They Like Me, They Really Like Me... Because I Buy Local

We’ve all heard the reports about the difficult, deplorable working conditions that workers suffer through in low-paying jobs in China’s manufacturing plants. Yet we continue to buy goods that we know were manufactured in those plants and most of us turn a blind eye to the poor circumstances that workers in foreign countries endure so we can have the latest gadgets, clothing, or footwear at a low price. Then we’ll turn around and pay a premium for fresh produce or crafts from a local vendor at a market. Other than the health benefits of eating fresh produce, what causes us to want to support people in our local area as opposed those in other countries?

When discussing communities of practice in the last couple of classes, Dr. Plumb explained that boundary objects transmitted from one community of practice to another don’t hold any negotiated value for those on the receiving end. Although the object may hold much value for those who created or produced it initially, that meaning is lost once the object is transmitted to an outside community of practice. To further illustrate this notion, Dr. Plumb used the example of large Apple Inc manufacturing plants in China which produce iPhones and iPads. Although we understand that working conditions in manufacturing plants in China are sub-standard and dangerous, many of us wouldn’t think to research where our electronic gadgets are coming from. We’d go to a retailer here in Canada to buy, for example, an iPad not thinking of the value and meaning it holds for the people who manufactured it. We don’t share any meaning with those people in the object since it takes on a completely different meaning in our own life. Here’s an interesting video from ABC News Nightline that takes a look inside one of the manufacturing plants:

Interestingly enough, those Apple plants in China “are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country” despite “reports of worker suicides, a plant explosion and slave-like conditions” (read the article from reuters.com). However, since we are so far removed from the workers who build the products, they don’t hold much value for us. We don’t interact with the workers who produce our goods so we don’t have any associated meaning with the products they provide to companies that sell them to us. These boundary objects don’t hold any negotiated meaning and they come from people who belong to what we’d consider an out group so we tend to not place as much human value on workers we don’t know.

I thought this was interesting because, alternatively, when it comes to purchasing goods that we know are produced locally, there is a social movement underway where more and more people are buying local goods and produce whenever they can. In Halifax, there are different forms of “Buy Local” campaigns and markets that feature local producers. Wenger would explain that we want to support our local merchants because these people are more familiar to us and they are in our immediate community of practice due to living in the same region. We can relate to them and would consider them to be more of a member of our in group than those in other parts of the world.

The I Love Local Halifax group encourages Haligonians to shop and dine at local, independant businesses.

As Tomasello tells us in The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition (as listed on Chapters.ca), as humans we transmit meaning and cultural information with each other through shared meaning and goals. By reading Wenger’s in Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity (as listed on Chapters.ca), we learned that communities of practice provide people with a sense of belonging and acceptance by adding value to shared information together. In current Canadian society, it is accepted that making socially conscious buying choices by buying local goods and produce whenever possible is the best choice. Although there are groups and organizations that spread awareness on the working conditions in the countries that produce the majority of the textiles and electronics we use in North America, it is still socially acceptable for us to purchase these goods at the retailers that sell them. These purchasing habits are so normal in many communities of practice that they are reifications most people don’t think twice about.

However, if we take this a step further with Bracher’s Radical Pedagogy: Identity, Generativity, and Social Transformation (as listed on Chapters.ca) we could argue that people support sustainable and local buying habits not only for the health benefits and to support people they feel closer to in their communities of practice but also because “our identity requires recognition by others” (p. 7). Since buying local is the “in” thing to do, we can assume that individuals will be appreciated by their peers by following the trend and will gain greater acceptance and recognition from others in their immediate community of practice.

We all desire recognition from others.

I had never reflected on my buying habits in this way. I realize that the above points I made are all about being human and how we instinctually live our lives in today’s society within our communities of practice. And, unfortunately, I do believe that changing the working conditions in manufacturing plants other countries is beyond our control. Now more than ever, North America is relying more and more on consuming goods that were manufactured in China (for more on the topic, read “China Makes, The World Takes”).  However, I think it is important for us to be aware of the world around us outside of our immediate “city” of communities of practice so we can make informed choices and to help share the meaning and value of our buying power with those we interact with.