Consumer knowledge [antikvár]

PREFACE This book is intended to provide assistance in exploring topics that have thus far been neglected in the field of education, but which are unquestionably important in our day and age. Conscious consumption is vital from the aspect of sustainable development and therefore can not be avoided in the future. Moreover, the ability to assert our rights, our integration in civil society and knowledge of the opportunities offered by the European Union all serve to reduce our feelings of defencelessness as members of a consumer society. Taking the above and many other aspects into consideration, we believe it is important for students to become acquainted with concepts related to consumer protection, product safety, product liability, issues of environmental protection, the administration of consumer complaints and the relevant legal background. The authors have attempted to create a handbook that can easily be applied by educators as well as useful background material that can be adapted to more than one school subject and with various age groups. In our opinion, it is not absolutely necessary to treat material in connection with consumer behaviour as a separate subject. The teaching material can be incorporated in different areas of study, for example civics, economics, seminars held by class presidents and even in lessons dealing with natural science. In the course of our work, we have placed as much emphasis as we could on creating material that provides practical rather than theoretical knowledge. For this reason, we recommend addressing problems in connection with consumer protection through the use of real-life examples and situations. It is primarily EU regulations that form the legal background for these issues, but in member states where laws may differ, the material will have to be suitably adapted to reflect the legal environment in the given state. Depending on their level of difficulty, individual elements in the material can be taught to students in the age group ranging from 12-18 (grades 7-12). Although the order of the units follows a logical struc-