This research asks: how are consumer markets institutionalized in East Asia and how is "the consumer" a contested social being in that process of institutionalization? Applying a Neo-Polanyian perspective, it conceives the consumer as institutionalized within in the economic market process, as well as in the political and social spheres. Emergent consumer societies in East Asia are ideal for exploring the different politics and processes of institutionalization. Thus the research compares and contrasts the emergence of {the consumer' in a stable democracy, Japan; an authoritarian state, China; and a democratized state, Taiwan. A wide range of secondary data from archives, publications, websites and newspapers have been collected in order to analyze consumer policies and consumer movements. The thesis develops three concepts to reveal the varieties of consumer politics. First, it develops the concept of consumer regime to capture the role of the state in consumer market. It notes that consumer regimes were confronting similar evolutions of consumer challenges but in sharply contrasting political contexts. Secondly, the thesis examines the formation of the consumer public. This concept captures the identity and social organization of consumers in differently developed civil societies. And thirdly, the thesis explores the development of the consumer public sphere. It analyzes the contrasting political economy of the mass media and new opportunities brought by social media in the three cases. By using this multi-dimensional analytical framework, the thesis explores the link between varieties of capitalism and varieties of consumerism. It highlights the developmental dynamics by analyzing the emergence of consumer regimes, rather than mature and established consumer societies. The thesis also compares and distinguishes the limitations of consumer identities, weaknesses of consumer social organizing activities and different restrictions of public debate. Hence it is' argued that East Asian varieties of capitalism are distinctive in how they institutionalize the consumer and consumer. markets rather than broader consumer societies, in which . consumers are empowered politically and socially as well as economically.

The central theme of this thesis is the analysis of patterns of consumer movement, which is based upon extensive hypothesis-orientated survey data collected in County Durham. The thesis falls into three related parts: In part I a number of hypotheses relating socio-economic factors to household movement patterns for the purchase of different goods are tested. In addition, methods of predicting the sectoral and spatial distributions of incomes and expenditures are examined. Throughout this part of the thesis, elements of the social and settlement geography of the County are outlined and analysed, providing an important background for all parts of the thesis. In part II, hypotheses derived from the framework of Central Place theory are tested against extensive consumer interaction data, related in turn to the system of centres in the area. In part III the above data on consumer movement is employed with a gravity model for two main purposes: Firstly, to attempt a rigorous test of the performance of the model, both as an allocative model, and at the same time as a model to replicate spatial patterns. Weaknesses of the model are investigated. Secondly, the model is used to continue the search for explanation of observed patterns of movement. This analysis is set against a theoretical review of the nature of and problems associated with these models.

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Consumption as an aspect of most people's lives in affluent societies is widely acknowledged as having become increasingly important (Newholm, 2005). We consume more, and consume more often, than previous generations (Durning, 1992) meaning the actions we make and the decisions we take have greater impact than ever before on the world we inhabit. For many their involvement with consumption goes beyond the act of purchase (Ollman, 1998) to include complex ethical dimensions. The relationship between ethics and social responsibility (E&SR) and consumption choices has received growing attention over recent years, resulting in the topic of 'sustainable consumption' becoming a central focus for national and international policy (Jackson, 2005). Yet a review of the pertinent literature in the fields of E&SR, consumer behaviour and shopping motives uncovers the limitations of existing E&SR research in relation to grocery shopping activities. What E&SR factors influence consumers' grocery shopping choice decisions and behaviour? How important are they when compared to traditional store image and product attribute criteria? How do attitudes influence E&SR grocery consumption? Who are the E&SR buyer types and how may they be differentiated and segmented? This thesis sets out to address these questions and comprises the results of, and reflections on, an investigation into grocery shopping behaviour in the South West of England. It consists of three stages: a literature review; a series of exploratory focus group interviews; and a confirmatory quantitative study. Content, factor, multiple regression and cluster analysis find: shopping motivations vary according to two facts 1) the shopping consideration (store to patronise, product to purchase), and 2) the shopping occasion (main shop, top-up shop); differences occur in the importance of E&SR issues and traditional elements of store image/product attribute depending on the shopping activity; attitudes, perceived behavioural control and ethical obligation are linked to E&SR behaviour with differences in the importance of E&SR concerns meaning that E&SR shoppers are not a homogenous group. Results enable a preliminary typology of E&SR grocery shopping concerns to be derived and a range of E&SR consumer types to be proposed. This insight offers a far more complex market that has hitherto been recognised. Motivating E&SR behaviour is far from straight forward due to dissonance occurring in decision-making as consumers try to balance traditional retail aspects with their E&SR beliefs, so finding themselves 'locked in' to non-E&SR behaviours; in spite of their best intentions. In these circumstances strategies are required to make it easy for consumers to behave in an E&SR manner: ensuring access to information that aids and encourages pro-E&SR behaviour, highlighting non-financial E&SR behaviours, and for Government to exemplify the desired changes through their own policies and practices.

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We must consume to live. However, the consumption of goods and resources in developed countries is so considerable that it is associated with low psychological wellbeing and is a contributor to several social and ecological problems. The psychological motivators that sustain such consumption may relate to attempts to resolve affect or identity difficulties, whereby consumer activities and goods offer emotional or symbolic functions. At an extreme, compulsive buyers are addicted to buying, and thus experience a range of psychological, relationship and financial difficulties. This thesis explores the concept of mindfulness as a distinctive way of thinking and being: non-judgementally aware of the present moment. Through mindfulness, human wellbeing needs can be met by shifting default perspectives around such psychologically motivated consumption. It is suggested that mindfulness can enable an improvement in wellbeing and reduced reliance on consumption behaviour or goods to fulfil affective or symbolic needs. There is a paucity of research applying mindfulness to consumption-related applications, and thus the potential mechanisms for change and possible outcomes are largely unknown or only hypothesised. To address this, three studies explore whether mindfulness has measurable potential in this area, and what is experienced when either general or compulsive buying groups learn mindfulness. The first study confirms that mindfulness is negatively related to variables connected with consumption, and positively related to wellbeing measures. The second study provides insights into learning processes and reported changes resulting from mindfulness training. Compulsive buyers were researched in the third study. Findings show that learning mindfulness brings reported change in areas related to affect regulation and sense of self experiences such that there is a decreased emphasis on consumer goods being sought for their emotional or symbolic properties. The implication from these studies is that increasing mindfulness is potentially beneficial for individual, social and ecological wellbeing.

This thesis examines the role that Irish children fulfilled in an emergent Irish advertising and consumer culture which sought to inculcate them as consumers from 1860 to 1921 . Currently, little research exists in the field of Irish advertising and no scholarly material exists to account for its links to consumer culture and literature in the period following the Famine towards the declaration of Irish independence. A number of approaches have been adopted in this research including research from the area of social history. textual analysis of critically neglected Victorian Irish literature involving children and reading advertisements, archival material and other ephemera in terms of the discourses that they purport to offer. The relation that children had to the consumer culture of Victorian Ire land will be discussed by an examination of mid- to late nineteenth-century Irish fiction, French fiction , anthropological writings, children's school books, magazines and periodicals which featured advertisements. A variety of literature will be scrutinised from the 1860 to 1890 period in particular to provide contesting representations of the child amidst theoretical repositioning and social movements towards child welfare in Ireland. Ultimately my research will demonstrate three factors. Firstly, that Ire land's advertising and consumer culture developed autonomously, in tune with nationalism and Irish national economic development during this period. This constitutes a form of "Celtic Consumerism" also evident in Scotland following the ,-Gaelic Revival and thus, enabled the child to be positioned as the newest participant in a national consumer process. Secondly, thanks to high child literacy rates which outstripped those of mainland Britain, Ireland's children were appealed to as literate consumers in advertising copy and were informed of the perils or benefits of consumer culture in late Victorian Irish literature. Thirdly, I will contend that the role of the child in the marketplace was also a conceit of French fin de siecle fiction and advertising copy that had a considerable impact on childhood in Ireland during this period.

Consumer awareness about ethical issues has been growing over the last decades. Knowledge and awareness about ethical products has led to businesses responding with a variety of ethical products for the consumers. The growth in ethical products market has attracted the interest of researchers as evidenced in a growing body of literature on ethical behaviour. Ethical decision-making models in the extant research tend to emphasise social interest values, such as ethical obligation and ethical self-identity, as predictors of ethical behaviour. However, little is known about factors such as self-interest values and motives, crucial in the formation of attitudes and behaviour towards ethical purchases. Furthermore, research evidence, as well as industry reports, highlights that although consumers generally have a positive attitude towards purchasing ethical products, there is a discrepancy between their attitudes, intention and actual purchase behaviour. Whilst the link between intention and behaviour has been found to be generally tenuous, studies in the domain of consumer research suggest that intention to purchase can be treated as a predictor of behaviour (i.e., an immediate precursor of actual purchase). The determinants of consumers' intention to purchase ethical products, incorporating self-interest values and motives, are the focus of this study. Much of the prior research in ethical buying behaviour has focused on fast moving consumer goods categories, which are considered to be 'low-involvement' purchases. In contrast, involvement is considered to be an important underlying motivation for consumer purchase of other products such as clothing. Therefore, the product category of ethical clothing is chosen for investigation in this study because of the 'high-involvement' nature of fashion purchases. Understanding the determinants of consumer intention towards ethical buying can provide insights on consumers' motivational state (i.e., social interest and self-interest) influencing ethical choices. Specifically, this research examines the role of involvement in consumers' decision-making process to purchase ethical clothing (direct and moderating effects of clothing involvement). The data were collected via online survey instrument from an existing panel of a UK-based market research company. The proposed research model was tested employing the Partial Least Squares-based Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The direct and moderating effects of clothing involvement were tested by using the two-stage approach. The second-order formative measurement model of clothing involvement (hierarchical components model) was estimated using the repeated indicators approach. The results show that ethical self-identity and subjective norm have a significant impact in ethical clothing purchase decisions. Clothing involvement was found to weaken the relationship between ethical obligation and intention towards ethical buying, whilst it strengthened the relationship between ethical self-identity and intention towards ethical buying. This thesis further establishes that consumers' perceived balance between ethical self¬identity (commitment to individual's ethical augmentation) and clothing involvement (social identity and/or fashion identity) is a step towards bridging the ethical purchasing gap. This thesis is considered to make the following contributions to knowledge and theory in the domain of consumer ethical buying behaviour. First, the formulation of the conceptual model incorporating self-interest values and motives is an advancement of the existing ethical decision-making models for predicting consumer intention to purchase high-involvement ethical products. Second, this study reveals that product involvement plays a moderating role in the consumer ethical decision-making process. Finally, this study provides evidence for the mediating role of ethical obligation on the relationship between attitude and intention.