Consuming Worker Exploitation? Accounts and Justifications for Consumer (In)action to Modern Slavery

While research has examined the plight of vulnerable workers, the role of consumers who drive demand for slave-based services and products has been largely neglected. This is an important gap given both historical evidence of the effectiveness of 18th and 19th century anti-slavery consumer activism and recent attempts to regulate slavery through harnessing consumer power, such as the UK's Modern Slavery Act 2015. This article draws on data from in-depth interviews with 40 consumers, to identify their understanding of modern slavery, before revealing the neutralising and legitimising techniques they use to justify their (in)action. Our findings contribute to, and extend, neutralisation theory by exploring its applicability in this unique context. We also positiontechniques of legitimisationas central to understanding how modern slavery is tolerated through a variety of discursive and institutional factors.

Automated summary

While there has been extensive research on vulnerable workers, the role of consumers in driving demand for slave-based services and products has been largely overlooked. This study examines the understanding of modern slavery among 40 consumers and reveals the techniques they use to justify their actions or inaction. The findings contribute to neutralisation theory and highlight the importance of legitimisation techniques in tolerating modern slavery.