Katy Wheeler

Katy Wheeler is a Lecturer in Sociology at The Open University. Her work deals with the ways ordinary consumers respond to the normative pressures placed upon them to act in sustainable or responsible ways, considering how this moral economy is articulated through interactions between social movements, consumers, producers, the state and the market. She published her first monograph on the subject of Fairtrade consumption, Fair Trade and the Citizen-Consumer: Shopping for Justice? (Palgrave Macmillan: 2012). She is also interested in the shifting boundaries of work in modern society and in particular, the role that consumers play within the labour process. She worked with Professor Miriam Glucksmann on an ERC programme of research, exploring ‘consumption work’ and they are currently co-authoring a monograph that compares recycling consumption work in Sweden and England.