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The aim of this article is to examine the topic of mothers' consumption, particularly how mothers of young children as primary caregivers are involved in contemporary consumer culture in Japan, by using the concepts of “caring consumption” and “ideological dilemmas”.

Data were gathered from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 mothers of young children aged between 1 and 5. Interviews were conducted either at their home or public facilities. The theoretical framework highlights a variability existing within ideology which creates a cultural space for mothering.

Mothers' caring consumption is a key means through which motherhood is constituted and how ideologies surrounding mothering are enforced and enacted. They negotiate for certain products and services on behalf of their children, in the name of love, care and devotion, and in consideration of wider social networks. Consumption is part of maternal responsibility and task where a mother not only provides material and emotional support for her child but also becomes a facilitator to connect him/her to a wider social network through her consumption practices.

This study contributes insight into how mothers of young children in Japan experience consumer culture in a specific sociocultural environment and how they construct cultural meanings of motherhood in interaction with surrounding people and a wider consumption-oriented world.

This study aims to identify the life styles of adolescents through a reading of the dimensions which are seen in purchasing behavior. The dimensions investigated were: cognitive associations that adolescents attribute to known and established brands, and the evaluative and emotional attitudes towards the brand, and intentional purchase behavior.

The study was conducted in south of Italy (Sicily). The sample consisted in 150 participants aged between 15 and 17 (47 Male, 103 Female). The questionnaire was based on established scales. Regression linear stepwise, Chi-Squared and T test analysis was undertaken to test the hypotheses.

The results showed that there is a good degree of satisfaction towards the use of cash. Therefore, the youths interviewed were able to develop a model on spending and consumption which combined personal needs to the financial sphere. The adolescents' desire to repurchase known and established brands is determined by a process of identification the adolescents have with the brand.

The analysis of consumption practices among adolescents can be considered one of the landmarks aimed at analyzing contemporary society and the universe of youth so as to understand and learn how to construct identity, define lifestyles and develop intra and intergenerational relations. Consumption, therefore, has become outstandingly striking and obvious in contemporary culture, as it defines the vision of the world constellated with specific value orientations, behavior, identities, languages and social meanings that emerge through action.

Research proposals are presented which outline theoretical relationships between the socialization and social structural agents and the development of consumption symbolism with adolescents.

The case of corporations establishing a relationship with young people – because of the moral responsibility involved – allows us to illustrate the complexities of trying to decide what is morally correct to collectively ensure children's well-being. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Applying the “stakeholder theory” to child industries – under which term this paper includes all business activities that establish a commercial relationship involving children, either as the recipient or user of the final product or beneficiary of a specific service, or as a co-decision-maker for purchases within his/her family or social circles – reveals a series of conceptual challenges...

The limited understanding of stakeholder theory within the CSR managerial perspective leads companies to overlook some important moral issues about children's well-being, and exposes them to particularly hard criticisms of their actions and marketing policies.

If children have been overlooked by the stakeholder theory, how may the interests of youth be represented in a stakeholder perspective?

To deal with some of the dilemmas entailed by considering children's representatives as legitimate spokespersons, the paper suggests drawing on the ethics of care to attempt delineating a corporate social responsibility towards young people.

This paper emphasises a number of issues relevant to young consumers, including the absence of children in stakeholder theory and how that absence speaks to the presumed extent and boundaries of corporate social responsibility.