. HARTMAN New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. 256 pp. $29.95Laura Hartman has written an elegant, graceful, and gentle book about a topic often inspiring jeremiads: consumer society. Setting out to provide “an effective and explicitly practical ethics of consumption” (5), (...) she develops an ethical language that goes beyond sociological generalizations about “consumerism.” She structures her study by engaging ancient and contemporary theological sources to discuss “four primary considerations” (21): avoiding sin, embracing creation, loving the neighbor, and envisioning the future. Each represents a “node” of “theological reflection: sin, creation, love, and the reign of God” (25). In each area, she is unusually careful to point out the limitations of any one consideration without the others. Avoiding sin, for example, can become “a self-focused pursuit of holiness” (52); embracing creation can ignore justice concerns or, worse, lead to prosperity theology. Such limitations are less apparent when considering the final two areas. In loving the neighbor, the challenge is balancing considerations between close and distant neighbors. Finally, Hartman makes an impassioned case for Sabbath-keeping and Eucharist as practices of our destined eschatological fullness, even while recognizing that an overemphasis on these can lead to escapism and bickering over “vague and idiosyncratic” differences among Christians (167). By attending to all four notions, Hartman is able to offer a much richer picture of the conceptual field in which our consumption choices should be made. A closing chapter imagines a dinner conversation among three of her frequent interlocutors, Shannon Jung, Elizabeth Theokritoff, and James Nash, as well as applying the concepts to concrete choices of transportation and meat-eating.The book goes a long way toward its stated goal. Hartman has a skillful grasp of the complexities of both contemporary consumption practices and theological description. She displays a remarkably generous attitude toward a variety of voices, engaging positively figures as disparate as the severe abolitionist John Woolman and the prosperity televangelist Creflo Dollar. Her generosity works well; I can imagine this book being especially effective with students or church groups who might be alienated by a stronger anticonsumerism screed. As a work [End Page 247] of constructive ethics, though, the generosity leaves open a lot of questions. Hartman describes her methodology as “using a blend of methods,” owing some debts to “principalism” and to virtue ethics, explaining her four considerations “as diverse lenses on one holistic vision of virtuous consumption” (28). The four “considerations” are described as “not principles” but “actions that produce virtue” or “a school of virtue” (27)—neither are they moral rules, despite their being phrased in the form of verbal commands to action. This methodological looseness enables her to voice multiple harmony lines, which “form a chorus of perspectives on consumption” (5). But this approach can slip from generosity to vagueness. How does one determine what is off-key? The application section seems to have difficulty adjudicating particular actions; there is in effect a nonrational “weighing” that goes on, one that sometimes seems to reduce to a consideration of (incommensurable) competing consequences.The project could be furthered in two ways. First, Hartman could consider some way of ordering the considerations—not strictly ordinally but rather, for example, by recognizing that avoiding sin is a prelude to a proper embrace of creation and that creation is ordered to communion. The sequencing of her chapters hints at such an ordering, but she does not make use of it. While not reducing everything to love of God and neighbor, certainly sin, creation, and even eschatology point to this telos. Second, Hartman could go further in developing the language of virtue—for example, temperance and prudence—as a way of specifying more clearly what both avoiding sin and embracing creation mean. But her template is a valuable orientation to further needed work on this important topic. It should find a wide audience. [End Page 248]David CloutierMount St. Mary’s UniversityCopyright © 2014 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

For the first time, Guy Debord's pivotal work Society of the Spectacle appears in a definitive and authoritative English translation. Originally published in France in 1967, Society of the Spectacle offered a set of radically new propositions about the nature of contemporary capitalism and modern culture. At the same time it was one of the most influential theoretical works for a wide range of political and revolutionary practice in the 1960s. Today, Debord's work continues to be in the (...) forefront of debates about the fate of consumer society and the operation of modern social power. In a sweeping revision of Marxist categories, the notion of the spectacle takes the problem of the commodity from the sphere of economics to a point at which the commodity as an image dominates not only economic exchange but the primary communicative and symbolic activity of all modern societies.Guy Debord was one of the most important participants in the activities associated with the Situationist International in the 1960s. Also an artist and filmmaker, he is the author of Memoires and Commentaires sur la société du spectacle. A Swerve Edition, distributed for Zone Books. (shrink)

The Joyless Economy seeks to explain the paradox of rising consumption and pervasive dissatifaction, and is thus often cited as a critique of consumer society. Yet it is rather ambivalent as critique. A less ambivalent critique would be predicated on the existence of biases toward private consumption as against public consumption, savings, free time, and the environment. These biases result from two sources: the importance of social comparison and the non‐existence of a market in working hours. Because positional (...) competitions occur far more readily around visible private consumer goods, these take a privileged place in expenditures. This process is compounded by the fact that employers systematically deny opportunities to trade income for leisure. (shrink)

This paper explores how consumers perceive retailer ethics. Based on a review of the marketing and consumer research literature, we conceptualize consumer perceptions of the ethics of retailers as a multidimensional construct and propose that its effects on consumer purchase behavior and word-of-mouth communication are more salient when consumers have strong rather than weak ethical beliefs. The model was validated using a random sample of 399 respondents in a collectivist society. The results of structural equation modeling (...) confirmed that CPER is a second-order construct comprising product fairness, price fairness, non-deception, fair trade, and green products. CPER positively predicted consumer purchase behavior and word-of-mouth communication. Moreover, ethical beliefs moderated the positive relationship between CPER and the word-of-mouth communication of consumers with strong ethical beliefs but did not moderate the relationship between CPER and purchase behavior. The implications of the findings are discussed. (shrink)