ABSTRACT
The chapter examines the differences and the similarities between two types of enterprise—radical and mainstream—and the contradictions they both face, by exploring the logic of green/ethical market capitalism. There is general agreement that the processes of globalization have intensified and accelerated and may also have assumed entirely new and distinctive forms. It is largely informed by the results of a small study of green/ethical businesses conducted in northwest Britain in 1994, but especially in the Manchester conurbation and in West Yorkshire. Postmodern consumerism is notable for the sheer scale of production engendered by the search for symbolic values, in the attempt to construct personal lifestyles by assembling a mass of inherently unstable images. Although the radical firms were bound by commercial considerations, they were also dedicated to non-economic goals because of the personal values held by their staff.
