Manyukhina, Y, Emmel, N orcid.org/0000-0002-2154-5814 and Middlemiss, L orcid.org/0000-0001-5185-2033 (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. ISSN 0021-8308
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.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd . This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Manyukhina Y, Emmel N, Middlemiss L. Exercising moral agency in the contexts of objective reality: toward an integrated account of ethical consumption. J Theory Soc Behav. 2017;47:418–434., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12139. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | agency; consumer behaviour; consumer research; ethical consumption; structure |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Sociology and Social Policy (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 31 May 2017 09:36 |
Last Modified: | 08 Jun 2018 00:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/jtsb.12139 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:116835 |