Who? Impetus and Identities

This chapter investigates those experiences and events that originally compelled an interest in ethical consumption. It also includes an exploration of the way that engaging in ethical consumption is a part of identity formation. People wish to see themselves in a certain way, and participating in ethical consumption can act to affirm and reinforce their perception of themselves as a certain kind of person. All of the respondents expressed some sort of unease with the way that our current economic system impacts the world around them and—in some way or another—use ethical consumption as a way to feel as though they are either lessening their own complicity in the system or even undermining the system itself. Given the degree of responsibilization that is embedded in neoliberal capitalism—the process by which people are compelled to take on societal problems as something that should be fixed by individual action—it is also inevitable that ethical consumption is a social identity. This section explores reflections from respondents about their own perception of the performance of ethical consumption, both their own and others. Lastly, there is an examination of how ethical consumption can recreate the very systems of inequality it is meant to alleviate.