Pandemics and consumer well‐being from the Global South

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: Arindam Das,Himadri Roy Chaudhuri
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12437

COMMENTARY

Pandemics and consumer well-being from

the Global South

Arindam Das

1

| Himadri Roy Chaudhuri

2

1

Alliance University, Bangalore, India

2

XLRI, Jamshedpur, India

Correspondence

Himadri Roy Chaudhuri, XLRI,

Jamshedpur, India.

Email: himadrirc@gmail.com

Abstract

This introductory article makes a critical estimation of

the impact of pandemics on the Global South con-

sumer's well-being. Our paper moves beyond the con-

cerns of the other papers of this Special Issue. Instead,

we focus on the issues of the vulnerable, marginal, and

subaltern consumers of the Global South—experiences

and anxieties, distinct from those of more “modern,”

capitalized, industrialized, democratized, and economi-

cally liberated Global North consumers. We offer the

North–South comparisons across national lines or from

block to block that bring in a series of promising direc-

tions and new currents in the critical, interdisciplinary

studies of consumer affairs. Primary perspectives and

associated topics for future agenda impacting TCR

highlighted are (i) socio-economic inequalities and

injustices, (ii) environmental injustice and sustainable

future. We finally suggest an innovative research para-

digm, “altruistic-activist consumer research,”to

address the concerns and impact the well-being of mar-

ginal consumers from the Global South.

KEYWORDS

“altruistic-activist consumer research”, consumer well-being,

environmental injustice, Global South, India, pandemic, socio-

economic inequality and injustice, sustainable future, TCR

When it arrived in the unforgiving industrial towns of central Mexico, the sand-

swept sprawl of northern Nigeria and the mazes of metal shanties in India's com-

mercial capital, Mumbai, COVID-19 went by another name. People called it a ‘rich

Received: 18 January 2022 Accepted: 3 February 2022

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12437

© 2022 American Council on Consumer Interests.

J Consum Aff. 2022;56:15–27. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 15