ABSTRACT

This conceptual article proposes an approach to ethical consumption which is an alternative to “political consumerism”. By illuminating the aspects typically overlooked in political consumerism research, it re-embeds individualized ethical consumption in (1) the broader movement, (2) the communicative process, and (3) the social context. By adopting the notion of “ethical trade” it decenters individualized consumption as the exclusive way of enacting ethics in the marketplace, and by focusing on communication, it turns the spotlight away from individual consumers and onto organizations. Drawing extensively on communication studies, it is proposed that the main function of ethical trade organizations is to mediate between the geographically separated consumers and producers. Furthermore, greater sensitivity to the social context is introduced by distinguishing between two modes of mediation: “mediated familiarity” (the transmission of factual knowledge and the construction of affinity) and “moral education” (the subjectification of consumers who consider their impact on “distant others”).

摘要

这篇概念性文章提出了一种道德消费的方法，该方法可以替代“政治消费主义”。通过阐明政治消费主义研究中通常被忽视的各个方面，它在（1）广泛运动，（2）交流过程和（3）社会环境中重新体现了个性化的伦理消费。通过采用“道德贸易”的概念，它使个性化消费成为在市场上实行道德规范的唯一方式，并且通过关注交流，它使聚光灯从个人消费者转移到组织。建议广泛地利用传播研究，道德贸易组织的主要功能是在地理上分离的消费者和生产者之间进行调解。此外，