“You’re Not Just Buying Coffee”: Ethical Consumerism in the Shadow of Global Capital

“You’re Not Just Buying Coffee”: Ethical Consumerism in the Shadow of Global Capital

Nicki Lisa Cole (Sociology, UCSB)
Monday, February 7 / 10:30 AM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

Today’s consumer is confronted with a growing variety of “ethical” products in the American marketplace. This presentation examines the practice of ethical consumption of coffee in order to identify the ideological and discursive components of the shifting cultural logic of global capitalism. Through surveys and interviews of consumers of “ethical” coffee across the Pacific coast of the United States, Cole sketches the contemporary motives, identities, and perceptions of foreign producers that work together to constitute the subjectivity of the ethical consumer.

Sponsored by Food Studies RFG and the Dept. of Sociology

Website: www.nickilisacole.com