Playing Both Sides: Ambivalence and Coping Strategies of Actors in Moralized Markets

Moralized markets, which may also be referred to as ethical consumption markets, constitute economic markets in which moral aspects are explicitly used to legitimize decisions. Products, participants and processes are not only judged according to a cost-benefit calculus but have to meet normative expectations concerning e.g. ecology, working-conditions, human rights or gender mainstreaming. The crux about moralized markets is their inherent ambivalence, as actors involved have to cope with distinct sets of value at a time. While these actors strive for economic growth, their existence is bound to their moral integrity, too.

The contribution proposed in this abstract investigates how actors in moralized markets manage the tensions, conflicts and friction evolving from this ambivalence. It particularly sheds light on one specific coping strategy: The tacit  creation and maintenance of  separate spheres for moral and economic logics.

Based on Bourdieuian field theory moralized markets are considered as fields in which two inconsistent “economies” interact. According to the logics of the economic economy, actors need to maximize economic wealth. According to  the moral-symbolic economy, actors need to remain morally authentic and thus appear anti-commercial. In conclusion, to dominate the market, actors have to find ways to preserve both their economic and symbolic resources ant thus to reconcile the irreconcilable.

This theoretical framework is then applied to the empirical investigation of the market for organic dairy products. Entrepreneurs are faced with both economic and ecological expectations, here.  A case study based on interviews and documentary analysis reveals how the dominant actors in this specific market manage to cope with both divergent logics at a time. It becomes obvious, that their success is not merely built on compromising both logics but rather on keeping them separate. They actively create spheres of action where moral and economic rules can operate irrespectively of each other.