Relocating the‘Ethical Consumer’

In the last quarter of the twentieth century interest in consumer theory has grown significantly within and across disciplines. The recent notion of a more active and discerning consumer has elicited widely differing responses. So whilst the political theorist David Pepper ¹ dismissively associates ‘ecoconsumerism’ with the social and environmental degradation of Thatcher’s market liberalism, Bido Schlegelmilch ² celebrates the active consumer as the marketing discipline’s solution to all ills and Rob Harrison ³ advocates consumer power as key element in a strategy for change.