Looking behind the Label: Global Industries and the Conscientious Consumer
Looking Behind the Label is a testament to the value of collaborative work that draws together scholars whose expertise is closely related in this case, expertise on regulatory and governance structures for a range of global commodities but distinct enough to add both depth and breadth to the analysis. Tim Bartley, Sebastian Koos, Hiram Samel, Gustavo Setrini, and Nik Summers position this book as an engagement with debates about ethical consumption and the potential for consumption to serve as a sphere for political engagement. It is a question regularly visited by contemporary scholars of consumption, who debate the possibilities for consumers to act as (local or global) citizens through purchases that support the 'greater good, be that in environmental, social justice, or animal welfare terms. But the issue of ethical consumption is rarely accompanied by in depth study of the commodity chains that purportedly might be reshaped by committed consumers or the regulatory standards and regimes that are meant to ensure and communicate fair or sustainable production practices to those citizenconsumers, and this book does just that. In fact, the authors of the book jettison the terminology of 'ethical consumption' entirely, arguing instead for the term 'conscientious consumption' in order to reflect the vague, rather than specific, commitments that often motivate consumers to make ethical purchases. And indeed, the data presented show that consumers are often motivated by self interest when engaging in conscientious consumption, and in practice few consumers appear to be willing to pay the premiums associated with ethical products. At the same time, the authors observe that the structure of retail markets, which varies considerably from country to country, can strongly impact opportunities to engage in buycotting purchasing goods to support a cause or value or boycotting avoiding ethically problematic products. These observations themselves do not seem particularly novel, but by linking a discussion of consumer motivations with careful analysis of market structures, both at the retail and especially at the more distant production ends of the commodity chain, the book offers a fresh perspective on consumption as a political or ethically driven act. Indeed, the real analytic power of the volume is pairing the discussion of conscientious consumption with careful investigation of four distinct 'global value chains' wood products, food, apparel, and electronics. Each chapter is engrossing and informative in its own right, revealing complex histories of how industries develop, how regulatory standards originate, and which actors are involved in their development and promotion. Even more striking are the complicated interactions between 'global' efforts to develop and deploy standards (standards that, of course, have local origins) and the local contexts in which land, labor, and industrial production are governed. The most general take away from this fourindustry investigation is that standards are hard to enforce and rarely can deliver what they promise. Yet while each chapter contributes to this general insight, each industry and commodity chain that the authors consider reveals how much variation exists across industries, goods, and value chains. For example, despite the apparent success of forest certification schemes, especially the most reputable FSC certification, deforestation has actually accelerated. Why? One key reason is that forest product production standards only govern the forestry industry and are unable to prevent the conversion of forests into agricultural plantations. In another example, the failure of labor standards in the apparel industry is tied to major apparel brands' unwillingness to accept that the imposition of higher production standards increases costs, resulting in a globally mobile industry always in pursuit of cheaper product. By contrast, the electronics industry 720 Reviews