ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how ethically-sensitive consumption is challenging the organization of retailer-driven supply chains. Media exposure and civil society campaigning on the subject of ethical trade is suggested by cultural and political geographers to be strongly connected to new waves of ethical consumption and associated emotions of care. In the context of globalizing supply chains driven by retailers, both critical journalism and direct campaigning orchestrated by civil society organizations have led to the development of ethical trading programmes. The empirical material discussed is from a wider research project sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK between 2005 and 2007. The emergence of a purchasing practices agenda in the field of ethical trade is developing in specific ways in particular places through the ethical brokering role played by key organizations representing the consumer and workers interest.
