The Myth of the Ethical Consumer I
Posted: August 31, 2010 Filed under: Book | Tags: Ethical consumerism, Research 1 Comment »
Last month the three business professors (Timothy M. Devinney, Pat Auger, Giana M. Eckhardt) published a book at Cambridge University Press with the – for some maybe provocative – title “The Myth of Ethical Consumers“. This book is not directly connected to clothing, but it tries to answer interesting questions like: Do consumers really care where products come from and how they are made? Is there such a thing as an ‘ethical consumer’? They particularly try to understand, why most research on ethical consumerism suggests that consumers want to purchase ethically, but that these expressed preferences, in the end, cannot be confirmed in the actual purchasing behaviour of consumers.
They argue that “the ethical consumer is a myth, an idealized fiction supported by neither theory nor fact” (p.9). However, they do not want to destroy the myth as a myth “but to bring science to bear on those parts of the myth that can be considered representative of a truth about human behaviour, and, in doing so, guide corporate and public policy in an informed way.
They regard the ethical consumer as a myth in three senses:
- “it represents a role model that is fictional” – the attainment of the model is neither rational nor sensible on the part of a large segment of the society.
- “it is mythical in the sense that it represents idealizations that open to contestation the existing, flawed, behavior of members of society” – the moral standard creates guilt
- “it represents a role model wherein the morality of the model itself is subject to contestation” – “Ethical consumers stand as reminders to us of the short-sighted nature of our workshop of the false gods created by multinational corporations.”
To sum up their aim in their own words:
In the most general sense, we are putting on to the table the hypothesis that the ethical consumer is a myth in that it is a characterization that is false, despite the fact that it serves a communicative function for those that present it as a model of idealized behaviour. In this sense, we are juxtaposing the “ethical” consumer as a myth that is believed as a constructivist epistemological phenomenon (and hence non-testable) against an ontological notion of whether such a creature as an “ethical” consumer exists (which is testable) (p.5f).
I will continue reading the book and sum it up within the next week or so. Next time I will look into chapter 3, where they argue that most people are using the wrong (linear) models of social consumption. But I will also sum up the results of their empirical research.
Like this:
Flip the whole marketing world on its head
Posted: August 27, 2010 Filed under: News | Tags: Consumers, label 1 Comment »I always wondered what happened to Dara O’Rourke from the University of California in Berkeley, who criticized social auditing practices already in the 1990s by asking “Who is monitoring the monitors?“. In 2006 he wrote an interesting article in World Development, where he compared different standards initiatives – but this was his last publication I know of.
Last year the NYT reported about his latest project. He founded the company – Goodguide – and now tries to revolutionize marketing: “What we’re trying to do is flip the whole marketing world on its head, … Instead of companies telling you what to believe, customers are making the statements to the marketers about what they care about.” His company collects information about products and through an iphone app customers can check social, health and environmental issues behind the product they intend to buy in the supermarket.
Actually a student in Basel developed a similar tool – Codecheck – in his Master thesis already in 2002. Since then he continued to developed his tool. Such tools might empower critical consumers – although it remains to be seen how many shoppers will in future take the effort to scan bar codes in supermarkets.
organic selection at munichfabricstart
Posted: August 26, 2010 Filed under: Conferences | Tags: Conference Leave a comment »
From 31/8 – 2/9 the munichfabricstart will take place, and for the first time it will have an “organic selection”. The textile fair might be interesting for all, who are looking for organic textiles. The organizers write:
“Featuring a selection of around 340 woven and knitted fabrics the organicselection Forum located right in the entrance concourse of Hall 4 is a cornerstone of this system – your pool of ideas. Experts will be ready and available to answer any questions or discuss matters with you. Our trade fair’s proprietary labelling with organicicons has been further refined so asto make assessment of the individual organic fabrics even easier for you.”
The info-leaflet “organicselection” provides some information about social and environmental standards. They rightly argue:
Ideally, clothing should be produced not only in a clean but also socially compatible way – making it doubly good. There are a plethora of social standards in use now – though they do denote different levels. Five acknowledged seals are permitted here. Exhibitors reaching this benchmark will receive one orange icon.
As acknowledged seals they permit: BSCI, Cotton made in Africa, ETI, FLO, SA 8000 – these are seemingly all standards that apply to the textile industry. I guess that the multi-stakeholder initiatives FLA, FWF, WRC are not listed here, because they do not apply to textile companies, but only to retailers and brands that are producing garments, which shows a problem of these approaches. However, regarding the textile industry this list shows that the ETI and SA 8000 are the only multi-stakeholder initiatives working on the level of textile production. The FLO standard only applies to the cotton fields, and CmiA (I guess) also. BSCI applies to textile producers, but the standard allows these companies to free-ride on standards to a quite large extent, as my own research showed.
Conferences, workshops etc.
Posted: August 25, 2010 Filed under: Conferences | Tags: Conferences Leave a comment »The september is full of interesting conferences for those interesed in CSR, labelling, fair trade and public procurement:
1.-3.9. Social Labelling in the Global Fashion Industry, Newcastle, GB
20.09.10. Fachtagung “FAIRgabe auf Landesebene”, Berlin
22.-24.9. 4th International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, Berlin.
23.-25.9. FA!R2010. Messe und Fachtagung zum Fairen Handel, Dortmund
Wages in Bangladesh (News)
Posted: August 23, 2010 Filed under: News Leave a comment »On Sunday, August 22nd, Markus Schlesag reports in Newsclick about wages in Bangladesh. The article quotes the CCC arguing that in average the workers’ wages make 1% of the retail price. A worker in Bangladesh, who earns the recently set minimum wage of 35 Euro/month gets 14 Cents an hour. According to Maik Pflaum of the CCC this does not suffice. He argues that workers should earn a living wage of 100 Euro/month. Pflaum also criticizes the social standards initiative “BSCI” with its 582 members: it would not help, because the fixed minimum wages are too low and the standards are not controlled by people whom the workers trust.
One day later Markus Schlesag again reports in the same news portal. Gisela Burckhard from the CCC is quoted criticizing that buyers in Bangladesh have reduced their buying prices by 1/3 within the last 5 years. The article presents quotes from textile workers from the CCC publication “Die Schönfärberei der Discounter” from April 2010 – these quotes demonstrate that the minimum wages in Bangladesh do not suffice for a living. Again, the BSCI is mentioned which, according to the media contact, Stephanie Luong, helps to improve working conditions in production countries, e.g. by demanding minimum wages and asking the companies to pay even higher wages. This statement is opposed by the CCC claim that the BSCI was only founded to counter legal rules and that it does not set through proper wages.
Labour costs are, indeed, strongly debated and national minimum wages are often too low. The political philosopher Iris Young convincingly suggested that it is not just, if companies argue that it is not their business to set living wages, but that producing countries should do so, as the BSCI does. Young argues that this does not work, due to structural causes (the picture by AFP, Munir Uz Zaman, is a manifestation of some of these structural causes: here state power is used to shut protesting workers down to keep up a business-friendly investment climate in a global competitive environment – see: Jakartaglobe July, 30th 2010).
However, the reality of implementing living wages is certainly more complex than the suggested 1% wage costs seem to be. There is a quite recent article in Global Social Policy by Miller D & P Williams (2009): What Price a Living Wage? Implementation Issues in the Quest for Decent Wages in the Global Apparel Sector – in which they show how a living wage could be implemented.
Working standards of Adidias, Metro, Aldi in China (Study)
Posted: August 20, 2010 Filed under: NGO studies | Tags: CSR, Overtime, Social Standards, Wages Leave a comment »
Yesterday, the German NGO “Südwind-Institut für Ökonomie und Ökumene” published a 90-pages study on the working conditions in Chinese factories. The study examines three large German companies, namely Adidas, Metro, Aldi, who are members of the FLA / BSCI. It presents the companies’ strategies and results regarding the working conditions in 2 factories producing for Adidas, 2 for Metro and 4 for Aldi – all in China. At least 10 workers were interviewed in each factory.
The study has the following major findings & conclusions:
- There are large deficits between the aims of CSR and its reality, particularly regarding freedom of association and womens’ rights. This confirms findings of earlier studies (see: Barrientos & Smith 2006 / 2007).
- Worst conditions were found in the factories supplying to Aldi – workers had to work up to 130 hours overtime a month.
- In the factories supplying to Adidas the wages were higher than the minimum wages (660 instead of 570 Renminbi) – but the Asian Floor Wage demands a living wage of 1640 Renminbi (163 Euro).
- The study concludes that voluntary CSR can contribute to awareness raising, but that effective changes in the working conditions must be achieved through state control.
- The study suggests that local authorities in Germany should start to regard their partnerships with cities or provinces in China from a developmental policy perspective. In this perspective the study could be used, for instance, to engage in a social dialogue, education, school partnerships etc. It further suggests that civil society groups and consumers should demand sanctionable transparency and social standards from companies.
See also the article in the largest daily German quality paper (Süddeutsche Zeitung): China 130 Überstunden, unbezahlt – Monat für Monat
Life cycles of clothes
Posted: August 3, 2010 Filed under: Company reports Leave a comment »
CSR Asia today reports about a life cycle assessment of a pair of 501 jeans presented by Levi’s. According to this report a typical 501 during its life time has a CO2 emission of 32 kg (which equals driving 125 in an average car), a water footprint of 3500 litres (like showering 52 times 7 minutes) and in total 400 MJ of energy are consumed during the life cycle”. The usage stage contributed to 45% of overall water consumption and 57% of energy consumption. Top loader washing machines and tumble drying takes 295 MJ, compared to 90% reduction for front loaders and air drying.
Patagonia writes that the production and transportation (Turkey-California) of one T-Shirt takes 11 MJ, which produces 1.6 kg CO2.
The difference of more than 100 MJ between the two calculations still makes me wonder. So I looked into a maybe more neutral study: Julia K. Steinberger, Damien Friot, Olivier Jolliet and Suren Erkman (2009): A spatially explicit life cycle inventory of the global textile chain. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. 14(5), 443-455. They even found that 70% of CO2 is used in the consuming stages, and they come to the following CO2 consumption of a T-Shirt worn for 100 days:
12.9 kg CO2 (warm washing, maching drying)
6.7 kg CO2 (cool washing, air drying)
