Welcome to the first Transformative Topics Newsletter for July 2024. In recognition of World Day for International Justice Day, on July 17th, we draw attention to the work by the Gretchen Larsen and Rob Lawson on "Consumer Rights: An Assessment of Justice" published in the Journal of Business Ethics.
In the spirit of our transformative topics newsletter and its 'behind the scenes' storytelling, Gretchen Larsen reflects on the article, its backstory and its goals:
"The ‘Consumer Rights and Justice’ article, published in the Journal of Business Ethics in 2013, has roots in the research I did for my Master’s thesis which I completed around 15 years earlier and which was supervised by my co-author, Rob Lawson. That thesis examined the challenges that consumers in rural New Zealand faced, primarily due to distance from formal markets, and considered implications for consumer policy. While I changed focus for my doctoral studies, this early research focus lit somewhat of a passion for justice related issues that has stayed with me throughout my career so far. It also left ‘unfinished business’ to which Rob and I often returned in our ongoing discussions.
The development and articulation of specific ‘consumer rights’ had always felt somewhat arbitrary, reflecting popular concerns of the moment. Thus, there is a risk that consumer rights have tended to address the interests of those in power, and are for the few, rather than the many. This sat uncomfortably with both Rob’s and my ethical and moral positions. It was also a criticism levelled at consumer rights, as outlined in the paper, but little had been done to develop a more systematic and inclusive approach. Despite their potential power, the notion of ‘rights’ was being subsumed under ‘guidelines’ and ‘principles’ for consumer protection, in large part due to these kinds of criticisms.
We were keen to try to revitalize rights as framework for understanding, protecting and empowering the consumer, by developing a more intellectually robust approach, and justice provided the foundation for doing so. At the time of writing the article, there had been fairly limited attention paid to justice in the marketplace, despite the many injustices that pervade contemporary life. This situation has – thankfully – begun to change, with a growing body of scholarship addressing a wide variety of justice related issues."
Read: Larsen, Gretchen, and Rob Lawson (2013). Consumer rights: An assessment of justice. Journal of business ethics, 112, 515-528. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-012-1275-9
Abstract: For the last 50 years the idea of consumer rights has formed an essential element in the formulation of policy to guide the workings of the marketplace. The extent and coverage of these rights has evolved and changed over time, yet there has been no comprehensive analysis as to the purpose and scope of consumer rights. In moral and ethical philosophy, rights are integrally linked to the notion of justice. By reassessing consumer rights through a justice-based framework, a number of key issues emerge regarding the way in which markets enable justice for consumers. The consumer rights which underpin the United Nations consumer protection guidelines address all forms of justice to some degree, but the predominant focus is on procedural justice. Our conclusions question whether this is sufficient and also whether there is a case to develop the notion of consumer ‘duties’ that complement the idea of rights.
For more work on justice, consider checking out the following works:
Miller, Jacob C., and Tony Stovall. (2019) "The “right to consume”? Re-thinking the dynamics of exclusion/inclusion in consumer society." Consumption Markets & Culture 22 (5-6): 568-581. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2018.1562712
Hein, Wendy, Laurel Steinfield, Nacima Ourahmoune, Catherine A. Coleman, Linda Tuncay Zayer, and Jon Littlefield. (2016) "Gender justice and the market: a transformative consumer research perspective." Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 35(2): 223-236. https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.15.146
Henderson, Geraldine Rosa, Anne-Marie Hakstian, and Jerome D. Williams. (2016) Consumer equality: Race and the American marketplace. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/consumer-equality-9781440833762/
Kozinets, Robert V., Daniela Abrantes Ferreira, and Paula Chimenti. (2021) "How do platforms empower consumers? Insights from the affordances and constraints of reclame aqui." Journal of Consumer Research 48 (3): 428-455. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucab014
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