Manyukhina, Y;
Emmel, N;
Middlemiss, L;
(2017)
Exercising moral agency in the contexts of objective reality: toward an integrated account of ethical consumption.
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
, 47
(4)
pp. 418-434.
10.1111/jtsb.12139.
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Abstract
This paper engages with two contrasting approaches to conceptualising and studying consumer behaviour that appear to dominate existing research on consumption. On one hand, agency-focused perspectives take an individual consumer to be the primary author of practice and a basic unit of analysis. On the other hand, socio-centric paradigms focus on the social roots of consumption activities and the wider societal contexts in which they take place. The need to provide a more balanced view of consumption phenomena has been acknowledged, yet not adequately acted upon. This paper begins to fill this gap through relevant theoretical and empirical contributions. First, we provide a critical review of the dominant theoretical perspectives on consumption in general and ethical consumption in particular, highlight their key ontological assumptions and explain how they preclude a fuller understanding of the ways in which consumer practices are moulded and shaped. Taking a critical realist approach, we then present the findings from qualitative analysis of consumers' ethical food practices to empirically demonstrate the role of human agency and social structure in creating and shaping ethical consumption. Thus, by means of theoretical analysis and empirical research this paper responds to the call for a more comprehensive understanding of consumption and provides a consolidated account of consumer behaviour which acknowledges and explains the complex ensemble of individual and systemic powers in which consumer practices are contained.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Exercising moral agency in the contexts of objective reality: toward an integrated account of ethical consumption |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/jtsb.12139 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12139 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | agency, consumer behaviour, consumer research, ethical consumption, structure |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10045155 |
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