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Not Just for Christmas

Advent Calendar Frank Trentmann Part 2

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

Frank Trentmann is professor of history at Birkbeck College, in the University of London. He was director of the Cultures of Consumption research programme 2002-2007, AHRC and ESRC, and is the author of Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption and Civil Society in Modern Britain (OUP, 2008). Back to the NJfC Advent Calendar	"Sometimes commentators draw too stark a contrast between the enobling virtue of making things oneself and an inauthentic world of commerce where people just buy stuff by distant others. Such thinking is rooted in older ideological traditions, but we should be careful to note that these are moral positions, and that the course of history has also produced other ways of thinking about consumption, commerce, and ethics. A century ago, most Britons in fact believed that the ethical and decent thing was to trade as freely and widely as possible with the rest of the world. Free trade pure was the ideal, at least in international relations. Many progressive radicals, like the great critic of imperialism J. A. Hobson, believed that free trade would teach consumers to be better, more active and ethically-minded citizens, who would care about the conditions of consumers and producers abroad. In this vision, free trade would drive up standards, conditions of labour, and ethical horizons of peace and justice. Was he right? Yes and no. The following generation, in the inter-war years, saw the rise of a new conservative mass movement committed to a kind of fair trade. But theirs was a racist, imperial version that asked housewives to buy empire products to strenghten the Empire. A Christmas pudding made of sultanas, candied fruit and other ingredients from the colonies and Dominions formed a centre piece of their Empire and Buy British shopping weeks. Here was a concern for the conditions of distant others, but they only extended to white imperial masters. The campaign for FairTrade in the last two decades is the latest chapter in this longer history of ethics and consumption. So, in addition to taking consumption seriously as a time-consuming practice, we should also think about the ethical ties it creates between us and distant others. A little reflection on this interplay may lead to happier and more sustainable consumption."

Frank Trentmann is professor of history at Birkbeck College, in the University of London. He was director of the Cultures of Consumption research programme 2002-2007, AHRC and ESRC, and is the author of Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption and Civil Society in Modern Britain (OUP, 2008).

Back to the NJfC Advent
Calendar

"Sometimes commentators draw too stark a contrast between the enobling virtue of making things oneself and an inauthentic world of commerce where people just buy stuff by distant others. Such thinking is rooted in older ideological traditions, but we should be careful to note that these are moral positions, and that the course of history has also produced other ways of thinking about consumption, commerce, and ethics.

A century ago, most Britons in fact believed that the ethical and decent thing was to trade as freely and widely as possible with the rest of the world. Free trade pure was the ideal, at least in international relations. Many progressive radicals, like the great critic of imperialism J. A. Hobson, believed that free trade would teach consumers to be better, more active and ethically-minded citizens, who would care about the conditions of consumers and producers abroad. In this vision, free trade would drive up standards, conditions of labour, and ethical horizons of peace and justice.

Was he right? Yes and no. The following generation, in the inter-war years, saw the rise of a new conservative mass movement committed to a kind of fair trade. But theirs was a racist, imperial version that asked housewives to buy empire products to strenghten the Empire. A Christmas pudding made of sultanas, candied fruit and other ingredients from the colonies and Dominions formed a centre piece of their Empire and Buy British shopping weeks. Here was a concern for the conditions of distant others, but they only extended to white imperial masters.

The campaign for FairTrade in the last two decades is the latest chapter in this longer history of ethics and consumption.

So, in addition to taking consumption seriously as a time-consuming practice, we should also think about the ethical ties it creates between us and distant others. A little reflection on this interplay may lead to happier and more sustainable consumption."

DamianSutton	Latest page update: made by DamianSutton , Dec 19 2008, 5:44 PM EST (about this update About This Update Moved from: Advent Calendar Frank Trentmann Part 1 - DamianSutton No content added or deleted. - complete history)
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