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The choosing consumer has been a prominent figure within consumption research, alternatively celebrated as enabling the expression of lifestyles and tastes or criticised for overlooking consumers as embedded in interconnected mundane practices. While sociologically oriented consumption research has explored the multiplicity of consumer roles beyond ‘chooser’, the figure of the choosing consumer persists in many research streams and in our shared cultural imagination. This article joins previous research on the ethics of consumption that has explored tensions between choosing and relational consumers. It does so by introducing the logic of choice and the logic of care to consumption research. Developed by Annemarie , these logics can be seen as ideal types representing contrasting styles of navigating decision-making, ethics, and questions of the good life. The logic of care emphasises attentive doings that aim to improve conditions in specific situations, seeking moderation rather than control, whereas the logic of choice starts out from sovereign individuals making clear-cut decisions. Using examples from a research project on everyday meat consumption practices, we develop a conceptualisation of the central dimensions of these logics within food consumption. The logics of choice and care enact particular worlds and ways of being in them, bringing forth the ontological politics of consumption. Consequently, we advocate for cultivating care in the world of consumption currently dominated by choice, since it enacts a more merciful framing of ethical consumption, emphasising our shared responsibility for ‘as well as possible’ relations without tipping over into guilt.
In contemporary society, it is widely acknowledged that current patterns of consumption are fundamentally unsustainable because a large percentage of emissions comes from consumption related to food, mobility and housing practices. However, current debates and existing research on the need to change daily practices to address climate change tend to focus on single consumption activities, thereby paying too little attention to how practices are embedded in daily routines connected to a multitude of other practices. Instead of considering consumption activities related to food, mobility and housing as separate from one another, we examined how they connect and overlap with each other in the everyday lives of young Danes and what implications this might have for the ability to transition to less resource-intensive consumption. We do so through an analysis of data from interviews, mobilities mapping and photo diaries with 20 households, for a total of 30 young Danes (age 25–35) who are in the process of moving to new housing. With an outset in theories of practice, the article shows how the relations between the householders’ routines concerning food, mobility and housing become interwoven and embedded in bundles and complexes of practices characterised by conveniencisation. We argue that the conveniencisation in the case of bundles and complexes among food, mobility and housing practices create pathways towards more resource-intensive consumption as an implication due to the ‘stickiness’ of co-dependence in complexes and even looser interdependence in the bundling of food, mobility and housing practices in everyday lives.
In this paper we draw on a study of Muslim consumer perceptions and concerns about halal labels and certification practices in two affluent countries: the United Kingdom (UK) (where Muslims are a minority of the population) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) (where Muslims are the majority). The study looked at a stratified sample of 330 Muslim consumers in each country. Our analysis points to a growing demand for variety alongside increasing concern for the presence of food additives, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and alcohol in both cases. Expanding demands to label food and other commodities suitable for Muslims with information about quality and standards of production (Gauthier, 2021) are globalising trends, which Muslims everywhere engage with through ‘an Islamic lens – halal’ (Turaeva and Brose, 2020: 301). Our paper wants to address the gap in the literature that very little is known about how consumers perceive the halal concept regarding foodstuffs (see Demirci et al, 2016), and we argue that the expansion and segmentation of halal markets suggests that religious consumerism is affected by religious groups, and also by supply chain actors, and that these markets cannot be controlled by religious authorities. Our research findings provide fresh insight into the existing understanding of religion and consumption, pointing to the geographical specificities of processes of politicisation of halal consumption: the rise of new Muslim youth subcultures in the UK and the coexistence of growing processes of secularisation with ‘halalisation’ in the UAE.
Even in a country like the UK, which appears to be a nonhuman-animal-loving nation, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals receives over one million calls a year reporting possible nonhuman animal abuse or neglect. In order to decrease nonhuman animal suffering, there needs to be better understanding of perceptions towards nonhuman animals and their welfare. In this regard, this chapter moves beyond binary gender investigations to an inclusive exploration, via a survey, of attitudes of both people with the range of gender identities and people with different perceptions of gender roles towards nonhuman animals, with illustrative focus on status dogs. The findings confirm those from previous research but reveal some interesting nuances around non-cisgender identities. Such information may contribute to better understanding of gender identity and gender roles related attitudes towards nonhuman animal welfare and thus identify the gaps in public education about nonhuman animal abuse and ultimately such information will aid the abolition of animal oppression.
This chapter presents the theoretical promise of eco-feminism in explaining how the oppression of young women and girls is connected to the oppression of nature. Central to both forms of oppression is the ‘logic of domination’ – a conceptual framework maintaining harmful value dualisms and hierarchies. This logic also draws concrete parallels between the eco-violent commodification of nature and women’s bodies, theorising debt-for-nature (DFN) swaps and underage marriage in Indonesia through an eco-feminist lens. The interconnections of DFN swaps and various forms of violence against women and young girls in the context of human and environmental security prompt immediate responses from international organisations.
This chapter explores the burdens experienced by men in combating ecological destruction and in particular contesting the pressures and limits of patriarchal capitalism. Masculinity is multidimensional – it has ‘heroic’ and ‘caring’ aspects, as well as destructive and oppressive dimensions. Men are both complicit in and opposed to the damage wrought by the state and corporate capitalist machine. The ‘Davids’ are those fighting against the structural power and institutional weight of patriarchal capitalism. The ‘Goliaths’ are those at the helm of the existing global capitalist power structure (male and female) whose class interests necessarily involve exploitations of humans (men, women and children) and natural resources (minerals, trees, fish, seeds). The Goliath structure is comprised of patterns of behaviour, culture and institutional power, affecting all men and women, that variously benefit or disadvantage particular individuals (men and women) depending upon where they are located in the overarching power structure. The burdens of patriarchal capitalism are both structural (in the sense of narrowly shaping human experience insofar as it is informed by specific notions of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ and ‘economic imperatives’) and oppressive (in the sense that pushing back against the power structure inevitably comes at a cost – financial, reputational, employment and, in some instances, lives).
This chapter focuses on ecological (eco-)feminism. The foundation of eco-feminism is the relationship between women, the earth and environmentalism. The chapter traces our theoretical and conceptual understanding of green criminology using eco-feminism as the springboard for assessing the extent to which green criminology is gendered and for developing a framework for embedding a gendered approach to the green criminological and victimological project into the future. The first substantive section outlines the hallmarks of eco-feminism tuning in to the history of eco-feminism as well as insights from more recent environmental justice/environmental racism contributions from outside of criminology all under the heading ‘eco-feminism as a benchmark’. The second part of the chapter examines contemporary scholarship within green criminology and identifies the extent, variety and strength of the eco-feminist theoretical underpinnings to that work. The third part of the chapter considers eco-feminism and intersectionalities. Across the piece, the chapter considers the enduring strength of eco-feminism as well as critiques and limitations, reflecting on why the influence of gendered theorising is not more embedded in green criminology. Drawing to a close, the chapter considers the extent to which eco-feminism holds out for a gender-sensitive form of justice into the 21st century.
Our ambition for this book is to bring together feminist and green criminology for the first time in a scholarly volume where all contributions are devoted to the project of gendering green criminology. The editorial team is comprised of experts in gender and crime and in green criminology/environmental harm. The idea for the edited collection, and some of the chapters included, arose from a conference organised by the editors through the 'Green Criminology' and 'Women, Crime and Criminal Justice' Networks of the British Society of Criminology. That conference inspired us to expand the discussion and scope of inquiry into the gendering of green criminology.
Our ambition for this book is to bring together feminist and green criminology for the first time in a scholarly volume where all contributions are devoted to the project of gendering green criminology. The editorial team is comprised of experts in gender and crime and in green criminology/environmental harm. The idea for the edited collection, and some of the chapters included, arose from a conference organised by the editors through the 'Green Criminology' and 'Women, Crime and Criminal Justice' Networks of the British Society of Criminology. That conference inspired us to expand the discussion and scope of inquiry into the gendering of green criminology.
The first volume in green criminology devoted to gender, this book investigates gendered patterns to offending, victimisation and environmental harms. Including feminist and intersectional analysis, and with original case studies from the Global North and Global South, the book also examines actions that have been taken in response to gendered crimes and harms, together with insights on the gendered nature of resistance.
The collection advances debate on green crimes, environmental harm and climate change and will inspire students and researchers to foreground gender in debates about reducing and transforming the challenges affecting our planet’s future.
