Performing moral identity: a hermeneutic study of sustainable consumers

Abstract

Although it is apparent that sustainable consumption is a form of ethical subjectification, little is known about how this ethical subjectification is actually performed and what moral frameworks consumers draw from to construct their moral self. By applying the genealogical method devised by Foucault this paper examines how consumers are morally sourced and what the sources of their moral self are. Following a hermeneutic approach, 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with committed sustainable consumers. To subjectivize themselves as moral subjects, sustainable consumers ontologically construct themselves as singular, relational and coherent, and perform a series of practices of care of self: reflection, self-control, confession or uplifting. The cultural roots of this subjectification are found in virtue ethics, more precisely in the reconceptualization of virtue ethics found in environmental ethics. Subjectification is a key process for the institutionalization of sustainability as it precedes identity formation. Understanding the discourses used by consumers to subjectivize themselves as moral agents may help devise persuasive messages to mobilize other consumers. This paper ultimately proposes to shift the debate from what incentives to give to selfish consumers to how constitute subjects that can lead the transition to sustainability.

Although it is apparent that sustainable consumption is a form of ethical subjectification, little is known about how this ethical subjectification is actually performed and what moral frameworks consumers draw from to construct their moral self. By applying the genealogical method devised by Foucault this paper examines how consumers are morally sourced and what the sources of their moral self are. Following a hermeneutic approach, 24 in-depth interviews were conducted with committed sustainable consumers. To subjectivize themselves as moral subjects, sustainable consumers ontologically construct themselves as singular, relational and coherent, and perform a series of practices of care of self: reflection, self-control, confession or uplifting. The cultural roots of this subjectification are found in virtue ethics, more precisely in the reconceptualization of virtue ethics found in environmental ethics. Subjectification is a key process for the institutionalization of sustainability as it precedes identity formation. Understanding the discourses used by consumers to subjectivize themselves as moral agents may help devise persuasive messages to mobilize other consumers. This paper ultimately proposes to shift the debate from what incentives to give to selfish consumers to how constitute subjects that can lead the transition to sustainability.