Abstract
While there is an extensive body of literature about the impact of sharing physical space on ethical consumption, and a growing body of literature that addresses the impact of digital technologies on ethical consumption, there is little research on the increasing intersections between the physical and digital realms. This study explores the distinct affordances of physical and digital spaces and how they may work in both complementary and synergistic fashions. Drawing on an ethnographic study of two ethical consumption communities in North London, UK, we explore how ethical consumers navigate and negotiate both physical and digital spaces, taking advantage of such affordances. We develop the notion of chorophilia, or love for physical space, explore digital commitments and synergistic affordances of scaling up, and advance polytopes, which focus on the relationality of digital-physical spaces. Implications and avenues for future research are also discussed.
Highlights
Following the ‘spatial turn’ in marketing (Hoelscher and Chatzidakis 2017) and social sciences more broadly
Our study builds on the observation that contemporary ethical consumption communities increasingly inhabit both digital and physical realms, and are dynamically affected by their distinct affordances
It represents an initial exploration of the distinct affordances of digital and physical spaces, and examines how these may work both in complementary and synergistic fashions
Summary
Following the ‘spatial turn’ in marketing (Hoelscher and Chatzidakis 2017) and social sciences more broadly Centring on ethical consumption in the global South, and in particular Bangladesh, Gregson and Ferdous (2015) show how within-South understandings of consumption and ethics fundamentally challenge North–South assumptions. They argue that ethical consumption exists not “as ethical consumption but as ordinary consumption with ethical effects” Such studies illustrate that the ‘where’ of ethical consumption activity is not a background context or ‘empty canvas’. Rather, it is a fundamental determinant of its overall scope and nature
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