Figure 25: Word cloud from interview data
Informants
Through the use of personal networks and snowballing as described in the previous chapter, twenty interviews were conducted in total over the period May 2013 to February 2015, with transcription and coding being undertaken over the same time period. The time expended allowed for time for ‘immersion’ in the transcripts to develop coding and identify initial themes. Each interview lasted on average around one hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. Transcription was completed either by the researcher or by an agency.
Where an agency was used for transcription, each audio file was checked in detail against the transcript for veracity and to gain familiarity with the transcripts. The full transcripts
can be found in appendix 6. Each respondent was active in a sustainability-related research group at one of a number of Universities across the East Midlands of the United Kingdom, although the respondents were drawn from a wide variety of academic
disciplines (some, perhaps naturally given the nature of sustainability issues, considered themselves to be cross-disciplinary). In line with the strategy of theoretical sampling which was noted in the previous chapter, a mixture of nationalities were included in the sample to explore some of the culturally-bound rationalisations of ethical choices (Eckhardt et al., 2010) and cross-cultural dimensions of consumer ethics introduced in chapter two. PhD students were also included in addition to ‘tenured’ staff. The implications of this diversity in the sample will be explored further in due course.
However, it was clear by the twentieth interview that ‘theoretical saturation’ had occurred; no new codes were emerging, further ‘weight’ was being given to the central themes, and central categories were becoming saturated (Strauss and Corbin, 1998);
consequently an adequate absolute threshold had been reached, certainly in line with many recommendations about minimum sample sizes for qualitative interviewing (Cherrier, 2005, Kvale, 1996, Miles and Huberman, 1994).
The next stage of data immersion and analysis was to write up a brief profile of each informant; in hermeneutic terms, this enabled an early understanding of the ‘part’ of the hermeneutic circle - to provide a brief descriptive context of each respondent so that the data and analysis could be understood as a ‘whole’ from each part. As discussed in chapter six informants were also asked to complete a questionnaire with the aim of developing a profile based on Schwartz’s (2007) General Portrait Values. These profiles are presented below, with the coding ‘intra-case’ being used to explain the themes and issues that are important for that particular individual; in line with the phenomenological approach, this is presented as a profile of the ‘actors’ in this particular story rather than a tabular list of each respondent’s socio-demographic characteristics, with the aim of building a rich summary description of each individual as background for the reader to gain a sense of each ‘part’. Each respondent has been assigned a pseudonym and any information which might enable the respondent to be identified (such as institution of study or work, locations or family names) has been removed. Reference is made to the values the respondents rated as being most or least ‘like them’ in the Schwartz General Value portraits. A full analysis here is given in the following section.
Informant Profiles
Case 1 – Susan
Susan is in her early 40s and worked in the fashion industry before entering higher education. She is married with two children. She is active in researching sustainability
in fashion and has a strong knowledge of and interest in the fashion industry as a result of her
industry and academic work.
Consequently, style is extremely important to Susan; she identifies strongly with her role as a fashion
‘expert’, as she states:
…I’ve defined myself by that [an interest in fashion]. Because I’ve been
studying, teaching or working in that starting in 1982. So I feel that’s part of
me to define me, and it’s sort of shorthand that somebody who is in that sort of area will know who you
are, will recognise you...
However, environmental sustainability is also extremely important to Susan and she uses her
technical knowledge of materials and production / supply chain issues
to arrive at what she believes are sustainable buying decisions, whilst
still being able to maintain regular shopping habits. Benevolence and
studies and business. Steve had a brief spell in the Army before entering higher education and developing his career specifically in
the field of sustainability. He is married with two children. Function, longevity and price are all important
to Steve in terms of purchasing clothes; function because he enjoys walking and cycling in the outdoors
and longevity and price due to a desire to spend money on the family
whilst upholding his ethical beliefs.
I seem to remember writing something in my personal statement [for my degree] about an affinity with the outdoors. So it… in some ways kind of feeds through into my dress sense and the functionality aspect of it. Yeah, so it’s about getting outside and going for
a walk… cycling…. So that’s where if you’re out there in the environment
doing stuff, then you can enjoy it.
Consequently he often buys from companies positioned as being
‘ethical’ retailers, and often from web sites rather than the high street,
although clothes and clothes shopping are not sources of enjoyment for him. Benevolence was
the highest ranked value for Steve, with conformity and power the least
important.
Case 3 – Chris
Chris is in his mid-30s and married with one child, a toddler. Chris works
in a business school and has a keen interest in sustainability both professionally and in his personal life, and is currently undertaking a sustainable building project. His description of his wedding perhaps
best summarises Chris’ outlook:
When we got married, we were really clear… we tried to get everything local,
organic, sustainable… the wedding rings were Fair Trade gold… we got local musicians who are friends of ours
to play… it was purposely an expression, ‘This is the value of who we are and who we want to be in our marriage’… And we wrote in our little wedding booklet that we made, ‘This is
who we are and this is what we stand for.’
Whilst Chris often spends time researching purchasing decisions and buying from niche, independent retailers, clothing is not a particular area of enjoyment or interest and purchases will often come from the
high street. Self-direction is the value Chris placed maximum emphasis upon, with least on
security.
Case 4 – Isabella Isabella is an Italian student in her mid-20s studying for a PhD related to waste prevention in a School of Design. She is one of the youngest respondents in the sample. Isabella
had some interest in sustainability due a master’s focused on product-service systems, but entered the field primarily because a project was
available. As she says of the reasons behind her selection of research
topic:
Well, it’s not that I’m not interested, but not because I was a convinced
ethical consumer. So it’s also interesting for me to see how slightly
my… I’m not sure if my values are changing now because of what I’m
doing... but I would not consider myself an ethical consumer.
Isabella enjoys shopping and tends to buy her clothes from the high street, both in the UK and in Italy.
She is motivated by quality and likes to buy things which will last.
Isabella placed relatively high emphasis on all of the value statements in the Schwartz general
portrait values, with maximum emphasis given to self-direction.
Case 5 – Vivian
Vivian is in her mid-fifties, married, with two grown-up children who issues stems from a trekking trip to
India when she was younger.
Her buying preferences are to buy local wherever possible, but she often shops for clothes on the high
street. She cares about what she wears, and enjoys shopping to some
degree, although this is moderated:
I mean, I think my own weakness probably would be that I spend a bit of
money on clothes for myself. But again, I wouldn't have said my budget's huge when I sometimes get
an insight into...I mean, you don't know what other people spend… but I
imagine it's actually what I think I spend lots on clothes probably isn't
very much at all.
Durability is the other key concern for Vivian – she likes things to last and will shop with retailers who she
perceives provide good quality
Marie is in her early thirties and works as a research officer within a
sustainability research unit. She is divorced, with two children. Marie’s
shopping habits are best summarised by two words; charity shops. Most of her clothes shopping
is done in charity shops, although occasional specific items come from
the high street. On talking about how long she has been an avid
charity shop shopper she says:
All my life. Because my family did as well - they have always been the shopping experience… My parents are
quite sort of ‘make do and mend’ - they’ve got all the same stuff in the
house that they had when they married forty years ago or whatever…
I’m pleased I had that… it helps my own situation as well as in life...you
know? Why do you wanna get something new when the other thing
isn’t broken yet?
She has a strong awareness of and motivation towards social and
environmental sustainability, although there is some degree of
‘happy coincidence’ between this and her charity shopping habits.
Marie’s value profile was very different to the other respondents in
that it was more clearly ‘polarised’;
she placed maximum emphasis on a number of values: benevolence,
universalism, self-direction, stimulation and hedonism. She was
the only respondent, with Isabella, to rate hedonism above an average of 5/6. Power was given the lowest
rating.
Case 7 – Liz
Liz is in her mid-fifties and is married with three children. She environment I did… to survive you all
had to be very dependent on each other… It sounds odd, but we all had
to work together because slight changes could make a difference. So a
supermarket coming in nearby suddenly changed people’s way of living… There was strong community,
and I think it’s from that. Plus, my village was a location for a lot of communes and the communes had been disbanded a little bit and you had a lot of people in the locality whose views were about thinking
about the environment.
Consequently Liz places a large emphasis on locally produced goods,
as well as natural fibres. In addition to shopping with small independent manufacturers and specialist web-based retailers, convenience is also
important for Liz so she still shops on the high street. Benevolence was
Liz’s highest ranked value, with power and security the least highly
ranked.
Case 8 – Doug
Doug is married, an ‘empty nester’ in his early sixties and had a career in the textiles industry before entering
Well, originally I think just a recognition being brought up with an
involvement with and an understanding of nature… I suspect
these days far more people… don’t really see nature, they don’t see where stuff - food comes from… That was just the way people are brought up in my
era and I don’t see it so much now.
Doug sums up his attitude to shopping as:
I shop very rarely. I would say probably like most men probably, at least as much as bought for me as I buy myself… I find the quickest and simplest way to buy stuff is to go to Marks & Spencer and if you can’t find it in 10 minutes, forget it and try again
next week or next month. So, I’m a very occasional shopper. Occasionally
on impulse, but not really a huge mainstream clothing shopper.
Tradition and self-direction were the most important values for Doug.
Hedonism was his least important, but in contrast to the rest of the respondents, benevolence was also
lowly rated.
Case 9 – Paula
Paula, in her early twenties, is originally from Thailand and is studying for a PhD in sustainable fashion having an interest in fashion
and also in issues of ethics and recently having completed a Master’s in International Banking.
She is the youngest respondent in the sample and lives with her boyfriend. Paula is a self-confessed
shopaholic, although she has recently attempted to moderate her
behaviour in light of her new role:
So before I was doing this it was still quite new to me, but as I’m getting into it, it gives me more ideas, but it takes a long time to get to know about
sustainability… Like fast fashion and everything. Because, like, I am a consumer – I love shopping… you can’t take that away from me! But I’m
kind of doing it responsibly now.
Because, before, my background – my culture… Primark is a small problem compared to how we shop in Thailand.
However, she is a long-standing boycotter of the plastic bag, and charitable giving is also important to
her. So, whereas fashion and style are important to Paula, materials and price are also paramount, with each purchase being the subject of a
projected ‘cost per wear’.
Paula placed maximum emphasis on benevolence, with stimulation being
the least important value.
Case 10 – Matias
Matias is in his late thirties and single. He is both a part-time PhD
student and research fellow in sustainable design, with a specific
interest in product design and lighting. Matias was born and educated in Spain, and also worked
there as a product designer before entering academia in the UK.
Despite having a strong awareness of ‘eco’ principles and labels, Matias is perhaps one of the least ethically-motivated consumers in the sample:
But the problem is I’m very aware of…
eco labels and everything, and I still have problems to choose the most sustainable option… there is such an
amount of labels today and claims about things… So what I do is I buy
the one I like! But I have a big problem with that – this is not a
standard you can compare.
He very much operates to a principle of ‘buy for need’ and convenience and cost are primary concerns for him, although if sustainable options
exist he is predisposed towards them.
Matias gave equal importance to benevolence, universalism and self-direction, with achievement, power
and conformity being the least highly rated.
Case 11 – Helen
Helen, in her early forties, is married with two children. She has a degree in Environmental Sustainability and
teaches the same subject at University. Helen previously worked
in the energy sector and community regeneration. Ethical issues are an important motivator for Helen, but having once been a keen charity shopper, style and durability are now
important considerations for Helen.
She summarises her attitudes to clothes shopping as follows:
The environmental side is important but also the ethical side and if we talk
about fashion I’d be concerned about where things are coming from and the impact on people’s lives... I do like nice
clothes and I buy fewer and more expensive clothes than I used to because I think they last longer and
I’m probably not as fashion trend following as I perhaps used to be… I’d rather have something that’s nice and would last. In my mind if it’s a decent
company, hopefully they’re a bit slightly more ethical in… where they’re
getting the material from and the impacts further down the chain.
Helen therefore tends to shop from a small number of high street retailers.
She placed maximum emphasis on self-direction values, with little consideration given to tradition.
Case 12 – Nick
Nick is originally from Canada and married with one young child. He
has an eclectic academic background, but has a special research interest in the effects of
chemicals used in plastics on reproductive systems. Consequently
his interest in sustainability is motivated very much by health concerns and his knowledge of the
effects of chemicals on humans.
Food is therefore an important area of consumer concern for Nick, although as he explains clothing is
not an area of interest for him:
I don’t think you have to look too hard to realise that I don’t worry too much about it! … I’m aware of the situation with, you know, cheap clothing… but the other aspects of my life where I do
make very deliberate decisions don’t seem to extend so much to the clothing as it would for food, because I
know that what we eat goes into our body whereas with clothing it’s not
probably such a direct link and concern. And my wife buys most of the
clothes!
Most of Nick’s clothes are therefore bought for him, and he tends of have
little knowledge (and arguably interest) in them or where they come
from. Nick placed most emphasis on benevolence and self-direction, and,
perhaps surprisingly, least on security.
Case 13 – James
James is in his early forties and is married with no children. After a career in industry in environmental
management he now works in an Institute for Sustainable Development. He has a degree in Theology, an MBA and a PhD which
focused on recycling behaviours.
James has a high level of knowledge of and a number of contacts within
the ‘ethical fashion’ industry. He is sustainably-motivated, but also style
and quality conscious. As he notes:
A lot of people I meet in the environmental world seem to care nothing for design or beauty or art or
creativity... that’s the challenge with clothing or other ethical decisions is that, first and foremost, it should be a
good quality product.
His approach is generally one of ‘buy good quality and less’, but even then
his knowledge calls some of his decisions into question. On discussing a friend who is a buyer, he relays her observation that her
‘low end’ products are made in the same factories as ‘high end’ branded products: “So that’s where all the lines get blurred and you think “what am I
paying for?”.
James placed maximum emphasis on benevolence, with power being the
least important area of concern for him.
Case 14 – Naomi
Naomi is in her early thirties and lives with her boyfriend. They don't have children. She has a background
in environmental biology and accurately a lack of as she enacts her
values through buying less:
I would find it very difficult to buy a new item of clothing. So, if I needed a
new shirt for work, I would have to really need it today to want to go to a
new shop and buy a new shirt, rather than looking in charity shops. Or, maybe just waiting for people to give
me clothes eventually… it just seems terribly wasteful.
Whereas a large proportion of Naomi’s clothes come from charity
shops, car boots and ‘hand-me-downs’, and she might be considered
to be ‘anti-fashion’ in many ways, she still acknowledges that she can
be a slightly fussy shopper and has preferred high street retailers for
be a slightly fussy shopper and has preferred high street retailers for