1. Findings
4 Findings:
The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption
The Subjects and Spaces of
Ethical Consumption:
doing politics in an ethical register
Nick Clarke, University of Southampton and Dr Alice the Bristol Fairtrade City Campaign’, International Project team: In debates about climate change, human rights, sustainability, and public
Malpass, University of Bristol. Journal of Urban and Regional Research (Forthcoming, Clive Barnett
2008). Paul Cloke health, patterns of everyday consumption are identified as a problem requiring
PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE Nick Clarke consumers to change their behaviour through the exercise of responsible
Alice Malpass
Barnett C., Cafaro P. and Newholm T. ‘Philosophy and CONTACT choice. This project explores the contemporary problematization of consump-
Ethical Consumption’, in Harrison R., Newholm T. Dr Clive Barnett
tion and consumer choice. We investigated the institutional, organisational and
and Shaw D.(eds.) The Ethical Consumer (London: Faculty of Social Sciences
Sage, 2005). The Open University social dynamics behind the growth in ethical consumption practices in the UK,
Barnett C., Clarke N., Cloke P. and Malpass A. ‘The Political Walton Hall focussing in particular on a series of initiatives around fair trade and global
Ethics of Consumerism’, Consumer Policy Review Milton Keynes trade justice. Ethical consumption is best understood as a political phenomenon
15(2)(2005), pp. 45–51. MK7 6AA
Barnett C., Cloke P., Clarke N. and Malpass A. telephone rather than simply a market response to changes in consumer demand. It
‘Consuming Ethics: Articulating the Subjects and +44 (0)1908 659 700 reflects strategies and organisational forms amongst a diverse range of
Spaces of Ethical Consumption’, Antipode 37(1) email governmental and non-governmental actors. It is indicative of distinctive
(2005), pp. 23–45. c.barnett@open.ac.uk
Clarke N., Barnett C., Cloke P and Malpass A. ‘Globalising project website
forms of political mobilisation and representation. And it provides ordinary
the Consumer: Doing Politics in an Ethical Register’, http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/research/ people with pathways into wider networks of collective action, ones which seek
Political Geography 26(3)(2007), pp. 231–249. spaces-of-ethical-consumption.php to link the mundane spaces of everyday life into campaigns for global justice.
Malpass A., Barnett C., Clarke N. and Cloke P. ‘Governance,
Consumers, and Citizens: Agency and Resistance in KEY FINDINGS consumerism as an alternative to other forms of
Contemporary Politics’, in Bevir M. and Trentmann F. q People bring a range of ethical concerns to their civic involvement or public participation. Ethical
(eds.).(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, in press 2007). everyday consumption practices. These range from the consumerism can provide pathways into involvement
Malpass A., Cloke P., Barnett C. and Clarke N. ‘Fairtrade personal responsibilities of family life to more public in broader political campaigns.
Urbanism: The Politics of Place Beyond Place in commitments such as membership of particular
faith communities, political groups, and professional HIGHLIGHTS
communities. Globalising the consumer
CULTURES OF CONSUMPTION q Ethical consumption campaigns problematize Consumerism is often held to be inimical to collective
RESEARCH PROGRAMME everyday practices of consumption by shaping the deliberation and decision-making of the sort required
terms of public debate and by getting people to reflect to address pressing environmental, humanitarian and
The Cultures of Consumption Programme q to understand the practice, For further details take a look at our website on the relationship between ‘choice’ and ‘responsibility’ global justice issues. Policy interventions and academic
funds research on the changing nature ethics and knowledge of www.consume.bbk.ac.uk in everyday consumption routines. discourse alike often assume that transforming
of consumption in a global context. consumption q People respond critically and sceptically to demands consumption practices requires interventions that
or contact
The Programme investigates the different that they should take personal responsibility for various address people as consumers. This research project
q to assess the changing Professor Frank Trentmann
forms, development and consequences of
relationship between Programme director ‘global’ problems by changing their everyday consump- shows that this connection between consumption and
consumption, past and present. Research
consumption and citizenship telephone +44 (0)20 7079 0603 tion practices. consumers is a contingent achievement of strategically
projects cover a wide range of subjects,
email esrcConsumepd@bbk.ac.uk q The capacity of citizens to actively contribute to motivated actors with specific objectives in the public
from UK public services to drugs in east q to explain the shifting local,
Africa, London’s fashionable West End to metropolitan and transnational or concerted action to transform consumption practices realm. Focussing on the discursive interventions used
global consumer politics. The £5 million boundaries of cultures of Stefanie Nixon is socially di◊erentiated by both material resources in ethical consumption campaigns, the research found
Cultures of Consumption Programme consumption Programme administrator and cultural capital: by income levels, residential that that these are not primarily aimed at encouraging
is the first to bring together experts from Cultures of Consumption
q to explore consumption in the location, and personal mobility, and by involvement generic consumers to recognise themselves for the first
the social sciences and the arts and Research Programme
domestic sphere in social networks and associational practices. time as ‘ethical’ consumers. Rather, they aim to provide
humanities. It is co-funded by the ESRC Birkbeck College
and the AHRC. q to investigate alternative and Malet Street q Ethical consumption initiatives are successful when information to people already disposed to support or
sustainable consumption London WC1 7HX E they succeed in enabling changes in practical routines sympathise with certain causes; information that
The aims of the Cultures of Consumption
telephone +44 (0)20 7079 0601 of consumption. This might include changes at the level enables them to extend their concerns and commitments
Programme are: q to develop an interface
facsimile +44 (0)20 7079 0602
between cutting edge academic of domestic practices or changes at the level of whole into everyday consumption practices. These acts of
email esrcConsume@bbk.ac.uk
research and public debate. systems of urban infrastructure. consumption are in turn counted, reported, surveyed
q There is little evidence that people adopt ethical and represented in the public realm by organisations

2. 2 Findings: 3 Findings:
The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption
Right: Regina Joseph,
Shoppers in the a banana grower
Bishopston area from the Windward
of Bristol are Islands, helps
celebrate Bristol
spoilt for ‘ethical’
becoming Fairtrade
consumer choice,
City in March 2005.
while those in
Photo: Bristol
Hartcli◊e live in Fairtrade Network
a veritable ‘food
desert’
Below:
Responsible
consumption in
a Bristol suburb
Photos: Jon Tooby
who speak for the ‘ethical consumer’. These campaigns The predominant storyline in circulates as a term of public debate only in and through employees, residents and visitors became fairtrade
also provide supporters and sympathisers with storylines.
The predominant storyline re-inscribes popular discours-
es of globalisation into a narrative in which people are
‘
ethical consumption campaigns
re-inscribes popular discourses
this register of responsibility for the self and for others.
These campaigns seek to problematize the consequences
of everyday consumption by encouraging people to
consumers, knowingly or unknowingly, when visiting
the canteens and restaurants of the local authority
and other significant organisations in the city.
ascribed various responsibilities by virtue of their reflect, deliberate, and discuss the ‘ethical’ dilemmas of
activities as consumers but also empowered to act of globalisation into a narrative their routine practices. In turn, people negotiate these MESSAGES FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE
ethically and politically in and through these activities. demands for them to take personal responsibility by The ‘consumer’ is NOT the key agent of change in e◊orts
in which people are ascribed deploying the vocabularies of citizenship to delineate to change consumption practices!
Problematizing choice various responsibilities by virtue the scope of their own actions they consider it possible q Ethical consumption campaigning is most e◊ective in
Far from ‘choice’ being straightforwardly championed and and legitimate to change. transforming policies and infrastructures of collective
promoted, it is increasingly circulated as a term in policy
of their activities as consumers provision, rather than changing individual behaviour
discourse and public debate by being problematized. but also empowered to act Fairtrade urbanism through the provision of information.
How to ensure that the choices of putatively free Understandings of ethical consumption often assume q Ethical consumption campaigns do not seek to engage
individuals are exercised responsibly – in terms both
ethically and politically in and a relationship between placeless western consumers ‘consumers’, understood as abstract, self-interested
of those individuals’ own good and the good of broader through these activities and place-specific producers in the third world. Using utility maximizers. They engage members of communities
communities – has become a recurrent theme of concern.
For example, ‘choice’ is problematized in terms of the
potential of increased individual choice to conflict with
’ an ethnographic study of the Bristol Fairtrade City
Campaign in 2004–2005, this research project shows
how fairtrade consumption is aligned with place-based
of practice, for example, members of faith groups,
schoolchildren, or residents of distinctive localities.
public interest goals of sustainability and conservation; interests and identities. The Fairtrade City Campaign BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
in terms of increased choice leading to greater anxiety became a vehicle for enlisting the ordinary people of The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption was
and reduced quality of life, even reduced levels of Bristol into awareness of and identification with fairtrade funded by the ESRC /AHRC Cultures of Consumption
happiness; or in terms of the limitations of choice in issues. Citizens of Bristol were enrolled into re-imagining research programme and ran from October 2003 to
increasing or maintaining equity in social provision and the expansive scope of the city’s responsibilities. Through October 2006 (grant number: RES–143–25–0022–A).
access to public services. Ethical consumption campaigns the introduction of fairtrade procurement practices in The project team consisted of Dr Clive Barnett, The Open
are actively contributing to this process whereby ‘choice’ public organisations and private companies alike, University; Professor Paul Cloke, University of Exeter; Dr

3. 2 Findings: 3 Findings:
The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption
Right: Regina Joseph,
Shoppers in the a banana grower
Bishopston area from the Windward
of Bristol are Islands, helps
celebrate Bristol
spoilt for ‘ethical’
becoming Fairtrade
consumer choice,
City in March 2005.
while those in
Photo: Bristol
Hartcli◊e live in Fairtrade Network
a veritable ‘food
desert’
Below:
Responsible
consumption in
a Bristol suburb
Photos: Jon Tooby
who speak for the ‘ethical consumer’. These campaigns The predominant storyline in circulates as a term of public debate only in and through employees, residents and visitors became fairtrade
also provide supporters and sympathisers with storylines.
The predominant storyline re-inscribes popular discours-
es of globalisation into a narrative in which people are
‘
ethical consumption campaigns
re-inscribes popular discourses
this register of responsibility for the self and for others.
These campaigns seek to problematize the consequences
of everyday consumption by encouraging people to
consumers, knowingly or unknowingly, when visiting
the canteens and restaurants of the local authority
and other significant organisations in the city.
ascribed various responsibilities by virtue of their reflect, deliberate, and discuss the ‘ethical’ dilemmas of
activities as consumers but also empowered to act of globalisation into a narrative their routine practices. In turn, people negotiate these MESSAGES FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE
ethically and politically in and through these activities. demands for them to take personal responsibility by The ‘consumer’ is NOT the key agent of change in e◊orts
in which people are ascribed deploying the vocabularies of citizenship to delineate to change consumption practices!
Problematizing choice various responsibilities by virtue the scope of their own actions they consider it possible q Ethical consumption campaigning is most e◊ective in
Far from ‘choice’ being straightforwardly championed and and legitimate to change. transforming policies and infrastructures of collective
promoted, it is increasingly circulated as a term in policy
of their activities as consumers provision, rather than changing individual behaviour
discourse and public debate by being problematized. but also empowered to act Fairtrade urbanism through the provision of information.
How to ensure that the choices of putatively free Understandings of ethical consumption often assume q Ethical consumption campaigns do not seek to engage
individuals are exercised responsibly – in terms both
ethically and politically in and a relationship between placeless western consumers ‘consumers’, understood as abstract, self-interested
of those individuals’ own good and the good of broader through these activities and place-specific producers in the third world. Using utility maximizers. They engage members of communities
communities – has become a recurrent theme of concern.
For example, ‘choice’ is problematized in terms of the
potential of increased individual choice to conflict with
’ an ethnographic study of the Bristol Fairtrade City
Campaign in 2004–2005, this research project shows
how fairtrade consumption is aligned with place-based
of practice, for example, members of faith groups,
schoolchildren, or residents of distinctive localities.
public interest goals of sustainability and conservation; interests and identities. The Fairtrade City Campaign BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
in terms of increased choice leading to greater anxiety became a vehicle for enlisting the ordinary people of The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption was
and reduced quality of life, even reduced levels of Bristol into awareness of and identification with fairtrade funded by the ESRC /AHRC Cultures of Consumption
happiness; or in terms of the limitations of choice in issues. Citizens of Bristol were enrolled into re-imagining research programme and ran from October 2003 to
increasing or maintaining equity in social provision and the expansive scope of the city’s responsibilities. Through October 2006 (grant number: RES–143–25–0022–A).
access to public services. Ethical consumption campaigns the introduction of fairtrade procurement practices in The project team consisted of Dr Clive Barnett, The Open
are actively contributing to this process whereby ‘choice’ public organisations and private companies alike, University; Professor Paul Cloke, University of Exeter; Dr

4. Findings
4 Findings:
The Subjects and Spaces of Ethical Consumption
The Subjects and Spaces of
Ethical Consumption:
doing politics in an ethical register
Nick Clarke, University of Southampton and Dr Alice the Bristol Fairtrade City Campaign’, International Project team: In debates about climate change, human rights, sustainability, and public
Malpass, University of Bristol. Journal of Urban and Regional Research (Forthcoming, Clive Barnett
2008). Paul Cloke health, patterns of everyday consumption are identified as a problem requiring
PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE Nick Clarke consumers to change their behaviour through the exercise of responsible
Alice Malpass
Barnett C., Cafaro P. and Newholm T. ‘Philosophy and CONTACT choice. This project explores the contemporary problematization of consump-
Ethical Consumption’, in Harrison R., Newholm T. Dr Clive Barnett
tion and consumer choice. We investigated the institutional, organisational and
and Shaw D.(eds.) The Ethical Consumer (London: Faculty of Social Sciences
Sage, 2005). The Open University social dynamics behind the growth in ethical consumption practices in the UK,
Barnett C., Clarke N., Cloke P. and Malpass A. ‘The Political Walton Hall focussing in particular on a series of initiatives around fair trade and global
Ethics of Consumerism’, Consumer Policy Review Milton Keynes trade justice. Ethical consumption is best understood as a political phenomenon
15(2)(2005), pp. 45–51. MK7 6AA
Barnett C., Cloke P., Clarke N. and Malpass A. telephone rather than simply a market response to changes in consumer demand. It
‘Consuming Ethics: Articulating the Subjects and +44 (0)1908 659 700 reflects strategies and organisational forms amongst a diverse range of
Spaces of Ethical Consumption’, Antipode 37(1) email governmental and non-governmental actors. It is indicative of distinctive
(2005), pp. 23–45. c.barnett@open.ac.uk
Clarke N., Barnett C., Cloke P and Malpass A. ‘Globalising project website
forms of political mobilisation and representation. And it provides ordinary
the Consumer: Doing Politics in an Ethical Register’, http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/research/ people with pathways into wider networks of collective action, ones which seek
Political Geography 26(3)(2007), pp. 231–249. spaces-of-ethical-consumption.php to link the mundane spaces of everyday life into campaigns for global justice.
Malpass A., Barnett C., Clarke N. and Cloke P. ‘Governance,
Consumers, and Citizens: Agency and Resistance in KEY FINDINGS consumerism as an alternative to other forms of
Contemporary Politics’, in Bevir M. and Trentmann F. q People bring a range of ethical concerns to their civic involvement or public participation. Ethical
(eds.).(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, in press 2007). everyday consumption practices. These range from the consumerism can provide pathways into involvement
Malpass A., Cloke P., Barnett C. and Clarke N. ‘Fairtrade personal responsibilities of family life to more public in broader political campaigns.
Urbanism: The Politics of Place Beyond Place in commitments such as membership of particular
faith communities, political groups, and professional HIGHLIGHTS
communities. Globalising the consumer
CULTURES OF CONSUMPTION q Ethical consumption campaigns problematize Consumerism is often held to be inimical to collective
RESEARCH PROGRAMME everyday practices of consumption by shaping the deliberation and decision-making of the sort required
terms of public debate and by getting people to reflect to address pressing environmental, humanitarian and
The Cultures of Consumption Programme q to understand the practice, For further details take a look at our website on the relationship between ‘choice’ and ‘responsibility’ global justice issues. Policy interventions and academic
funds research on the changing nature ethics and knowledge of www.consume.bbk.ac.uk in everyday consumption routines. discourse alike often assume that transforming
of consumption in a global context. consumption q People respond critically and sceptically to demands consumption practices requires interventions that
or contact
The Programme investigates the different that they should take personal responsibility for various address people as consumers. This research project
q to assess the changing Professor Frank Trentmann
forms, development and consequences of
relationship between Programme director ‘global’ problems by changing their everyday consump- shows that this connection between consumption and
consumption, past and present. Research
consumption and citizenship telephone +44 (0)20 7079 0603 tion practices. consumers is a contingent achievement of strategically
projects cover a wide range of subjects,
email esrcConsumepd@bbk.ac.uk q The capacity of citizens to actively contribute to motivated actors with specific objectives in the public
from UK public services to drugs in east q to explain the shifting local,
Africa, London’s fashionable West End to metropolitan and transnational or concerted action to transform consumption practices realm. Focussing on the discursive interventions used
global consumer politics. The £5 million boundaries of cultures of Stefanie Nixon is socially di◊erentiated by both material resources in ethical consumption campaigns, the research found
Cultures of Consumption Programme consumption Programme administrator and cultural capital: by income levels, residential that that these are not primarily aimed at encouraging
is the first to bring together experts from Cultures of Consumption
q to explore consumption in the location, and personal mobility, and by involvement generic consumers to recognise themselves for the first
the social sciences and the arts and Research Programme
domestic sphere in social networks and associational practices. time as ‘ethical’ consumers. Rather, they aim to provide
humanities. It is co-funded by the ESRC Birkbeck College
and the AHRC. q to investigate alternative and Malet Street q Ethical consumption initiatives are successful when information to people already disposed to support or
sustainable consumption London WC1 7HX E they succeed in enabling changes in practical routines sympathise with certain causes; information that
The aims of the Cultures of Consumption
telephone +44 (0)20 7079 0601 of consumption. This might include changes at the level enables them to extend their concerns and commitments
Programme are: q to develop an interface
facsimile +44 (0)20 7079 0602
between cutting edge academic of domestic practices or changes at the level of whole into everyday consumption practices. These acts of
email esrcConsume@bbk.ac.uk
research and public debate. systems of urban infrastructure. consumption are in turn counted, reported, surveyed
q There is little evidence that people adopt ethical and represented in the public realm by organisations