Kathryn Wheeler

The Practice of Fairtrade Support

This article employs a practice–theoretical approach in order to explore how preferences towards Fairtrade goods emerge and are sustained through engagement in varied social practices. In recent years, the rates of Fairtrade consumption have been growing steadily both within the UK and globally and this growth has been widely represented as the result of thousands of individual citizen-consumers ‘voting’ for fairer trade. This article moves away from current accounts of (Fairtrade) consumption that rely on models of conscious and expressive consumer choice and instead demonstrates how consumption is shaped by shared structures of knowledge, institutional frameworks and infrastructures of provision. In so doing, attention is drawn to the wider practice of Fairtrade support which is collectively constituted by agents from diverse social backgrounds and in which consuming Fairtrade goods forms only one part of what is means to be a ‘Fairtrade supporter’.

‘CHANGE TODAY, CHOOSE FAIRTRADE’

The Fairtrade consumer is widely represented as an individual who intentionally and reflexively consumes Fairtrade goods in order to register their support for the plight of producers in the developing world. This figure is imagined to ‘vote’ with her/his pocket every time they visit the supermarket thus demonstrating their commitment to the Fairtrade trading model. However, this image of the Fairtrade citizen-consumer does not emerge automatically as a response to the increasing availability of Fairtrade goods in the market-place but has to be made by various intermediary actors and organizations. This paper examines how the Fairtrade consumer was constructed and called to action by the Fairtrade Fortnight promotional campaign that occurred within the UK in 2008 and was co-ordinated by the Fairtrade Foundation. This annual event offers a unique window into the processes and actors involved in the mobilization of the Fairtrade citizen-consumer. Through a close focus on the promotional material distributed to different audiences and the events that occurred during this Fortnight, this paper reveals the contingent and shifting nature of the citizen-consumer identity. In so doing, it highlights how varying degrees of reflexivity and action are demanded of different audiences and how this shapes the way that Fairtrade goods are qualified and distributed in the market.

Economies of Recycling, 'Consumption Work' and Divisions of Labour in Sweden and England

The recycling of domestic waste has become increasingly significant over recent years with governments across the world pledging increases in their recycling rates. But success in reaching targets relies on the input and effort of the household and consumer. This article argues that the work consumers regularly perform in sorting their recyclable waste into different fractions and, in some cases, transporting this to communal sites, plays an integral role in the overall division of labour within waste management processes. We develop the concept of ‘consumption work’ drawing on comparative research in Sweden and England to show how the consumer is both at the end and starting point of a circular global economy of materials re-use. The work that consumers do has not been systematically explored as a distinctive form of labour, and we argue that treating it seriously requires revision of the conventional approach to the division of labour.

‘It's kind of saving them a job isn't it?’ The consumption work of household recycling

Consumers play an integral role in societal divisions of labour. Rather than simply consume, they frequently perform labour. Incorporating consumers into the division of labour poses a challenge to this foundational and enduring concept, given its traditional focus on the technical division of tasks/skills within a labour process. Yet, insofar as completion of a circuit of production, distribution, exchange and consumption is predicated on consumers undertaking work in order to/after they consume, analysis of the division of labour would be incomplete without their inclusion. This paper uses the case of household recycling to demonstrate the importance of ‘consumption work’ for the organization of the waste management industry in England. By sorting their waste, consumers initiate a new economic process, providing feedstock (such as metals, plastics and paper) which in turn creates jobs/profits within the recycling, processing and manufacturing industries. Consumers also reconfigure public and private sector responsibilities when they sort their recyclable materials from general household waste, revealing the interdependency of consumption work with labour conducted under different socio-economic relations and across differing socio-economic domains. This paper makes the case for a renewed conception of division of labour to account for transformations and interconnections between work of different forms within contemporary society.

Moral economies of consumption

The aim of this article is twofold: first, to bring together debates about enduring normative concerns surrounding the morality of consumption with more recent concerns about the ways specific moralities are constituted in and through markets. The second aim is to develop the concept of ‘moral economy’ and call for an approach to its study, attentive to how moralities of consumption develop through interactions between instituted systems of provision, forms of state regulation, customs within communities and the everyday reflections of consumers about the things that matter to them. As consumers are increasingly asked to factor environmental and fair labour concerns into their purchase and post-purchase habits, there is a real need to understand how moralities of consumption are both formatted through institutional frameworks and shaped everyday by actors from within. After developing a framework for the study of moral economies, this article explores in depth the experiences of one couple in relation to the cessation of a cardboard recycling collection in Shropshire (England) to show why a multilevel perspective is needed to appreciate the place of morality within the market.

The Three Stages of Recycling Consumption Work

This chapter explores how recycling consumption work is practically accomplished by consumers in both our comparator countries, England and Sweden, drawing attention to what the work actually comprises and the implications of its successful accomplishment for the labour processes that follow. As already highlighted in chapters 3 and 4, we distinguish three distinct stages of work that consumers perform when preparing their household waste for recycling: first, waste has to be sorted into different categories (e.g. plastic, paper, glass, food, metal) and cleaned or readied for its onward journey; second, the different kinds of waste have to be collected together and stored in appropriate containers; and finally, consumers must leave their recycling outside their house or transport it to a bring-station/collection centre. This work varies according to the type of collection system in operation, as too does the propensity to carry out this work amongst household members, sometimes on the basis of gender and age. In terms of the socio-economic formations of labour (SEFL), these three tasks — supply, warehouse, distribution — can be considered the ‘technical division of labour’, whose performance is shaped by and influences both modal and processual divisions of labour.

Environmentally Regimented Rubbish: Recycling Systems in Sweden

We saw in Chapter 2 that to apply the socio-economic formations of labour (SEFL) framework to the study of household recycling it is necessary to uncover the interconnections between different forms of labour within the overall system of provision of waste management. By exploring how waste management is organised within different national settings — in terms of who does what, how they do it and why — we are able to identify how the work of consumers interacts with and shapes the division of labour across socio-economic domains and processes. There are key elements within a system of waste management provision, including the main actors/institutions involved, the role of the public and private sectors, the technologies employed to deal with waste and government policies, each of which influences how, or indeed whether, the consumer is put to work. Turning to our detailed case studies of recycling consumption work, this chapter explores how recycling and waste management are organised in Sweden, paying close attention to the role of the consumer within this system.

Living Off Tips: Waste and Recycling in Brazil and India

This chapter extends our comparative analysis of recycling to Brazil and India, two countries of the South which are fast becoming major global powers. Our objective is to give a snapshot of recycling in both countries and the challenges they face in establishing effective systems of waste management. Brazil and India were selected since they are amongst the most rapidly developing countries in the world, where recent large-scale urbanisation and high levels of migration of the rural poor to the cities have placed new pressures on pre-existing and often rudimentary methods of waste collection and disposal. Even if the majority of people in the global South consume less and create less waste per capita than their counterparts in the North, domestic rubbish and what to do with it represents a major problem for local and national governments, especially in circumstances where the infrastructures for sanitation and sewage are also inadequate.

Comparing Recycling Consumption Work

This chapter draws together the findings and analysis from chapters 3, 4 and 5, in order to directly compare and contrast the systems of recycling provision and consumption work in Sweden and England.

Consumers as Workers in Economies of Waste

This chapter develops the analytical approach underpinning our contention that consumers in England and Sweden perform a key role in the division of labour of waste management and our interpretation of recycling as a form of unpaid work. We introduce the notion of consumption work as a more general concept for recognising the work of consumers as a significant and growing field. And we propose a conceptual framework for understanding such work as an integral part of the division of labour which rests on reformulation and expansion of traditional approaches. The labour associated with consumption is not new, but it has been rapidly expanding in recent years as a consequence of socio-economic change and technical innovation. The requirement to sort and recycle household waste, introduced by national and local states, represents one instance of such developments. We are all familiar with self-service in supermarkets, with online checking-in and with self-assembly equipment. Not only is an increasing range of tasks transferred from producers and retailers to consumers, but emergent forms of leisure activity, travel arrangements, financial management that are often Internet dependent introduce new kinds of work for consumers that were previously unknown. Few goods or services are delivered ‘complete’ to consumers in the sense that they are ready for use without further activity.