Changes in the self through ethical consumption

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1994; Creswell, 1998). As a phenomenological research, the findings therefore emphasise the actual experiences, feelings and attitudes of those studied and are presented as they were heard during the interviews. Thus, data contextualisation lays out all lived experiences of the consumers regarding ethical consumption in this chapter and the chapter 5, rather than drawing theory from the findings in the first place. Later discussion in chapter 6, theories and concepts are then applied to these findings. In addition, the data contextualisation corresponds to the research questions stated in section 1.1.

4.2 A profile of the consumers

Prior to each phenomenological interview exploring the context of ethical consumption experiences, each research participant was asked to describe themselves. In this section, the data obtained through the personal background of each participant provides demographic profiles for all participants. Also, brief self-portraits are used as a means of narrative to display the self, identity and life journey (Schiffrin, 1996). This is to allow the participants to describe who they are through their life stories, personal backgrounds, characteristics, personalities and personal values. Then, consumer experiences of ethical consumption are presented.

4.2.1 Demographics of participants

Although there was no screening process for specific religious beliefs as it is not the focus of this study, most respondents are Buddhist although one is Christian. All of the participants are between the middle and upper-middle socioeconomic classes. Also they have stable lives and careers, in which for most of them product prices do not affect their decisions on ethical

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consumption. A brief demographic profile of all the research participants (consumers) is outlined in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: Participants’ demographics

4.2.2 Self-portraits of participants as self-described

As the current research attempts to focus on the self and experiences in ethical consumption, the self-portraits are presented in a thematic form of life stories, self-descriptions and self-expression on ethical issues. After viewing the

Name Gender Age Career Education Religion Self-portrait

Krittapak Female 25 Marketer Bachelor Buddhism

Through

Nittaya Female 49 Social services Master Buddhism

Through social concerns

Yingyot Male 44 Associate dean Ph.D. Christianity

Through social concerns

Panya Male 56 Developer/Expert Bachelor Buddhism

Through nature

Ladda Female 51 Housewife Bachelor Buddhism

Through green living

Vaivat Male 55 Business buyer Master Buddhism

Through

Umapon Female 33 Marketer Master Buddhism

through

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concepts of self and the narratives described by the participants, six themes arose out of ten self-portraits: simple living, fairness, social concerns, nature, green living and animal welfare. Also, it is worth noting that simple living, green living, and nature are distinctive in their contexts. The participants with simple living tend to be self-reliant and self-sufficient and they live and consumer moderately. The green living persons are those who have concern about environment and tend to make sustainable choices in life. These persons are more related to ways of living that cares about environment and energy-saving comparing the nature theme. Whereas, the person with “nature” theme is a nature lover, who likes to live closely to nature with an interest of growing trees, using non-chemical substances and consuming organic products. However, each research participant might be related to one or more themes.

Self-portrait through simple living

Krittapak was raised in a middle-class, simple urban family by her single

mother. She considers herself a “humble” lady in spite of being surrounded by affluent friends. From growing up with a very simple lifestyle, she is a friendly, relaxed and easy-going person. She has her mother as a role model, who teaches her how to be strong, live with confidence and always have hope in life.

In a way these have made her optimistic. For example, when she faces some difficulties in her personal and work life, she never gives up and always looks for the light at the end of the tunnel. However, sometimes if she feels that she cannot handle all the stress and the world is too tough, especially with her relationship issues, religion is her spiritual healer. Krittapak admitted that when she broke up with her boyfriend, who she had been with for nearly eight years, she experienced very intense heartache and stress. So she decided to heal

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herself by joining a meditation programme twice a month to rest her mind and recharge her energy. She said, “Sometimes you need a place to shut out the distractions and focus only on your mind, sitting quietly and breathing deeply.”

She finds that simple living helps her to improve her work–life balance and reduce stress, stating, “With my simple lifestyle, I don’t need too many things in life, I don’t have to be overly competitive, so I don’t feel much stress even in a very competitive environment.” She prefers to live her life at ease.

Self-portrait through fairness

Pichaed was taught by his parents since he was very young that taking

advantage of someone else is wrong. So he grew up with this idea while reminding himself of the rightness. He does not seek to take advantage of other people and also does not let anyone take advantage of him. He considers himself as a good Buddhist in the way in which he follows Sin Ha (the Five Precepts of Buddhist teachings) to do good things, including not cheating other people. He was raised in a simple family, with his father working as a teacher and his mother as a shopkeeper. Although now he earns enough money to spend on luxurious things, Pichaed still lives his life in a very simple way. He loves to buy food in the market close to his house. The thing that he spends the most on is education, as he was taught to break his boundaries through education.

Self-portrait through social concerns

Nittaya was born in a very poor, large family with nine people living under the

same roof in the Chonburi province. However, being poor made her want to learn so that she could not be fooled and could survive in society. She got married to her Thai-Chinese husband, then moved to live with his Chinese

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family in Bangkok. She worked very hard for her husband’s family business, but she received very low wages. So she decided to move out and brought the husband and children with her. She admitted that at that time she did not have much money, but she needed to do something for her son and daughter and to start a new life. With such limited money, Nittaya and her husband decided to live in the Klong Toey slum, where they were able to gain more money than when working for the Chinese family. Even though a “slum” sounds awful to most people, Nittaya describes it as a place where poor people live together and help each other: they share food as if they are in a big family, they treat each other’s children as their own. This makes the “slum” fascinating for her.

Nonetheless, living in the slum she saw many crimes, such as robbery, prostitution and drugs. From this point, she turned her life around to work in social services. She has been helping young people who are drug addicts and prostitutes. Today she is the head of an AIDS/HIV prevention centre and helps the Duang Prateep Foundation to improve the standard of living among poor and uneducated people.

Yingyot is a 44-year-old associate dean for academic affairs at one of the

leading universities in Thailand, and describes himself as a disciplined, organised and easy-going person. He was raised in a Christian family and went to church every Sunday since he was a child. Now he has his own family with one daughter, living in central Bangkok. He has been working hard for the sake of the whole organisation. He holds the belief “Do your best for today, whatever happens tomorrow, smile and be proud of yourself”, which he uses in all aspects of life. He cannot ignore it when a person does something wrong to other people. For instance, when he saw a student smoking in a non-smoking area, he could not stand it; he punished the student with recorded warning. He

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saw it as unfair behaviour to others in society. He can be happy only if his actions do not harm anyone.

Self-portrait through nature

Panya, who has converted himself from a banker to head of the royal nature

conservation centre (The Bhumirak Dhamachart Project), is a 56-year-old, down-to-earth and self-reliant person, who was raised in a middle-class, rural family. He admitted that since getting older he has fallen in love with nature and the charming Thai culture. He always dreams of having a lot of greenery, trees and flowers in today’s Thailand, as in the past when he was a child surrounded by beautiful nature. However, there were times when his life was crazy. He worked as a banker for almost 30 years, and during that time he spent his life going to after-work parties and smoking. One day he felt that he wanted to have a more secure life and yet he found that he had ischaemic heart disease (IHD), so that he needs to have a Holter monitor attached to his body at all times. He realised that he needed to change to a healthier lifestyle. Therefore, he started to learn about organic farming and to get seriously involved in the royal nature conservation centre. A supporter of organic farming, he planted organic vegetables at home to use as a real example for people who were having questions about the practice. Since then, he has lived an organic lifestyle, getting closer to nature and having His Majesty the King as a role model for self-sufficient living.

Self-portrait through green living

Ladda is a 51-year-old, kind and economical person, but generous to other people. She grew up in a disciplined family, where she was taught how to be a good person and to be responsible for her own actions. She is now a mother of

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three lovely daughters, who she has been teaching in a similar way how to be a good person and how to be a good parent when they have their own children.

Being a mother is the most vital role in her life and she wants to be a good example for her daughters in terms of gratitude, kindness and responsibility.

Given today’s societal change, she is concerned that people are more materialistic and careless. In terms of Ladda’s personal values, she indicated that ‘the changing world is affecting all of us and it is our responsibility to step in and help to rebuild and maintain the beautiful environment so that we don’t lose it’. She does not care if she will be only among a small group of people to do this, because at least she is doing what she is supposed to do. Gardening and planting are the two activities that she enjoys most at home with the help of her husband and daughters. She is also concerned about the increasing amount of chemicals in food and the environment, so she uses no chemicals when planting. She claims, “We are an organic family.” On some occasions she even follows a vegan diet as a way to clean her body and strictly follow Buddhist teachings.

Self-portrait through fairness and social concerns

Umapon is described as a straightforward, generous and reliable person. At 33,

she is mature for her age. She has used Sin Ha (the Five Precepts) as a basic guideline in her life. She was brought up in an upper-middle-class urban family, but prefers an easy lifestyle. Religion plays an important role in helping her to deal with people at her workplace and with family issues; for example, when her beloved grandfather passed away. She works in a competitive business environment in which religion helps her to control her temper and not be greedy like other people. She mentioned that there were times at her workplace when

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her colleagues agreed to cheat the company for which they are working. She felt very stressed and uncomfortable with these situations, because she values honesty and fairness in whatever she does to other people. After these incidents, Umapon finally decided to resign from her workplace because of the unethical behaviour of people in the organisation. She said, “I might have to be unemployed for several months, but it’s worth it not to get myself into terrible and dirty things.” Moreover, she likes to make merit; for example, during a severe flood in Thailand in 2011 she and her family saved some money to buy bottles of water to give to people who were suffering as a result of the disaster.

In addition, because she is a dog lover, she donates money to a dog charity every month. She believes that everyone, whether human or animal, should have the right to live well. She lives by the motto: “Make today your best day.”

This is because she holds the belief that “I do my best every walking minute because I never know if there will be a second chance for me to correct it. If I do my best for today, I won't regret it in the future.” She is therefore a person who lives life in the present and can get over bad things in the past.

Ploynatda is an ambitious, energetic and fearless but kind-hearted and

sympathetic 31-year-old woman, who was raised in a simple urban family by her grandmother and aunt. She is quite a complicated person, having both a hard side and a soft side to her personality. As a sensitive soul, she is greatly moved by art and music, and feels sympathetic when she sees elderly and disabled people. However, at the same time she is a daring person, who loves extreme sports such as Thai boxing, rock climbing and jet skiing. Ploynatda is also sincere and honest with herself, so when she does something, it is because she loves doing it. She hates lying and she says what she actually feels. Moreover, she believes that life experience is the best way to learn, apart

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from being taught by her grandmother and aunt. Her parents were divorced and separated and then her mother passed away, so since then she has lived with her grandmother and aunt and has been taught to have faith in good things and to be a good and responsible person. She also mentioned that being a good person is her everyday role, including being a good daughter, a good granddaughter, a good life partner, a good employee and a good citizen.

Although she might not be good at her studies, she has made her family proud by being a good, caring and hardworking person. She usually goes to the temple with her grandmother every Saturday, so religion has been influential in her actions since she was young.

Self-portrait through fairness and animal welfare

Vaivat is a 55-year-old family man, who describes himself as a tender and

trustworthy person. For half his life he worked as an international buyer in the leather industry. He has seen all the production processes, from farming, feeding and slaughter to the finished leather. As a result, he is not able to stand seeing the animals being killed. From this starting point he decided to participate in many campaigns that aim to stop people torturing animals. In his view every life should be treated fairly, both humans and other creatures. In his work life, he has done business faithfully and has never taken advantage of clients. For him, it is important that “money is the means, not the end, but the relationship is the means”.

Self-portrait through social concerns and simple living

Sameujai claims that he is an easy-going, ordinary married man who holds together the different aspects of his life. For example, he is responsible for his whole family, as he looks after his wife and his parents. In the workplace, he is

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responsible and does the best he can for the organisation and his team.

Although he puts his best effort into his work, he does not set high expectations so that he will not be hurt if things go wrong. He used to be disappointed about not getting promotion, and that was the time he learned that nothing is certain.

Since then, he has lived by using the “middle way (path)” to create a balanced life. He admitted that he still wants to live like the old days, when the beautiful Thai culture could be seen on many street corners. Society cannot influence his life, but the changes in society scare him in many ways, such as social aggression, separation and greater crime. He takes religion as a foundation from which to practise a peaceful mind and moderation. In his personal life he is independent and loves to travel (with his wife) to the countryside, where he can escape from his busy urban lifestyle.

4.2.3 Actual experiences of the participants in ethical consumption

As the current research is methodologically based on existential phenomenology, all the participants (consumers) were asked to share their experiences in ethical consumption. Those actual experiences can be grouped into various contexts of ethical consumption: environmental concerns, animal welfare, fairness, sufficiency economy, locally sourced products, charity and copyright. Each ethical consumption context is presented through real stories of the experiences the participants have when consuming ethically. Different experiences of ethical consumption are shown along with their contexts in Table 4.2. Another point that needs to be made is that actual consumer experiences are linked to how the individuals give meaning to ethical consumption.

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Table 4.2: Experiences of the participants (consumers) in ethical consumption

*OTOP – One Tambon One Product: a programme that supports locally made and marketed products from each Thai tambon (subdistrict) (http://otopthailand.com/).

Name

Contexts of ethical consumption

Consumption experiences

products Charity Copyrights

Krittapak  

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4.2.4 Understanding of ethics and the ethics of consumption

This section addresses what ethics and ethical consumption are perceived from the participants as to underline the meanings of the subject studied. By asking the participants to explain their understanding of the term “ethics”, the study revealed that all participants use “ethics” to monitor their good behaviours by perceiving that as doing no harm to other people as well as to oneself. Doing no harm is related to good deeds:

“It is about not exploiting others and doing things that do not cause others a problem or doing something that is right, anything like this. It is like not exploiting anyone. That's it. To be ethical, I shouldn’t make trouble to anyone or of any kind. It’s all about morals in what I do.”

(Krittapak)

“Ethics is beauty in action. It can create a happy, lovely society. It’s what

“Ethics is beauty in action. It can create a happy, lovely society. It’s what