Mapping consumer empowerment in communities of ethical consumption

Abstract

Ethical consumer behaviour has been gaining increasing attention among both practitioners and academic researchers in recent times. This trend is evident in the increasing number of papers published on the topic. Nevertheless, even though ethical consumption has been often considered as an economic vote in the marketplace, the concept of consumer empowerment has not been thoroughly explored. The present paper aims to contribute towards this area by focusing on communities that practice ethical consumption. At this purpose, a combination of qualitative techniques was employed, including focus groups, in-depth interviews, observation and documentary analysis. The results reveal new conceptualizations of consumer empowerment when ethical consumption is practiced in communal contexts.

Keywords

• ethical consumer communities
• responsible consumption cooperatives
• consumer empowerment
• sustainability
• responsible consumption