Epistemic Justice in the Market

Sor Juana lived in a system that denied her full intellectual voice based on her gender and status; she fought for recognition of her knowledge and right to speak. In ethical consumption, epistemic justice means recognizing that markets systematically silence the voices of those who produce goods—workers, farmers, artisans in exploited regions. Their knowledge about their own conditions, their expertise, their humanity are erased by supply chain distance and marketing narratives. Ethical consumption practices must actively restore these silenced voices: seeking out producer stories, purchasing from cooperatives where workers have agency, choosing companies that amplify rather than obscure those who make products. This concept rejects the fiction that consumption is a neutral market act; it's a form of knowledge politics. Every purchase either participates in epistemic injustice or resists it by honoring the knowledge and humanity of those whose labor enables our consumption.