Sustainable Consumption and the Enactment of the Fairtrade-Market in Vienna

Since the current discussion about the extent and manifestation of a environmental crisis, norms and values as integral part of economic markets gain public attention. According to contemporary findings within economic and consumer research, a range of markets are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation where moral values and commitments are considered as constitutive of economic operations. But whether this culturalisation of the economy must be understood as based on a moralisation of markets (Stehr) or rather is the result of an economic colonialisation of morals (Habermas) is neither theoretically nor empiri­cally verified. My contribution is based on these considerations: on the basis of a praxeologic research approach I ask how and in relation to which practices is the so-called „fairtrade“ market enacted and, in doing so, moves in a tension between a moralisation of markets and the economic colonialisation of morals. I consider these questions with reference to empirical research; starting in a fairtrade district in Vienna, the capital of Austria, I focus primarily on the constitutive practices and settings in which the fairtrade market is enacted. In doing so I address especially the questions how citizen consumers are able to learn about social and environmental risks and to what extent consumption of fair and sustainable products are driven by practices as well as respective sociomaterial orders.