Ethical consumption? There's an app for that. Digital technologies and everyday consumption practices

Ethical consumption mobile phone apps are increasingly popular. These apps allow consumers to scan the barcodes of products they are considering purchasing and determine whether or not they align with their ethics. App technologies are often applauded for their potential to provide consumers with targeted, crowd-sourced information about products while shopping and to foster more political, and less individualistic, consumption practices by connecting users to one another and to campaigns. There is a growing field of scholarship conceptually examining the role of information and digital technologies in ethical consumption. However, there is little empirical research on how consumers engage with ethical consumption apps in everyday ways. Drawing on an in-depth study with 21 participants, this paper explores how app use mediates people's experiences of ethical consumption. We contend that the app design structures and limits how individuals engage in ethically motivated consumption and influences their conceptualizations of ethical consumption as a political practice. We conclude by illustrating that critically examining what it means to be “ethical” in a digital world is a crucial area of research for geographers, particularly as these ethics play out through the everyday use of mobile technologies.     

基于手机APP的居民线上行为空间分布特征研究——以南京中心城区为例

智慧社会时代,线上服务逐渐成为大众日常生活的重要组成,深刻影响城市居民的生活、工作及出行方式。论文基于手机信令数据等多源数据,分析了不同年龄段居民在居住区空间基础上的手机APP使用特征,进而总结了休闲娱乐、网络购物及日常服务三类APP的使用强度分布特征。结果表明：(1)休闲娱乐、网络购物与生活服务等成为居民高频使用APP类型,不同年龄段对APP类型存在偏好差异;(2)三类APP高使用强度集聚区与城市中心分布基本吻合,主要分布在商业集聚区、大型居住中心以及大学、景点等周边小区,遵循技术扩散假说,不符合效率假说;(3)不同年龄段使用强度城市分布热点存在差异,另保障房类型居住区其使用三类APP使用强度偏低。