The Fair Trade consumer as a citizen-consumer: civic virtue or alternative hedonism?

Yosuke Hatayama

doi:10.13169/jfairtrade.1.2.0032

Abstract

This paper aims to explore Fair Trade consumer orientations by focusing on the ‘citizen-consumer’ dimension. Those who buy Fair Trade products are often regarded as consumers who are motivated by social responsibility and an altruistic spirit. However, some studies show that such consumers are not necessarily altruistic or political, but rather hedonistic and individualistic. In order to examine what kinds of people purchase Fair Trade products, we analyse the Fair Trade consumer's attitude using social survey data from Japan. The result of this analysis demonstrates that the variables concerning ‘alternative hedonism’ (creativity, quality of products, post-materialism) have positive effects on response in purchasing Fair Trade products. On the other hand, the variables concerning ‘civic virtue’ (dedication to the public interest, altruism, social support) have no significant effect on it. This result shows that Fair Trade consumers do not always internalise the movement's principles, but pursue their individual lifestyle in different ways. In other words, consumers' ‘little narratives’ are not an obstacle to the realisation of ‘grand narratives’, but rather a condition of the latter.

Highlights

The Fair Trade movement has developed over the past two decades and the consumption of such products has become more mainstream
This paper considers the gap in Fair Trade consumption by applying the explanatory model of the citizenconsumer to the analysis of social survey data available in Japan
The results of Model 1 and Model 2 clearly demonstrate that the features of alternative hedonism are significantly associated with the purchase of Fair Trade products, but the features of civic virtue have no significant impact on such behaviour

Summary

Introduction

The Fair Trade movement has developed over the past two decades and the consumption of such products has become more mainstream. During the process of mainstreaming, the profile of Fair Trade consumers has gradually changed. Some researchers suggested that Fair Trade consumers have maintained their original counter-hegemonic character (Taylor, 2004; Low & Davenport, 2006). Fair Trade has been penetrating consumers’ daily lives ever since and has been supported by ‘non-activist’ consumers (Wheeler, 2012). This probably means that the gap between the movement’s principle and consumers’ motivations has increased

Objectives

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion