• Explain the key concepts and propositions of the theoretical and analytical approaches covered in the course
• Critically analyse, compare and discuss various theories and analytical approaches with a clear understanding of differences and relations between them;
• Explain the main features of the empirical examples studied in the course;
• Relate theories and analytical approaches to empirical cases and draw practical implications

What links a handmade necklace of paper beads with a pair of Emporio Armani (RED) sunglasses or a pack of disposable diapers with a pink BMW luxury car?  Belonging shapes our politics and our purchases.  ‘Beads For Life’ are certified by Martha Stewart as ‘eradicating poverty one bead at a time.’  The rockstar Bono assures us that a percentage of the profits of all (RED) co-branded products goes directly to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.  And the voice of Salma Hayek, famous Mexican-American actress, informs consumers that ‘one pack of pampers = one lifesaving vaccine’.

All of these products are sold through cause-related marketing (CRM) initiatives to raise funds and awareness for development and humanitarian causes – targeting ethical consumers who want to shop for a better world. But as globalization shifts traditional boundaries of production and exchange, new understandings are needed about what constitutes a ‘better’ product, a more ‘ethical’ consumer, and a ‘sustainable’ value chain; and what are the new features of ‘development’ and ‘humanitarian assistance’. 

Ethical consumption is one of the fastest growing trends in contemporary societies, as individuals find the marketplace provides a public opportunity for performing their personal values. We are all consumers: people in the global North and South alike increasing rely on market transactions for their basic staples, their luxuries and even their lives. We are also citizens:  purchases have material and symbolic meaning and understanding the marketing of values is important for understanding political power. 

Existing understandings of ethical consumption rest on the core belief that reconnecting the sites of consumption with those of production will enable a fairer distribution of value along supply chains, potentially driven by ‘fair trade’ and ‘ethical consumption’ purchases of products that come to us through ‘sustainable’ value chains.  However, these perspectives fall short in their exclusive focus on the product itself as the location of ‘ethical’ value.  To understand the implications of these trends, we must not neglect a focus on products, but must also understand the development and humanitarian causes that are ‘sold’ together with the products, and the celebrities that often translate, communicate and embody an ethical leadership role in the management of consumers’ desire to do good while shopping well.

This course will theoretically and empirically examine the ‘business of helping’, where business actors, traditional development and humanitarian actors, and celebrities engage in development and humanitarian causes – in view of students learning how values shape contemporary consumption, and how consumer choices materialize specific forms of ‘helping’.

Lectures covering concepts and empirical case studies will be integrated by group work, role play and simulations, where the students will have the chance to engage in a series of case studies.

The course's focus, objectives and approach, it delivers input to building several Nordic Nine competences: #1 (You have deep business knowledge placed in a broad context); #3 (You recognise humanity's challenges and have the entrepreneurial knowledge to help resolve them); #4 (You are competitive in business and compassionate in society); #5 (You understand ethical dilemmas and have the leadership values to overcome them); #6 (You are critical when thinking and constructive when collaborating) and #9 (You create value from global connections for local communities) 

• Classic and basic theory
• New theory
• Teacher’s own research

• Analysis
• Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
• Students conduct independent research-like activities under supervision

 Examples of the literature we may assign: 

• Selected chapters from A.C. Budabin and L.A. Richey (2021) Batman Saves the Congo: How Celebrities Disrupt the Politics of Development, University of Minnesota Press
• L.A. Richey (2024). 'Why does capitalism feel so right? Ethical imaginaries of prison labour and sisterhood solidarity'. Economy and Society, 53(2), pp.250-274.
• Selected chapters from J.G Carrier and P.G. Luetchford (eds) (2012) Ethical Consumption: Social Value and Economic Practice, Berghahn Books
• Selected chapters from D. Miller et al. (eds) (1998) Shopping, Place and Identity, Routledge
• Selected chapters from R. Mukherjee and S. Banet-Weiser. (eds) (2012) Commodity Activism: Cultural Resistance in Neoliberal Times, NYU Press. 
• Selected chapters from M. Bostrom et al. (eds) (2019) The Oxford Hanbook of Political Consumerism, Oxford University Press
• Selected parts from L.A. Richey and S. Ponte Brand Aid: Shopping Well to Save the World. U of Minnesota Press; 2011.
• L.A. Richey and S. Ponte (2021) 'Brand Aid and coffee value chain development interventions: Is Starbucks working aid out of business?' World Development, 143, p.105193.
• Selected chapters from S. Ponte (forthcoming, 2025) Value Struggles: Looking at Capitalism through the Wine Glass, Bloomsbury Academic. 
• Selected chapters from S. Ponte (2019) Business, Power & Sustainabiity in a World of Global Value Chains, Zed Books