The Consumer as Citizen: The Role of Ethics for a Sustainable Consumption

Published Date
Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia
2016, Vol.8:395–401, doi:10.1016/j.aaspro.2016.02.035
Florence “Sustainability of Well-Being International Forum”. 2015: Food for Sustainability and not just food, FlorenceSWIF2015
Open Access, Creative Commons license

• Author 

• Cecilia Ricci ^a,,
 
• Nicola Marinelli ^b
 
• Lorenzo Puliti ^c

• aCentro Universitario di ricerca per lo sviluppo competitivo del settore vitinicolo – UniCeSV, University of Florence,, P.le delle Cascine 18, I-50144, Florence
• bDepartment of Agricultural, Food and Forest Systems Management – GESAAF, University of Florence, P.le delle Cascine 18, I-50144, Florence
• cIstituto Nazionale di Studi su Agrobusiness e Sostenibilità – INAS. University of Florence, P.le delle Cascine 18, 50144 Florence

Available online 23 February 2016.

Abstract

The role of ethics, even in its absence, is essential in the economic discourse, despite its shifting through different theories. From the political Aristotelian tradition to the recent reflection about the concept of postmodern society – through the theory of maximizing the personal interest belonging to Utilitarianism– the moral questions and its dilemma, either accepted or rejected as non sense, have always indicated the directions to the human acts.

This paper is focused on consumption field seen as the favourite place where emerge all the contradictions of ethical human behaviour (in terms of choice, moral obligations, individual interests etc).

Firstly, the foundations of consumer's ethical responsibility is explored by addressing the changes from Modernity to Postmodernity and their alternative models of consumption.

It is argued that, paradoxically, the traces of “liquid society” with the fall of social structure, represent the beginning for developing a new kind of consumer defined as citizen who is able to embrace a sustainable and moral concept of consumption focused on collective well-being.

Secondly, after having defined the main features of ethical consumer, the paper addresses the role of ethics as the element which makes possible the communication between the two spheres of production and consumption. In this regard, following the dialectic between “rights” and “duties” articulated by Schrader, the responsibility of consumer is showed to be at the foundation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Keywords

ethics

consumer's behaviour

ethical consumption

liquid society 

postmodern consumption

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  Peer-review under responsibility of Fondazione Simone Cesaretti.

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  Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 055 275 5719.

Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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