Browsing by Author "Nukari, Ilona"

This study enlightens the values and thoughts of families choosing cloth diapers for their children. The topic was discussed from the perspective of green consumerism and consumer studies. The doctoral thesis of Minna Autio and especially the descriptions of Johanna Moisanders doctoral thesis about the different discourses of green consumerism build a basis to this study. Moisander describes in her study the dominant discourse of green consumerism. the discourse on voluntary simplicity and the political discourse of radical environmental activism. The aim is to describe consumer choises of the families, which have chosen to use cloth diapers and to compare the findings to the discourses of green consumerism. The data of this study consists of 29 essays raised from Internet forums. Mothers describe in the essays, how they have experienced using cloth diapers with their children and why they have made this choise. The study is carried out with qualitative methods using Atlas/ti -program as a help for content analysis. The data has been read and categorized under different themes such as environmental motives, information, health etc. The different discourses of green consumerism found in Moisanders Thesis were found in the data. The respondants stated that their diaper choise is more ecological than using disposabel diapers and does not increase the amount of waste. Many respondants had made diapers or diaper wraps themselves by sewing or knitting. An especially interesting group was formed by those respondants, who described that choosing cloth diapers had lead them to make also other greener consumer choises in their everyday life such as grocery shopping, buying clothes or beauty products. Interesting were also the answers which lead thinking clot diapering as a hobby of the mother either in collecting an comparing diapers, making cloth diapers by hand or just enjoying the everyday chores concerning the diapers.