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Organization & Environment
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Seeing Shades

Ecological and Socially Just Labeling

Alison Grace Cliath

Washington State University, acliath{at}wsu.edu

Although appropriate product labeling allows global justice groups, environmental groups, and health-concerned consumers to support and participate in the development of markets for more sustainable or just alternatives to many products, consumers can also be misled by deceptive labeling practices. In analyzing labeling as a technology made up of artifacts, acts, and social organization, this article asks, Can one visually distinguish labels signifying real social and environmental improvements from industry blue/greenwash and typical products? Using the techniques of visual sociology in a grounded-theory-style investigation of a variety of supermarket-available blue/green products, the author identifies five strategies to see shades. She then tests the salience of these visual indicators with a population of co fees from six Pacific Northwest supermarkets. Theoretically, she explores the labeling technology's potential to facilitate conscientious consumption and reshape how social and environmental relationships are represented, regulated, seen, and experienced in a capitalist economy.

Key Words: labeling • alternative trade • visual sociology • defetishizing commodities • political consumerism

Organization & Environment, Vol. 20, No. 4, 413-439 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1086026607309406
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