ABSTRACT
The research and evidence to date related to ethical consumption has grown from a ‘niche’ preoccupation to a mainstream and significant consumer and business issue covering a variety of sectors, and ethical consumption research correspondingly has grown in its breadth and depth. Ethical consumption extends to myriad practices which are integrated into an individual’s search for a morally good life; as Bauman argues, humans are not inherently good or evil, but are ambivalent. This leaves little room for a ‘logically coherent ethical code’ which guarantees ethical conduct, but recognising the power of individual and moral conscience means that consumer responses to the moral obligations they face are varied. The authors recommend that research into ethical consumption recognises ethical pluralism, which holds that several moral standards may be relevant depending on the specific situation; sometimes these moral standards will produce same result, sometimes they will conflict, and which seeks to understand ethical consumption in totality of an individual’s life and practices.
