Ethics at the margins: How consumers defend decisions in a constrained market context

Abstract

Marginalized consumers face significant challenges in making ethical purchases, often due to their systemic exclusion from the marketplace. Yet the ethical consumption literature has primarily focused on privileged consumers, who have the resources and opportunities to make ethical purchasing choices more easily. To broaden the focus of the literature, we explore how marginalized consumers navigate and defend their ethical consumption decisions within the constrained and exclusionary market contexts they occupy. We examine a specific group of marginalized consumers—plus-size fashion consumers—and analyze their engagement with Shein—a brand celebrated for its affordability and inclusivity but heavily criticized for its unethical practices. Specifically, we investigate how these marginalized consumers confront a significant dilemma: How can they consume ethically in a market that largely excludes them? Our findings reveal that these consumers often use collective strategies to navigate these constraints, challenging the dominant portrayal of ethical consumption as an individual moral act rather than a collective one. This study highlights the need to understand ethical consumption as a contextual and relational practice shaped not only by individual choices but also by systemic inequalities and collective efforts.