Theorising middle class consumption from the global South: A study of everyday ethics in South Africa’s Western Cape |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Geography, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK;2. School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK;1. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio;2. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio;3. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;4. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio;5. Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston, Texas;6. University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado;1. Department of Urologic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee;2. Departments of Medicine and Health Policy, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee;1. Department of Applied Mathematics, Ivanovo State Power Engineering University, Rabfakovskaya 34, 153003, Ivanovo, Russia;2. Department of Hydraulics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Ivanovo State Polytechnic University, 8 Marta 20, 153037, Ivanovo, Russia;1. CRS4 Research Centre, Loc. Piscina Manna, Pula 09010, Cagliari, Italy;2. N.N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Kosygina st., 4, Moscow 117977, Russia |
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| Abstract: | Emerging research on the increasing significance of consumption in the global South is concerned with its links to the globalizing middle classes. Against the backdrop of optimism invested in the new global middle classes to fuel consumption-led growth, this paper contributes to new debate about the articulations and significance of ethical consumption in the global South. Missing from much current mainstream policy, media and academic debate is acknowledgement of the diversity of the global middle classes and an understanding of how ethical interpretations and behaviour differ in various consumer markets around the world. In response, this paper draws on qualitative research in South Africa’s Western Cape to explore the cultural significance of everyday ethical realities in shaping consumption in the global South. In addition to addressing the relative absence of research into ethical consumption in global South contexts, the paper makes two key contributions based our findings. First, it challenges the tendency, particularly in economic discourses, to generalise about the ‘new’ global middle class consumers by highlighting the significance of locality and context in shaping consumption practices in the Western Cape; specifically it finds that, for diverse middle class consumers, thrift is an important ethical choice and practice determining consumption patterns. Second, it highlights the significance of everyday ethical practices in shaping consumption in the Western Cape, focusing specifically on how thrift is imbricated in concerns with not just economic constraint, but also care, habit and aspiration. The paper concludes with reflections on the wider implications of these findings and suggests that they illustrate a need to theorise ethical consumption from contexts in the global South, on their own terms. |
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| Keywords: | Thrift Ethical consumption Care ethics New African consumer South Africa Middle class |
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