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Thrifty, green or frugal: Reflections on sustainable consumption in a changing economic climate
Abstract
In the context of a string of economic crises that have affected major world economies between 2007 and 2009, there seems to be a certain amount of overlap between debates around these issues and debates around long term environmental problems such as climate change. One of the interesting points of overlap is a renewed interest in notions of austerity with optimistic commentators offering up hope that a (re)turn to frugality represents a unique opportunity for the pursuit of sustainable consumption. Against this backdrop the analysis sets out an approach to frugality as a social practice and drawing on a qualitative study of persons who identified themselves as attempting to reduce their environmental impacts, it considers the links between frugality and sustainable consumption. Crucially, a distinction is drawn between thrift and frugality in relation to: (1) the scale at which they exercise care and compassion; (2) their relationship to the normative expectations of consumer cultures, and; (3) their consequences in terms of environmental impacts. Taking these distinctions alongside historical analyses of changing consumption patterns, a note of caution is offered that the passage from the economic downturn to sustainable consumption may not be as clear as might be hoped.
... We therefore argue that measuring reuse impact can alternatively be addressed with a 189 macro approach, in particular, by assessing the total amount of reuse and subsequently 190 calculating a replacement rate to nuance its environmental impact. Indeed, research shows 191 that second-hand consumption is shaped by a variety of motivations, including not only 192 sustainability reasons but also economic and recreational reasons (Guiot & Roux, 2010), and 193 that sustainable consumption can be driven by frugality or thrift reasons beyond sustainability 194 reasons (Evans, 2011;Gregson et al., 2013). Thus, when measuring reuse at the macro level 195 and evaluating its environmental gains or circularity, it is important to truly take into account 196 the replacement rate rather than assuming that reusable goods will replace new goods. ...
... 343 Notes: EA = electrical appliances and electronics. Figure A: (Evans, 2011), and that consumer retail expectations may change towards these 388 respective thrifty, green or frugal expectations, which traditional channels cannot satisfy 389 ...
... Guiot et al., 2010). As a result, this leads to the growth of alternative, informal exchange 390 channels(Evans, 2011;Upadhyay et al., 2021), which is facilitated even more through 391increased digitization (Agrawal et al., 2021; Fuentes et al., 2017; Han & Sweet, 2021). 392 Our findings are the first to provide a method that allows to quantify reuse across 393 various exchange channels for a particular region or country. ...
This study proposes a novel methodology to calculate reuse and apply this to Flanders. We combine available data from the Flemish reuse network about its reselling of reusable goods with new survey data about disposal and acquisition behaviours of a representative sample of 1500 Flemish citizens. Using these data, we map the amount of reuse channelled through various exchange channels and calculate a reuse estimate (Total Reused Goods—TRG). In addition, we nuance its environmental impact through calculating its replacement rate. Our results reveal an important share of informal channels beyond formal channels. Moreover, a new estimate of 33.8kg reuse/capita is calculated for Flanders, which is 6.3 times higher than the current estimate of 5.4kg reuse/capita. Furthermore, only 28% of reusable goods prevent the acquisition of new goods. This new methodology is the first to calculate a comprehensive reuse measure which may form the basis for new regional reuse indicators.
... It has been found that the way individuals see themselves in relation to others can impact their behaviour (Banovic & Barone, 2021;Cross et al., 2010;Lee & Pounders, 2019). Self-benefit appeals are those related to self-interest such as health and taste usually highlight the individual as the main beneficiary (Banovic, Aschemann-Witzel, & Deliza, 2021;Banovic & Otterbring, 2021;Evans, 2011). Other-benefit appeals (e.g. ...
... Consequently, it has been found that frugality can be a driver of more sustainable product choice (Whitmarsh and O'Neill, 2010;Gil-Giménez et al., 2021). Some research suggests that encouraging frugality can lead to sustainable forms of consumption (Evans, 2011;Thøgersen, 2018). ...
... Regarding the psychographic variables of environmental concern and frugal orientation, we expect that we confirm previous research (Aschemann-Witzel & Stangherlin, 2021) in that (H10) stronger environmental concern is related to more positive attitude (McCarthy et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2020). We expect that same for frugality orientation (H11) (Whitmarsh and O'Neill, 2010;Gil-Giménez et al., 2021;Evans, 2011;Thøgersen, 2018). ...
Future sustainable food systems should more efficiently use natural resources and reduce food waste. Upcycled food – foods elevated in value through ingredients otherwise wasted or previously thought inedible – constitutes a new approach contributing to this much needed transition. Successful market launches of such foods requires favourable consumer perception of these products, knowing the factors determining acceptance, and an adequate communicational framing of the new concept. However, consumer perception of upcycled food is yet under-researched, in particular across food categories and countries, and the concept of frugality has not been explored in this context. In a consumer survey assessing the factors of influence on attitude towards upcycled food and with a sample across five Northern and Southern European countries, we show that stressing the aspect of traditional frugality and to appeal to frugal orientation appears a favourable communication frame for upcycled food. Product categories that match with the region are perceived as more favourable. Environmental concern determines attitude while food neophobia acts as a barrier. Our results lead us to recommend that marketing for upcycled food should focus on the environmentally concerned consumer segment and use a framing that communicates the frugality benefit and frugal resource use. Findings further provide insights into the psychology of consumer acceptance and attitudes. These can be used in communicating the nature of upcycled foods to the public and to food consumers.
... One such social is that of the 'good provider', or the desire to 276 show hospitality and provide plenty of food to one's family and friends. Various scholars 277 argue that a 'good provider' mentality or a 'good mother' identity is a barrier to tackling the The overprovision of food due to 'good provider' norms results not only in excess food 290 being consumed (termed 'virtuous plate-clearing'), which may cause overconsumption of 291 calories, obesity and associated health problems (Alexander and Moran, 2017), but also 292 produces excess food that is at risk of being thrown away (Evans, 2011(Evans, , 2012. ...
... 532 We found no significant differences between the two countries in the relationship of AR 533 and moral norms with food waste intentions, which is consistent with a previous study on 534 digital piracy decisions (Udo et al., 2016) and could be attributed to the close similarity 535 between the two cultures in their sense of responsibility on moral norms (Swaidan, 2012). 536 In addition, we investigated the impact of 'good provider' norms on food waste Hospitality norms appear to conflict with the frugality norm and are therefore linked to less 543 sustainable consumption (Evans, 2011). 544 We then investigated the role of 'good provider' norms and how they interact with moral 545 norms in the NAM model. ...
... On the other hand, research also shows that masculine cultures are less ethical than 263 feminine societies, as they show more greed and competitiveness (Swaidan, 2012). Singapore argue that a 'good provider' mentality or a 'good mother' identity is a barrier to tackling the The overprovision of food due to 'good provider' norms results not only in excess food 290 being consumed (termed 'virtuous plate-clearing'), which may cause overconsumption of 291 calories, obesity and associated health problems (Alexander and Moran, 2017), but also 292 produces excess food that is at risk of being thrown away (Evans, 2011(Evans, , 2012. ...
One-third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted, which has negative consequences for societies and the environment. Thus, curbing food waste is critical to securing human well-being and protecting the environment. This study examines the drivers of household food waste decisions by investigating the activation and deactivation of moral norms and introducing the concept of the ‘good provider’ in an augmented norm-activation model (NAM). A survey of 643 consumers in Australia and Singapore explores the ‘good provider’ norm as a driver of food waste behaviours in both cultures. For Australians, ‘good provider’ norms suppress intentions to avoid food waste, most likely to provide for the immediate family, which can be a motive that overrides moral concern about food waste in an individualistic culture. For Singaporeans, ‘good provider’ norms do not suppress food waste intentions, possibly due to the value placed on thrift by a long-term-oriented culture. The paper significantly extends the previous research on norms, culture and sustainable consumption and provides policy and practical implications for curbing food waste in different cultural contexts.
... An earlier study in the UK quantitatively estimated a number of 50-60 000 tonnes per annum of exchanged goods at second-hand fairs, yet based on qualitative analysis they emphasised that second-hand fairs are not associated with waste prevention but rather with surplus of household goods (Gregson et al., 2013). Moreover, it emphasised the difference between social values related with thrift and the environmental values that underpin reuse, which is also mentioned in other research (e.g., Evans, 2011). Therefore, policy goals for increasing reuseand not just thrift -might best be achieved by working with consumer culture (Gregson et al., 2013;Cruz-Cárdenas & Patricio Arévalo-Chávez, 2017;Steffen, 2017). ...
... As noted earlier, an important precondition for reuse of products to occur and for the lifetime of products to be extended as long as possible, the quality of inflow is important. Hence, if consumers want to prevent goods from becoming waste, this can mean spending more money rather than less in the first place, for instance when acquiring new goods for the first time (Evans, 2011). While this issue is a bit farther from pricing effects regarding either the discarding or the acquisition side of reuse or regarding important environmental rebound effects, the quality of inflow and the willingness of consumers to pay more for quality goods in the first phase may affect the possibility for reuse to occur. ...
... These recreational and value aspects, while usually not put central in discourses of reuse, seem to play an important role in consumers' reuse behaviour. Moreover, while reuse has been considered to be based on frugality, environmental or thrift reasons (Evans, 2011), the important artefacts of social behaviours may complement these reasons for reuse behaviour. ...
This report addresses blind spots in current research about the understudied circular phenomenon of reuse and the variety of formal (i.e. included in our economy through regulated economic units and protected workers) and informal (i.e. part of an informal economy in which transactions do not get registered) channels through which it may occur. It is part of the research line on employment and actor analysis for the circular economy of the Flemish Circular Economy Policy Research Centre.
https://ce-center.vlaanderen-circulair.be/en/publications/publication/13-reuse-the-understudied-circular-economy-strategy
... For instance, thrifty householders may periodically purchase food items from discounted bulk offers, having the perception that they are both saving money and perhaps being pro-environmental due to less packaging waste. However, this does not always mean that the food will be fully consumed for reasons such as lack of time to prepare a meal in a given week (Evans, 2011b;Gunders, 2012;Watson & Meah, 2012), thus leading to an ironic situation where economic and environmental concerns are indirectly responsible for creating more food waste. ...
... For most householders, DFW could primarily be a social (normative) issue, and not just an environmental or economic issue (Parizeau et al., 2015). As in the studies reported by Baker et al., (2009) andEvans (2011b), the motivations behind a focus on DFW issues could be for purely economic reasons as much as environmental benefits. On the contrary, findings from Cecere et al., (2014) revealed that intrinsic rather than extrinsic variables were observed to influence waste reduction behaviours. ...
... FR can be described as refraining from unnecessary consumption and adopting efficiency and resourcefulness in consumption (Philp and Nepomuceno, 2020). Past studies found a strong association between FR and sustainable consumption behaviour (Cozzio et al., 2021;Evans, 2011;Wan et al., 2017). However, the drivers of FR are still a subject of research, especially in the hotel industry in Malaysia. ...
... As FR encompasses both careful uses of physical and financial resources (Naderi and Van Steenburg, 2018) and avoidance of wastage (Evans, 2011), it is posited that FR can serve as the remedy for overconsumption in the hotel industry. This study follows Mohamed Sadom et al. (2021) and defines FR as a multidimensional construct that is reflected in resource minimisation and care for money. ...
Purpose
This study aims to shed light on the factors that affect frugality (FR) in the hotel industry. Specifically, it aims to test the role of environmental advertisement (EA) and eco-labelling (EL) on FR through green attitude (GA) in the Malaysian hotel industry. It also tested the role of government initiatives (GIS) as the moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
Using the judgemental sampling technique, a total of 259 usable responses were gathered from hotel guests. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test the study hypotheses.
Findings
This study found that EA and EL affect hotel guests’ GA positively. Additionally, the finding revealed that GA exerts a positive influence on FR. Furthermore, this study disclosed that GA mediates the relationship between green marketing strategies (EA and EL) and FR. Contrary to expectation, the moderating role of GIs was not supported in this study.
Originality/value
This is a pioneering study that investigates FR in the hotel industry. Further, this study developed new relationships such as the mediating role of GA between marketing strategies in terms of EA and EL and FR. In addition, the moderating effect of GIs on the relationship between GA and FR, which is comparatively new in the literature was developed. The findings from this study are expected to benefit the hoteliers, governments and the researchers that specialized in consumer behaviour study.
... As the inclination for ensuring the household budget is spent economically, thriftiness was a focal point in early commentary on mundane shopping (Miller, 1998). Building on this, Evans (2011b) attempted to tease out the distinctiveness of frugality and thriftiness, arguing that while in practice, these dispositions are not easily disconnected, theoretically, frugality may be seen as answering to the environmental agenda of consuming less, when thriftiness does not. Interest in frugality and thriftiness has continued as an everyday priority and skill related to environment (Foden, 2012) and economy (Holmes, 2019). ...
... There is a rich legacy of qualitative sociology exploring singular food concerns. Examples include thriftiness (Holmes, 2019), frugality (Evans, 2011b), environment and health (Halkier, 2010). Others consider the relationship between two or three, like safety and waste (Watson and Meah, 2012), care and convenience (Meah and Jackson, 2017), and family, taste and food ethics (Dubuisson-Quellier and . ...
Recent years have seen the emergence of calls for the transformation of food systems to make these more responsive to environmental, access and health challenges. Addressing how the UK food system may best meet these challenges, this article develops understanding of the multiple food concerns that guide practices of food provisioning at the intersection between markets and domestic life. Combining insights from a survey questionnaire and qualitative fieldwork from research that was part of the EU Horizon2020 SafeConsume project, we depict how practices of food provisioning are guided by concerns driven by economic and environmental logics. The findings suggest economy is prevalent while environmental food ethics are marginalised. The conclusion discusses how the adopted practice theoretical approach, which combines an analysis of the socio-material arrangements of provisioning and the relationship between food concerns and higher order considerations, advances understanding of the nature of food concerns and the challenges of sustainable food transitioning.
... When diversity is not recognised it is not integrated into design and planning (Anantharaman et al., 2019), and activities led by dominant groups are unlikely to fully appreciate the needs of the marginalised (Axon, 2016;Grossman and Creamer, 2016;Taylor Aiken et al., 2017). This is supported in the social justice literature, where Iris Marion Young (1990;2011) emphasises that a recognition of diverse social groups must be considered alongside distributive justice. She argues that to be just, diverse groups must be recognised as having a stake in community action and must have meaningful input to initiative design and implementation. ...
... Some forms of diversity are beginning to be recognised as significant in considering how to address sustainable development, but many are treated as peripheral. So, for instance, a number of studies make reference to income (Büchs and Schnepf, 2013), class (Evans, 2011;Johnston, 2008;Shirani et al., 2015) and gender (Hawkins, 2012;MacGregor, 2016;Vinz, 2009) as forms of diversity that are impacted by action on sustainability. Disability status (see below), ethnic origin (Clarke and Agyeman, 2011) and age (Thew, Middlemiss, and Paavola, 2020) are much less frequently addressed, despite the challenges associated with the inclusion of people experiencing these forms of difference. ...
Sustainable development is centrally concerned with collective action, but has paid limited attention to inclusivity. An emerging critical approach has begun to address this, by pointing out the risks of exclusion in an interest area dominated by white, middle-class and able-bodied participants. Community activities that are designed and run by a relatively homogeneous group of people are unlikely to take into account diverse voices, address a range of needs and abilities, or offer solutions that are inclusive, effective and just. In this paper, we profile a radical attempt to design-in inclusivity, drawing on the lead author’s sustained ethnographic engagement with the Mixed Ability movement in the UK. The movement brings people with and without disabilities together to play sport in community settings, alongside facilitating peer education, to raise awareness about inclusion and diversity. The Mixed Ability movement offers a challenge to sustainable development action at community level, by recognising social difference, creating an inclusive process, as well as integrating and celebrating diversity for effective and just outcomes. It also offers a radical vision of socially just community initiatives in demonstrating that inclusion is not solely a remedy to recognition injustices experienced by marginalised groups, but can also be a route to better outcomes for the entire community.
... Reducing food waste generates savings for consumers and operators, and the recovery and redistribution of surplus food that would otherwise be wasted has an important social dimension [20]. At the same time, food waste has a substantial economic impact [21][22][23] if we consider all the losses suffered by all those involved in this process (consumers, producers, and retailers). Food waste is generated in all stages of the supply chain, with different features and motivations [24]. ...
Reducing food waste is an important objective in order to raise awareness of the negative effects it produces. The lack of information regarding the efficient use of food will affect the environment and the health of each of us. The objective of the paper is to present the behaviour of Romanian consumers regarding food waste. By means of a semi-structured questionnaire administered to 267 consumers, the following aspects were investigated: the place where they serve meals, the preparation of meals at home, purchase preferences, the motivation for food waste, and selective collection. Consumption typologies identify a higher share of food waste in urban areas and a better use of food in rural areas. The people from rural areas ate more than 50% of their meals at home. The preferred location for procuring food was, by far, the supermarket or hypermarket in both urban and rural environments. Young people throw away more waste than older food consumers. Awareness about food waste is more accentuated in young adults, without a significant correlation to the area of origin.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
This open access book seeks to understand why we consume as we do, how consumption changes, and why we keep consuming more and more, despite the visible damage we are doing to the planet. The chapters cover both the stubbornness of unsustainable consumption patterns in affluent societies and the drivers of rapidly increasing consumption in emerging economies. They focus on consumption patterns with the largest environmental footprints, including energy, housing, and mobility and engage in sophisticated ways with the theoretical frontiers of the field of consumption research, in particular on the ‘practice turn’ that has come to dominate the field in recent decades. This book maps out what we know about consumption, questions what we take for granted, and points us in new directions for better understanding—and changing—unsustainable consumption patterns.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
This chapter analyses the trajectory of the Indian small car, the Tata Nano. When launched by the manufacturer Tata Motors as a new Indian ‘people’s car’ in 2008, the Nano was widely predicted to revolutionise automobility in India. Yet it barely made an impact on the Indian car market, and production was phased out just a decade after the first Nano had hit the Indian roads. By analysing the changing popular representations and symbolic imaginaries that attach to the car as a means to mobility and an object of identity and social status, we argue that the Nano failed neither because it was mediocre, nor because it remained economically out of reach for most Indians. Rather, its insertion into the lower ranks of a powerful status hierarchy of identity-defining objects precluded it from adequately tapping into new and hegemonic forms of middle-class consumer aspiration in ‘New India’, thereby leaving the people’s car without ‘a people’.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
The goal of consumption—and hence of economics—is wellbeing. Whilst useful for some purposes, orthodox tools such as GNP tell us little meaningful about our wellbeing, or that of the planet. Newer frameworks such as Ecological Economics or Quality of Life indices introduce qualitative criteria, embracing a much broader view of costs and benefits. However, they still leave consumers without tools to actually guide and frame decision making. Looking beyond the material, psychological, cultural and other forces underlying consumption, this chapter offers tools to enable those—consumers or policy makers—who have the intent to move towards sustainable choices.
However, to do so we need to integrate all three facets of ecology, economy and society within a holistic framework. Basic material needs like food or shelter are quantifiable; qualities such as friendships or liberty are not. Consumption decisions involve both objective and subjective factors, quantities and qualities, facts and values. Can these antinomic categories be integrated in one framework for evaluation and decision making? We must also consider the individual, the collective and the global. This is what “value mapping” offers; a framework to evaluate and compare choices; an integral approach to wellbeing and consumption. It addresses both experts and laypeople, and is visually intuitive as well as easy to apply either in simple versions or in detailed forms not described here. What kinds of consumption can give maximum wellbeing with minimum negative impacts? The Value Maps presented here are practical tools to address this question.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
Electricity plays a vital role in everyday life. However, electricity-dependent practices are often taken for granted, and the complex underlying infrastructure tends to be invisible—until power supply is disrupted. Drawing on qualitative interviews with rural Norwegian households, this chapter takes practices as the starting point for examining how daily life changes during power outages and how households experience the consequences of such outages. The aim is to use households’ perspectives to understand the consequences of power outages and show how disruption influences relations between infrastructures, practices, customers and providers. Using the three elements of practice—materials, competences, meanings—I demonstrate how power failures temporarily break the linkages between elements in electricity-dependent practices, and how households forge linkages between other items and technologies, embodied knowledge and competences, and new meanings, in order to continue daily life. This re-assembling of elements in practices demonstrates the complexity of power-outage consequences and explains how rural Norwegian households can cope relatively well with lengthy power outages. The chapter also sheds light on the difficulties of trying to reduce consequences to monetary terms. Rather than worrying about the economic costs of power outages, households focus on maintaining their daily routines. The ability to adapt during outages demonstrates a relatively high level of flexibility, but this does not mean that households do not value having secure power supplies.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
Semi-confinement measures around the COVID-19 pandemic led to disruptions in everyday lives, in particular when it comes to reconfiguring habitual and routinized ways of doing things—a central theme in a social practice approach to understanding consumption. This contribution considers the weekly journal entries of 95 students in an undergraduate class at the University of Geneva, documenting how their consumption-related practices were changing, and how such changes relate to ‘sustainable wellbeing’. Students describe thrift and frugality measures in relation to resource consumption, reconsider existing practices such as ‘being fashionable’, but also explore new practices, such as preparing elaborate meals. In terms of wellbeing, consuming resources was clearly less relevant to students than social relations, whether facilitated through information-communication technologies or at a physical distance, as well as experiencing some form of contact with nature. We found that it is possible to engage students in reflecting on the normative goal of need satisfaction, and for students to distinguish between needs and desires, and between needs and their means of satisfaction. The societal context of the pandemic also led to reflections around how wellbeing must be understood at both an individual and societal level, and how ‘sustainable wellbeing’ as a normative aim might be planned for in the future.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
This chapter assesses the contribution that economics can make to help us understand consumer behaviour and, if necessary, to try and change it. Economic theory of consumer behaviour is sophisticated and rigorous, but very limited. It excludes from consideration many of the factors which are well-recognised by other social sciences as being important. These limitations stem largely from the standard model of homo economicus . Economists are not unaware of this problem, but it is difficult to resolve it: to establish models that are tractable—for example incorporating the idea of interdependent preferences. But even simple economic theory, in which income and price are the main explanatory factors of consumer behaviour, provides the basis for potentially very effective policy instruments. If incomes fall, consumption is indeed reduced; and taxes and subsidies can substantially alter consumer behaviour. The problem is that such instruments are politically very unpopular.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
Flying has become an increasingly contested form of consumption, but ‘green’ consumers often continue to fly. This chapter provides novel insights into the stubbornness of air-travel by specifically studying the obstacles that environmentally conscious consumers face when trying to limit or eliminate aeromobility. Through in-depth interviews with Norwegian environmental organisation workers—conceptualised as particularly self-reflexive when it comes to environmentally contested forms of consumption—we analyse how environmentalists negotiate one of the most environmentally destructive aspects of their consumption patterns. To explore how the social embeddedness of flying complicates the reduction of air-travel in these accounts, we draw on a combination of mobilities and social practice approaches. The participants considered flying to be problematic, but also often necessary in specific practices. Various expectations related to convenience, time, and sociality, led to a certain ‘lock-in’ of (aero)mobility. Zooming out to consider broader practice geographies, we argue that aeromobility contributes to the tempo-spatial expansion of many practices, changing their contents, meanings, and the contexts in which they unfold. To achieve sustainable mobility, we suggest that attention must be shifted from the air-travels of individual consumers to the broader practices in which aeromobility is embedded.
... Thrift is a common theme in the sociology of consumption, recognizing how shoppers value spending and saving in different moments of purchase (Miller, 1998). Yet, thriftiness can also be applied to other moments, in relation to the production of food waste, for example, or repair activities (Evans, 2011;Holmes, 2019). In their journal entries, students expressed concern about thrift when it came to their financial expenditures, and took stock of their spending habits through the journals. ...
Solar water heating, working correctly, can slash fossil fuel use in households. These systems have been popular in some countries for decades. But even in places environmentally well-suited to solar water heating, the technology is not necessarily widely used. Despite favourable weather, its early embrace of rooftop photovoltaics, and a generous decade-long incentive program, solar water heating is uncommon in California households. While there are many possible explanations, there has been little fieldwork on who uses solar water heating, the experiences of those who do, and how they relate to these conventional explanations. This chapter presents a picture of what we learned by talking to California households who use solar water heating systems, and relates these findings to policies and strategies for achieving low-carbon futures. The interviews were an unusual ethnographic element of a larger research project that sought to provide a broad view of the socio-technical landscape of solar water heating in California. We also discuss the role of these interviews in that project and the challenges of producing an integrated socio-technical analysis that can satisfactorily inform technology-centred solutions to problems seen by policy.
... However, when 10 focusing on a single identity in isolation, the impact of identity on intentions (and behaviour) 11 may be underestimated or at least not completely understood (Gatersleben et al., 2019;12 Thøgersen, 2018;Udall, de Groot, de Jong, & Shankar, 2020). In addition to pro-environmental 13 identity, research has found moral, frugal, thrifty and wasteful identities to be relevant for pro-14 environmental behaviour (Evans, 2011;Gatersleben et al., 2019;Thøgersen, 2018), which has 15 contributed to understanding the influence of non-environmental motives for pro-environmental 16 behaviour (cf., e.g., Steg, Perlaviciute, van der Werff, & Lurvink, 2014). Studies investigating 17 multiple identities in the context of meat consumption are scarce (e.g. ...
Excessive consumption of meat challenges global food security and environmental sustainability. In the mounting literature on identity as a motivator of behaviour, meat consumption has been associated with a handful of identities. Identity theory suggests that people hold multiple identities on different levels of abstraction, but how identities at different levels of abstraction interact and possibly co-determine intentions and behaviour remains largely unanswered. Inspired by research on attitudes and goal hierarchies, this study investigates a hierarchical model of meat-related identities and their relation to intentions to consume red meat. By means of a survey of Danish consumers (n = 1001), we identified identities related to the consumption of red meat (e.g., flexitarian identity), using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. We also controlled for the most important additional antecedents identified in prior research. Evidence was found that more abstract identities (e.g., national identity, environmental identity) mostly influence intentions to eat meat indirectly, meditated through more behaviour-specific identities (e.g., flexitarian identity). However, some higher-order identities also appear to have a direct impact on intentions to eat meat after controlling for more behaviour-specific identities, which suggests a less hierarchical structure manifesting itself, possibly due to the behaviour being instrumental at reaching different, functionally unrelated goals that are related to different identities. Policy recommendations towards reducing meat consumption are proposed.
... In the second and third quotations, antiestablishment action (Black and Cherrier, 2010) in the form of avoiding consumption from large organizations (Quotation 2), and antimaterialist and anticonsumption sentiments (Quotation 3), are evident. Such sentiment and sensemaking was recurrent across individuals in our sample, who considered that such action and wider frugal living (Evans, 2011)as particularly espoused in quotation three, e.g. "I don't buy stuff, always think very carefully before I buy something"could provide the basis for "acquiring" financial security and stability at individual and wider societal levels: ...
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the role of individual action in addressing challenges of sustainability, and to help marketing scholars and practitioners better understand what motivates sustainable living.
Design/methodology/approach
Semistructured interviews with 35 individuals self-identifying as sustainable shed light on motivations and identity expression in sustainable living. Four Drive Theory, and Personal and Social Identity Theory (operationalized through the Dynamic Model of Identity Development), provide this study’s guiding theoretical framework. Data analysis was informed by the Gioia methodology.
Findings
Individuals differently express their personal and social identities through sustainable living, and are differently motivated to live sustainably. Those expressing personal identity salience through sustainable living draw on a broader set of motivations than those expressing social identity salience. This results in varying levels of commitment to sustainable living, with differences also found in individuals’ personal satisfaction derived from their sustainable living efforts. Based on these findings, a novel typology of sustainable individuals is developed.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by its focus on one geographic area and relatively small sample size. A key implication is the need to consider both personal and social identity when studying behavior in other marketing contexts.
Practical implications
The research provides important insights for marketing practitioners, policymakers and others seeking to better categorize sustainable individuals and target marketing messages to encourage sustainable behaviors.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to marketing scholarship by providing new insights on the role of identity and motivations in sustainable living. It introduces a novel typology of sustainable individuals, founded on differences in identity expression and motivational drives, which are also associated with the range of sustainable behaviors people engage with and how individuals make sense of these behaviors.
... Resulta evidente que la responsabilidad de auspiciar prácticas de consumo sostenibles ya no es exclusiva de los países industrializados (países ricos) o de economías prósperas (Hume, 2010;Lorek y Fuchs, 2013), sino que, independientemente del estatus de desarrollo económico reconocido, existe la necesidad de comprender los hábitos de consumo y sus implicaciones ambientales en sociedades emergentes que concentran profundas crisis y transformaciones sociales y económicas (Evans, 2011). Surge como un nuevo paradigma el concepto de ecología industrial (Lehtoranta et al., 2011;Geels et al., 2015), en el propósito de minimizar el uso ineficiente de materiales y energía en el marco de la ecoeficiencia, la eficiencia energética y la reducción del consumo de energía (Kapoor y Dwivedi, 2020), además de promover prácticas empresariales ecoeficientes, convirtiéndose así la industria en un actor importante y necesario en procura del desarrollo sostenible (Hernandez et al., 2020). ...
As well defined by the SDG, sustainable consumption and production consist of doing more and better with less to minimize environmental degradation without detriment to people's quality of life. The purpose of this article is to advance the mapping of global scientific production around sustainable consumption, and in this way, to identify theoretical-conceptual advances, research trends, achievements, proposals, and dynamics of scientific production over time. To do this, we consulted the thematic information published in the Web of Science database, using the search equation "Sustainable Consumption" by title and during the period 1997-2020. The bibliometric analysis was carried out using open source tools such as R-Studio and Bibliometrix, which identified annual scientific production, the most widely recognized authors and sources, and the most cited articles. The VOS viewer software was used to view data on the network. The theoretical aspects of most significant value account for the transit and challenges in which modern societies are, as a whole, making sustainable consumption a daily practice. In this sense, modern trends in adopting self-restrictive behaviors and consumption habits, the second life of products, voluntary simplifiers, changes in production modes, energy efficiency, and sustainable food consumption stand out. The emerging paradigm of sustainable consumption privileges the role of industrial ecology, circular economy, and collaborative economies as mediators of producer-consumer-environment relations and as a last alternative, it suggests economic decline as the only formula towards sustainable consumption and development. JEL CLASSIFICATION Q57, Q01, I25, O13 CONTENT Introduction; 1. Method and data collection; 2. Bibliometric analysis of scientific mapping; 3. Analysis and visualization of scientific production networks; 4. Conclusions; Bibliography.
... This mobilisation of imagined history represents an ironic inversion of common critiques of nostalgia's social effects (Boym, 2001), yet equally demonstrates nostalgia's valuewhether based on experiential or imagined pasts -in mobilising action. In the absence of social lives beyond the home, for instance, Britain saw a conspicuous (re)turn towards domestic practices (such as baking, sewing, growing vegetables) often associated with historicised imaginations of resilience during times of crisis, specifically in the UK with reference to World War II (Martin, 2021), but equally tied to imaginations of sustainable lifestyles concerned with (re)localised and thrift-oriented modes of consumption (Evans, 2011). Notwithstanding the simultaneous historicised and 'futurised' associations with resilience-building, both anecdotal and emerging empirical evidence suggests these activities were profoundly valued during lockdowns, whether to fill time vacated by the loss of work or social life, or as a means of coping with the uncertainties and anxieties of the pandemic (Martin, 2021;Wood, 2020). ...
Commentaries on lived experiences of COVID-19-induced ‘lockdown’ have simultaneously directed public imaginations backwards to draw inspiration and fortitude from historical periods of national and global challenge, and forwards into futures characterised by greater environmental sensitivity and community resilience. In this article, we argue that individuals’ and households’ practical coping strategies from different phases of lockdown within the UK offer clues as to how adaptive embodiments of close connection – to nature and community – both inform contemporary practices of everyday resilience and signpost towards enablers of a more socially compassionate and environmentally sustainable future. Our novel approach to conceptualising post-COVID recovery draws on ‘back-casting’ – an approach which envisages pathways towards alternative, ‘better’ futures – to work back from the notion of sustainable lifestyles, through participants’ narratives of coping in/with lockdown, to the forms of adaptation that provided solace and encouragement. We highlight how these embodied and emotional adaptations constitute a form of nascent ‘neo-nostalgia’ capable of reaching beyond the enabling of coping mechanisms in the present to inform long-lasting capacity for individual and community resilience in the face of future socio-environmental crises.
... However, as has been found in consumption research, frugality does not always mesh with more sustainable modes of consumption. Without a commitment to sustainable practices, people can reduce spending in one area only to increase consumption in another; spending less does not necessarily mean consuming fewer resources (Evans 2011). ...
This article explores the COVID-19 pandemic as an external “shock” that changed household-consumption practices in Melbourne, Australia. We assess national consumption data and retail data for the state of Victoria to show how dramatically consumption patterns shifted during 2020. We then discuss three specific examples of changed consumption practices during the pandemic drawn from an analysis of media reports: bread baking, food growing, and bicycle riding. These activities illustrate how the pandemic and resultant lockdowns enabled innovation in domestic consumption, enhanced food security and resilience, and created space for the experience of a slower way of life. We argue that the pandemic provided impetus to experiment and innovate in ways that are relevant to sustainability but not necessarily motivated by it. Further, there is limited evidence that sustainable consumption practices will live on at an integrated mass scale, given a lack of wider institutional effects, such as changes in policy, business strategy, or mass social movements to support them. Instead, we hypothesize that these new consumption experiences “discovered” during the lockdown will live on as practice memories that might be mobilized when the next shock comes.
... Pentru o mai bună definire a relației dintre pierderile și risipa alimentară generate de-a lungul lanțurilor de aprovizionare, inițiativa Save Food a Organizației Națiunilor Unite pentru Alimentație și Agricultură (FAO) a stabilit că pierderea și risipa de alimente "se măsoară numai pentru produsele care sunt direcționate către consumul uman, fiind excluse furajele și părțile necomestibile ale produselor" (FAO, 2011). Impactul economic al risipei alimentare a fost pus în evidență de mai mulți autori (Evans, 2011a;Morrissey și Browne, 2004), dar și de către diferite organizații (FAO, 2013;EPA, 2003). Agenția pentru Protecția Mediului din SUA (EPA -Environmental Protection Agency) îi încurajează pe cei care produc alimente, pe comercianți și pe cei implicați în serviciile legate de producția și consumul de alimente (cantine, restaurante) să reducă risipa pentru a obține scăderi importante ale costurilor (EPA, 2012). ...
Food waste is a social, environmental, and economic challenge today. The European Union’s
Green Deal demands tackling this problem. Our research question is: “What are the solutions
regarding food waste prevention across the companies’ supply chain?” The mixed research
method consisted of content and thematic analysis. We collected information from the reports
published by European food companies that have joined the Green Deal and the Farm to Fork
Strategy. The data were structured using a theoretical model in which we integrated ten
essential stages of the food chain. The findings show that most of the information is reported
for the manufacturing/production stage. Although transfer to landfill is unavoidable in supply
chains, organizations make substantial efforts to reduce the proportion of food waste. The
methods applied by food companies are inspired by European regulations regarding
environmental protection. Our research identifies solutions brought about by the Green Deal
on food waste prevention.
... Dapeng Bay, where the TLF was hosted in 2019, had 95% of its annual visitors in 13 days. Comparing the number of visitors between February 2018 (58,490) and February 2019 (8,552,367), it increased approximately 146.22 times. The 2016 TLF in Taoyuan had a record-high number of visitors of 20.5 million in two weeks, compared to Taiwan's population of 23.58 million. ...
The Lantern Festival constitutes a specific tradition that originated from a long-term evolved culture. Should the festival only consist of a large number of installations and visitors? This study aims to assess the Taiwan Lantern Festival (TLF) in terms of government procurements between 2016 and 2020 according to the classification of tender projects. The classifications contribute to a comparison of the similarities and diversities in respect to the major challenge of the number of visitors exceeding 10 million in two weeks. The 140–234 tender projects each year presented a 76% increment of the budget for services, financing, and construction. The similarities and differences made each year’s TLF a local-identity-rich event. Shared similarities accounted for approximately 54% of all 654 tender items and 66% of the budget. The shared main items demonstrated their importance in transferring the TLF experience to the host city of the subsequent year. The interpretation of procurement contributed to the novelty of TLF classifications and the shared project similarities and diversities through the government acting as a curator. The findings contributed to an evolved model of classification for local situation and TLF experience transfer, evolved measures for diversities and shared similarities, and an evolved instrumentation for traditions.
... La promotion de pratiques sobres en énergie se fait sous diverses étiquettes : de simplicité volontaire (Ariès 2011;Dobré 2012;Elgin 1993), de frugalité (Evans 2011;Thøgersen 2018 Zélem 2016). Si l'attention est principalement portée sur les individus, aux dépens des secteurs les plus consommateurs d'énergie, l'objectif d'une sobriété énergétique n'est pas pleinement porté par les politiques publiques qui privilégient les politiques promouvant l'efficacité énergétique à destination du grand public. ...
À ce jour, en France, une personne sur cinq est confrontée au phénomène de précarité énergétique dans son logement. Cette dernière est associée à une précarité plus vaste qu’est la précarité économique et sociale. L’éducation aux « bons comportements » est-elle une réponse adaptée à ce phénomène ? En quoi la sobriété énergétique peut-elle devenir une injonction à un mode de vie ? La recherche se focalise sur le parcours du message normatif portant un idéal de mode vie sobre. L’intérêt est ainsi de questionner tant l’élaboration que la traduction en pratiques ou la diffusion de ces messages. De ce fait, c’est bien la relation experts/habitants qui est questionnée et la réception des politiques d’action publique. L’intérêt de ce travail de recherche est ainsi de questionner la réception de ces politiques auprès de publics cibles. L’objectif est de saisir l’intériorisation des messages normatifs par les ménages et leur transcription en pratiques et représentations. Autrement dit, il s’agit de questionner l’impact de ces messages d’incitation au changement de comportement à destination des ménages. L'étude qualitative prend place sur deux terrains d’étude en France, à savoir un quartier de La Courneuve (93) et la ville de Nantes (44).
http://www.theses.fr/2021PA100100
... Frugality is the action of restricting acquisition voluntarily, with the resourceful usage and thoughtful disposal of economic goods to avoid waste and save material resources [205,206], making it a monetary-based anti-consumption behavior with few environmental concerns [205,207]. For a frugal person, saving material resources and reducing waste is virtuous [208] and a source of pleasure [209]. Due to its highly materialistic nature, frugality can have a negative correlation with green consumption [210] and is yet to develop as a real anti-consumerism phenomenon [211]. ...
There is a causal relationship between existential dangers to our biosphere and our unsustainable consumption practices. For more than three decades, academics and researchers have explored ideas to make consumption practices sustainable. Still, a practical and widely accepted solution to the problem is missing. This review aims for a theoretical and structural understanding of the literature to identify future avenues for marketing, to explore and increase its contribution to consumption sustainability research. The review used bibliometric and integrative review methods to synthesize knowledge. The review found that sustainable consumption research has proliferated since 2015, indicating a heightened interest in the field. There are four major schools of thought in sustainable consumption research, employing three interdependent micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis to understand consumption practices. By focusing on individual consumption behaviors, this review recommends that consumption sustainability be repositioned as a means of attaining a better quality of life for consumers. It involves reforming the consumer mindset toward progress based on pro-social and pro-ecological choices, training consumers in mindful consumption practices, and providing them with an infrastructure for consuming with a mindful mindset. It is recommended that marketing should refine itself as a pro-social discipline, with consumer well-being as its primary goal, and to become a leader in reshaping quality of life in terms of non-financial standards.
... Anita van Dyke, 'The net sum game -saving money on food' Zero waste advocates value 'thrifty' consumption practices (Evans, 2011): spending money on produce and products is not positioned as bad or trivial; rather, it is positioned as significant for reducing environmental damage. Yet, at the same time, bloggers assume consumers are sufficiently affluent so that inexpensiveness should not be a decisive value: ...
Growing awareness of environmental issues and their relation to consumption patterns has given rise to calls for sustainable consumption across the globe. In this article, we focus on the zero waste lifestyle movement, which targets high-consumption households in the Global North as a site of change for phasing out waste in global supply chains. Our article is concerned with asking how gender and household sustainability are mutually constituted in the zero waste lifestyle movement. We establish an analytical tension between understanding zero waste living as a further intensification of feminised responsibility for people and the planet and as offering potential for transformational change – as feminised concern or feminist care. Through qualitative content analysis of the 10 most influential zero waste blogs globally, we show how the five zero waste rules of conduct – refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot – guide consumers towards everyday and situated engagements with waste. Organised by three cross-cutting themes – communing with nature, organising time, and spending money – we present the normativities these rules call into being for reconfiguring domestic activities such as cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping. In the discussion, we draw out the implications of zero waste living’s emerging, contradictory gender normativities, while recalling the political economy in which it is situated, namely a neoliberal, postfeminist landscape. We identify a continued feminisation of domestic responsibilities that is uncontested in zero waste living but also explore the progressive potential of waste-free living to bring collective, naturecultural worlds into being as part of domestic environmental labour.
... This pilot study aims to explore the conceptual idea that providing point-of-purchase product information could foster sustainable purchases, by arguing that clear explanations about the sustainability of a product will ensure more guidance for consumers to make informed decisions and to act in line with their attitudes. 2 of 17 The ambiguous definition of sustainable consumption and the uncertainty of what it entails from a consumer's perspective could be factors that enlarge the attitude-behavior gap [8]. Assessing sustainable attributes of a product seems hard for consumers, as the benefits of sustainable products are often poorly communicated by governments and companies [7]. ...
Sustainable dietary choices have become increasingly important because of the current environmental threats the world is facing. Nonetheless, consumers find it difficult to assess a product’s sustainability and therefore make better choices. This pilot study tested whether explanatory product information about sustainability increased sustainable purchases in an online supermarket and whether additional health information increased message effectiveness. Perceived consumer effectiveness (i.e., the perception of the degree to which individual actions can contribute to environmental problems) and green skepticism were hypothesized to mediate the effect of message type, and environmental attitudes were included as the moderator. An experiment using a one-factor design was conducted among 101 participants who were assigned to one of three experimental conditions: sustainability claim only, explanatory sustainability claim, and explanatory sustainability and health claim. Analyses showed that an explanatory sustainability claim (regardless of whether this claim was accompanied by a health claim) led to fewer sustainable purchases through perceived consumer effectiveness but only for those with low environmental attitudes. No effects were found for the addition of a health claim. The results from this pilot provide insight for future studies that aim to examine how online supermarkets should communicate to increase sustainable purchases.
... Frugality can be an outcome of self-control to prevent excess expenditures, which lowers the ecological impact of consumption (Evans, 2011). It is a proactive, deliberate, and voluntary choice not exclusively related to financial or economic constraints. ...
Prior research has demonstrated the critical role of values in promoting sustainable consumption behaviors. However, research is needed to identify novel ways to influence these values so that consumers will act on them. The present research demonstrates a practical and underappreciated way to enhance the values that promote sustainable consumption behaviors. Specifically, we demonstrate that mindfulness has a positive relationship with biospheric and altruistic values (but not egoistic values), and that these values mediate the relationship between mindfulness and two distinct forms of sustainable consumption: socially conscious consumption and frugal (i.e., reduced) consumption. We employ a series of three studies with sample populations drawn from different countries, and we use multiple measures for each of our focal constructs to demonstrate the robustness of our findings. Our findings suggest that marketers and policy makers can integrate mindfulness into their promotion and education initiatives as a means to help consumers clarify their values and, thereby, increase levels of sustainable consumption.
... Koskinen et al., 2018: 24;Lehtonen and Pyyhtinen 2020: 198), whereas waste-producing food practices cause shame (Lang and Heesman, 2015: 224). Nonetheless, there are many structural and temporal factors that contest individual efforts to avoid food waste (Evans, 2011(Evans, , 2014Lehtokunnas et al., 2020;Mattila et al., 2019). ...
This study explores how ethical food consumption is framed in the accounts of ordinary people living in affluent societies, with a particular focus on income differences. Research on ethical consumption often associates ‘ethical’ with the consumption of certain predefined products. This study leaves the question of the content of ethical consumption open for empirical investigation. Further, instead of focusing only on the moment of purchasing, this study considers how people with different income levels relate to both food consumption and waste. The analysis draws from qualitative interviews with 60 people living in Canada and Finland. The analysis identified the techniques, subjects and norms through which the question ethical food consumption is posed by the informants and how they framed these issues with regard to income. The findings underline that ethical consumption is a socially constructed, contested and even internally contradictory discourse. Differences in income do not only mean differences in the role that money plays in food choices but also in what kind of consumption people consider worth pursuing. Further, differences in income dictate differences in how people are morally positioned vis-à-vis abundance. For people with a higher level of income, moral blame is asserted on wasteful consumption habits. For the people with a low income, in turn, it is ethically condemnable to refuse to rejoice at the abundance around us. The findings indicate that even in a society where the rhetoric of choice is prominent both as a right and as an obligation by which people ought to display ethical agency, the ethics of choice is tied to the resources available for consumption. People with a severely low income occasionally enjoy the trickling down of abundant treats and surprises. However, for them, occasional indulgence causes not only pleasure but also trouble.
... A punctual definition of the two concepts comes from FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), which considers loss as food's quantity or quality decrease, and waste as the removal of food that fits for consumption or expired from supply chain, due to economic behavior, poor stock management, or neglect (FAO, 2014). More in details, on the one hand food waste is currently considered a worldwide problem, which environmental (UNEP, 2014), economic (Garrone et al., 2014), and social (Evans, 2011) influence calls for new national and international policies (WRAP, 2013(WRAP, , 2017IFPRI, 2016;Searchinger et al., 2019). In this sense, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) underlined that the inefficiencies of food system (waste and loss) annually cost about a trillion dollars per year or two trillion dollars when social and environmental costs are considered . ...
Over the last decades, circular economy and its implications for sustainability have gained momentum in several socio-economic domains (e.g., academia, industry, politics, society), even though the relationship between them remains poorly understood. This situation has blurred the conceptual definition of both terms, limiting their research and practice effectiveness. To counteract this situation, scholars and policymakers are approaching Circular Economy as able to inspire the development of sustainable development strategies and to increase the sustainability of the current economic system, balancing the need for economic development and the importance of protecting environmental resources and people wellbeing. Drawing on the previous considerations, this study aims to contribute to address this gap, better understanding how a circular economy approach can contribute to challenge the number of sustainability issues that currently affect supply chains. In doing so, the analysis has been focused on the investigation of a specific supply chain, the pasta supply chain. To this end, after a brief theoretical recognition, an interpretative model has been proposed for better recognizing and describing the enhancing actions that—at each supply chain’s stages—can improve process efficiency, output effectiveness and, therefore, the overall sector sustainability. However, it is worth noting that the inherently theoretical nature of the study somewhat limits it; therefore, future empirical research is needed to further test the proposed model, applying it to other real applicative sets.
... Błoński and Witek (2019) argue that the emphasis placed by minimalists on prioritising 'quality over quantity' leads to the purchase of more durable items, with longer expiry dates, and consequently avoids 'the purchase and consumption of many disposable products' (10). The minimalist focus on product quality, and subsequent product longevity, durability and reduced disposal, could be viewed as strongly sustainably focused (Khamis, 2019;Evans, 2011). Though it is important to consider the financial restrictions of this consumer approach, as although the well-intended premise of quality over quantity to ensure longevity and reduced consumption has clear sustainability benefits, it must be considered that this may only be available to those with the initial financial capital to invest in higher quality purchases. ...
Minimalism is an increasingly popular lifestyle movement in western economies (predominantly in the USA, Japan and Europe) that involves voluntarily reducing consumption and limiting one’s possessions to a bare minimum. This is with the intention of making space for the ‘important’ (potentially immaterial) things that are seen to add meaning and value to one’s life. Drawing on interviews with minimalists in the UK, this article reveals that minimalists practice sustainable (non)consumption via limiting their consumption. This is achieved by actively buying less, using up and maintaining what is owned, and, when objects are acquired, only practising highly intentional, considered and (sometimes) ethical consumption. For some, such practices are predominantly based on strong ethical and environmental motivations or are seen as a positive ‘by-product’ of their minimalist lifestyles. Whilst for others, their motivations are primarily aligned to personal well-being. The article subsequently argues that the limited and considered practices of minimalist consumption can be seen as sustainable practices in outcome, if not always in intent.
... Stern, Dietz, Abel, Guagnano and Kalof (1999) states about the altruistic values in individuals towards protecting environment and other living beings; in the broader context of sustainable consumption (Evans, 2011); and their views were further supported by Howell (2013), stating that people adopt lower-carbon lifestyle because of pro-social or altruistic values. Thus, it is hypothesised that: ...
The present consumption has far exceeded the earth’s capacity and the global overconsumption trend along with the accompanying
profound sustainability problems have started reflecting in emerging economies too. Extant literature suggests, embracing sustainable consumption could be the surest way to mitigate this detrimental effects. Increasingly, studies propose adopting psychological approaches in boosting sustainable consumption behaviors but only a handful of them have investigated the association between facets of mindfulness and sustainable consumption behaviour. The present study aims at conceptualizing and empirically investigate the relationship between mindfulness and sustainable consumption behaviour and shed light on how dispositional envy and pro-social behaviour mediates this relationship, especially in emerging economy among young consumers.
... They result in a drop in consumers' income, growing unemployment, and rising uncertainty, which force consumers to change priorities in consumption and life. During crises, consumers lower spending and embrace frugal products [46]. At the beginning of crises, consumers increase spending on basic products and cut discretionary spending. ...
The rise of Asian and the stagnation of Western middle classes over the last thirty years have resulted in gradual convergence of income of large parts of the world’s population. Recent global crises—the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic—have led to a decline in income and increase in income uncertainty. Rise in consumption of lower quality goods of shorter durability and an overall decline in demand and economic activity resulted as challenges to the global economy. In this paper, we argue that generational responsibility in consumption can be an environmentally sustainable response to crises which enables the economies to overcome the crisis of confidence and reaffirms community ties. As an element of long-term orientation in consumption, generational responsibility is a cultural phenomenon dependent on solidarity within family and the wider community. It is characterized by consideration of consequences of consumption choices on the environment, and the abundance of savings and the usability of goods to be inherited by future generations. For companies, willing to revisit their traditional business models and incorporate principles of sustainability in their competitive strategies, promotion of generational responsibility can become a new source of competitive advantage and a driver of economic recovery.
Resources are a core concept in debates about socio-ecological transformations and post-growth societies, but as a concept they are rarely problematised. Drawing on a resourcification approach in which resources are understood as outcomes of various social processes, this study analyses how resources are conceptualised and understood in degrowth scholarship. Our study shows that resources are seen in two interlinked ways, first as a critique of the environmental and social costs of current resourcification practices (the becoming of resources), and second as a combination of transformative proposals calling for de-resourcification practices (the unbecoming of resources). By approaching degrowth in terms of a dynamics of resourcification and de-resourcification that we call resource shifting, we contribute to a problematisation of the concept of resource that opens new socio-ecological pathways to post-growth societies.
This paper explores shifting ideas of waste and recycling in narratives on thrift in the UK. Drawing on texts written by 33 respondents who answered two separate Mass Observation Directives on the subject of thrift in 1987 and 2016, it illuminates how waste reduction and avoidance is described by ‘ordinary people’. The ways in which these practices are framed are dependent on the temporal context in which the narrative is set. Two key findings are presented. Firstly, respondents explain motivations for such practices differently, depending on whether their examples relate to what they were exposed to during their upbringing or to their own practices at present. Between these two contexts, the moralisation of thrift through practices of waste reduction and avoidance shifts from a focus on financial hardship towards consciousness/satisfaction, which indicates that current understandings of thrift combine values of ethical consumerism and hedonism. Secondly, responses to the 1987 and 2016 directives differ in terms of how thrift through waste reduction and avoidance of disposable items is accounted for. In 1987 writings, thrift was associated with efforts to find ways to use single-use multiple times, whereas in the 2016 writings, thrift is associated with a firm commitment to household waste recycling through municipal services. This indicates that since the 1980s, material and infrastructural changes have led to a shift of norms in dealing with single-use products and recycling. The findings point towards critical considerations of how moralities of thrift are employed in the context of material culture in the 21st century.
Thrift is a historic virtue which is enjoying a necessary revival in the context of the climate crisis and wider concerns about sustainability. Here, thrift is explored from the perspective of its traditional association with Presbyterianism in Scotland, with the aim of clarifying the concept. A review of the broad history of thrift and its connection with Protestantism is given. This is then supported by empirical data from leaders in Scottish banking gathered in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007/2008, which is shown as a failure of financial stewardship. The significance of thrift is discussed in relation to the views of these banking leaders and its application to contemporary problems of sustainability. Thrift emerges, not as a compulsion to save, but as a virtue which underpins justice.KeywordsThriftProtestantismBankingSustainabilityJustice
Human society is currently facing multipronged grand challenges whose impacts transcend national and regional boundaries. Of these, environmental degradation is an increasingly complex challenge with grave consequences for the social and economic realms of life. It is being increasingly recognised that the existing approaches to solving the environmental crisis are insufficient and piecemeal, and there is a dire need to explore new philosophical paradigms to charter a sustainable development pathway. In consonance with other major religions of the world, Sikhism is increasing taking a “green turn” through re-interpretation of scriptural sources and drawing on elements of Sikh philosophy. The field-based research documents the role of Sikh organisations in promoting ecological consciousness and creating new forms of environmental governance.
The imposition of premium prices is one of the most influential barriers to sustainable food consumption. Yet studies of alternative food networks and sustainable consumption have paid sparse attention to how and why some customers overcome the price barrier. This article addresses this issue, posing the question: How do alternative foods become affordable to the customers purchasing them? The article draws on an extensive qualitative dataset that shows how the participants – suppliers, administrators, and customers – in Swedish REKO-rings, a direct-to-customer food market arrangement, co-construct alternative foods as affordable to customers. The study uses the sociology of markets and valuation studies to analyse how these market participants enable some economic comparisons but disqualify others. The findings suggest that they co-construct a distinct economic practice for their customers, called ‘affordacity’. This practice treats liberal spending on alternative foods as the prudent use of money, while deeming spending on conventional foods as imprudent regardless of their prices. These findings complement existing scholarship on sustainable food consumption and alternative food networks.
Teleology shapes the design of much geographical research through the requirement to identify outcomes. In contrast, the theoretical orientation of geographical research on the everyday promotes a relational and visceral approach to resist the teleological logic of the primacy of outcomes. With this paper, we address this tension between different orientations to the practice of geographical research. Drawing on three case studies of empirical research we propose a grammar for non-teleology to capture the divergence of intentions and outcomes. Giving rise to non-teleological narratives, we suggest, signifies a forward orientation for doing geographical research to unpick the messiness of everyday life.
As awareness grows of the detrimental environmental impacts of the fashion industry, an increasing number of consumers are indicating a willingness to consume more sustainably. Part of sustainable clothing consumption includes extending clothing life through repair of worn or damaged garments. Younger consumers are an important demographic who consume and dispose of the majority of fashion garments. This study examined the influence of environmental awareness, frugality, style longevity and quality consciousness on garment repair by young consumers. A survey was conducted using established scales. Hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model. Environmental awareness, frugality and quality consciousness directly influenced garment repair. However, style longevity did not directly influence repair. Style longevity may indirectly influence repair through quality consciousness, as consumers seeking long-lasting quality clothing are more likely to engage in repair. This study contributes to the emerging literature that seeks to understand the consumers’ behaviours that prolong clothing life.
The purpose of this study is to bridge the gap between sustainable fashion and customer purchase intentions by analysing the current trends and offering techniques to increase sustainable fashion awareness and overcome price consumption issues among Generation Z (Gen Z) consumers. A mixed methods approach was employed in this study consisting of online surveys and focus groups surrounding the topic of sustainable apparel consumption among the Gen Z age group. Focus groups served to lead to an online survey of questions to help better understand the phenomena on an exploratory scale. Three focus groups of eight to ten volunteers each aged 18–25 from a large Midwestern university took part in 60-minute discussions regarding their understanding of fast fashion and their purchase intentions/awareness of ethical issues within the apparel industry. Online surveys were conducted through the online platform Qualtrics consisting of 29 questions with a total of 445 participants ranging from 18 to 23 years old taking part in the online survey. Main themes found in the focus groups are the idea of shopping second hand , laziness among consumers and the quality of garments. Surveys found that this age group was willing to pay up to
25 per cent more for a sustainable apparel item and that uniqueness of the item was of utmost importance. Implications for brands and retailers as well as academics are presented.
Recently food waste has been raised as a major sustainability problem: roughly one third of the food produced globally ends up lost or wasted. In this article, I analyse the ways interested citizens attach meaning to food waste reduction, based on eight qualitative interviews conducted with people attending a consumer education event in Helsinki in 2017. Adopting a discourse studies approach, I ask how the rationale of food waste reduction is constructed in the interviews. I present three discourses in which it is constructed and discuss a discursive change constructed in the data. I interpret the change as reconstituting the traditional cultural norm of not wasting food. It is connected to (hopes for) a wider sustainability transition and a related cultural change.
Household food waste has serious negative consequences for the environment and the society. Food waste results from food provisioning behaviors, however, there is little evidence regarding consumer-related factors that drive such behaviors. The aim was to investigate the antecedents of key food provisioning behaviors related to food waste and of motivation to reduce food waste. A cross-sectional online survey (N = 508) conducted in Denmark showed that excessive buying and discarding foods past the best before date were mainly driven by individual tendencies such as impulsive buying tendency or disgust sensitivity. Consumers’ frugal, environmental and hedonic self-identities were associated with higher motivation to reduce food waste, whereas the first two identities were also associated with lower likelihood of discarding food past the best before date. Consumers’ frugal self-identity and disgust sensitivity were directly associated negatively, respectively positively, with self-reported food waste as well. Excessive buying and motivation to reduce food waste were the most important proximal drivers of self-reported food waste. Implications for public policy are discussed.
Decreasing natural resources and deteriorating environmental conditions have started to encourage consumers to be conscious at some point. The most fundamental factor for consumers to take responsibility in order to correct these negative conditions are undoubtedly products. The fact that these products cause the least harm to the environment, are more sensitive about consuming resources and are recyclable is the change in the product as a "green product". Consumers who have a positive attitude towards green products are more sensitive to recycling. For this purpose, the effect of green product attitude of consumers on green purchasing intention, recycling and lean consumption behaviors was investigated in this study. In line with the purpose, data were collected from consumers residing in Ankara between May 2020 and December 2020 using a survey method. 572 consumers participated in the study. As a result of the structural equation model analysis used in the analysis of the scales, it was determined that the green product attitude positively affected the green purchase intention, recycling and lean consumption. Supporting the H1, H2 and H3 hypotheses examined in the study, the analysis results of other studies were compared and it was observed that the results were parallel.
The present consumption has far exceeded the earth’s capacity and it is being said that we are moving further and faster away from sustainability agenda. Extant literature suggests, embracing sustainable consumption (consuming products and services with minimal negative impact on the environment, and positive impact on societal wellbeing) could be the surest way to mitigate this detrimental effects. Increasingly studies propose adopting psychological approaches in boosting sustainable consumption behaviors but only a handful of them have investigated the association between facets of mindfulness and sustainable consumption behaviour. Based on extant literatures, the present study aims at conceptualizing and empirically investigate the relationship between mindfulness and sustainable consumption behaviour and shed light on how dispositional envy and pro-social behaviour mediates this relationship, especially in young Indian millennials.
The increasing growth of consumption indicates that communicating the need to transition towards more sustainable lifestyles has so far been ineffective. Therefore, it is necessary to reorient communication efforts in ways that allow to more effectively create, identify, validate, and share conditions to enable all societal actors to shift towards sustainable consumption patterns. The conditions to do so pertain to power relationships, ethics, culture, infrastructure and economics; all connected by the inherent notion of wellbeing, fulfillment of human needs, and sufficiency. This chapter discusses the particular challenges and potentials of communicating sustainable consumption. It is based on an extensive scoping process by an international working group (part of the Future Earth Knowledge Action Network – Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production) that aimed at summarizing the current state of research on communicating sustainable consumption and the development of an agenda for future research and practice in this field. This chapter presents some of the key insights from this work.
Some months ago, in preparation for compil-ing the next three geography and ethicsreports, I registered with one of the commonelectronic database services to receive thetitles of journal articles focused on ethics.There are two things that I found noteworthyabout this exercise. The first is the sheer vol-ume of contemporary work on ethics – by myrather unscientific reckoning, something ofthe order of 1500 articles dealing with ethicsare published in academic journals each year.The second is the presumed audience formuch of this work. It seems that the vastmajority of recent ethical writings are aimednot at the readers of social science journalslike this one, but rather at the mundane worldof institutions, organizations and public policy.In recent months, articles have addressed theethical dimensions of a wide range of socialand organizational practices, from auditing tozoo keeping. Ethics are being discussed bybankruptcy lawyers, money managers, judgesand dentists, and applied to our sportingevents, our militaries, and even our spaceagencies. Ethical conversations, it seems, aretaking place at a multitude of sites across thesocial domain.This state of affairs should probably beapplauded. But it does not necessarily ensurethat our social institutions function ethicallyor responsibly, or even that we can easilydetermine what that might mean. At issuehere is a common challenge of ethical think-ing: how do we bring normative demands tobear upon the social world of order, rules, andpublic policy? One well-known theorist whograppled with this challenge is EmmanuelLevinas, who often admitted that his concep-tion of ethics, based as it was on a one-to-onerelation with the singular Other, was ratherdifficult to translate into a social world ofcitizen-subjects:
This paper provides a critique of the concept of the throwaway society. Drawing on two years of intensive qualitative research, we argue that the concept of the throwaway society does not bear scrutiny. Rather than throwing things away, households are shown consistently to engage in simultaneous practices of saving and wasting when getting rid of consumer objects. Saving and wasting are shown to be critical to materialising identities and the key social relations of family and home. Focusing on self, the couple relation, and the mother-child relation, we show how wasting things is intimately connected to the narration of self and to the enactment of specific love relations. The paper also shows how wasting things is central to moving home, constituting a surplus and then an excess of household possessions. The paper concludes by arguing that to understand the increasing amount of matter being turned to waste in the UK requires a focus on love relations and mobility, and not on the trajectories of things themselves.
This paper addresses the close relationship between moral discourse and the practices of consumption. I suggest that moralizing about consumption is itself a phenomenon worthy of study. Further, there are a number of reasons why consumption itself inevitably raises moral issues in every culture. Finally, given urgent environmental problems, we should not seek to separate discussions of consumption from fundamental problems of justice and the common good.
This article extends social psychological research on the motivations for sustainable consumption from the predominant domain of ecologically conscious consumer behaviour to socially conscious and frugal consumer behaviours. A UK-based survey study examines relationships between socially conscious and frugal consumer behaviours and Schwartz's value types, personal and socio-political materialism, and demographics among the general public. Socially conscious consumer behaviour, like its ecological counterpart, appears to be an expression of pro-social values. In contrast, frugal consumer behaviour relates primarily to low personal materialism and income constraints. As such, it does not yet represent a fully developed moral challenge to consumerism.
Sustainable consumption is unlikely to be achieved as long as the quantity of household waste generated in industrial nations continues to rise. One factor underlying this trend is the life span of household goods. This article contributes to recent advances in life-cycle thinking by highlighting the significance of product life spans for sustainable consumption and exploring the current state of research. A theoretical model is developed to demonstrate how, by contributing to efficiency and sufficiency, longer product life spans may secure progress toward sustainable consumption. Empirical research undertaken in the United Kingdom on consumer attitudes and behavior relating to the life spans of household products is reviewed and factors that influence the market for longer-lasting products are discussed. A need is identified for further research on product life spans and some themes are proposed.
The last decade has seen a vibrant debate about the moralities of trade and the possibility of reconnecting consumers and producers in an age of globalisation. Fair trade, in particular, has attracted attention as the source of a new international moral economy. In this paper, I seek to widen the frame of discussion, bringing history, geography, and ethics into closer conversation. Looking beyond a conventional progressive narrative, I retrieve the ambivalent moralities of trade and consumption in the modem period. I highlight the role of empire shopping movements as well as of popular free trade and international distributive justice, putting imperialist consumers as well as liberals back into the picture. I offer a critique of a sequential view of traditional 'moral economy' being replaced by a modern demoralised 'political economy' which underlies current notions of 'remoralising' trade. Modem commerce has generated and been shaped by diverse moralities of consumption. Greater attention to the diverse social and ideological lineages of phenomena like fair trade will be useful to scholars reflecting on caring at a distance today.
‘Antique’, ‘vintage’, ‘previously owned’, ‘gently used’, ‘cast-off – the world of second hand encompasses as many attitudes as there are names for it. The popular perception is that second- hand shops are largely full of junk, yet the rise of vintage fashion and the increasing desire for consumer individuality show that second hand shopping is also very much about style. Drawing on six years of original research, Second-Hand Cultures explores what happens when the often contradictory motivations behind style and survival strategies are brought together. What does second hand buying and selling tell us about the state of contemporary consumption? How do items that begin life as new get recycled and reclaimed? How do second hand goods challenge the future of retail consumption and what do the unique shopping environments in which they are found tell us about the social relations of exchange? Answering these questions and many more, this book fills a major gap in consumption studies. Gregson and Crewe argue that second hand cultures are critical to any understanding of how consumption is actually practised. Following the life stories of goods as they travel into and through second hand sites, the authors look at the work of traders as well as consumers investments in second hand merchandise including gifting and collecting as well as rituals of personalization and possession. Through its revealing investigation into the practices and customs that make up these unconventional retail worlds, this much-needed study carefully unpacks the persuasive allure of the previously owned.
Citizenship and consumption have frequently been regarded as oppositional and even mutually exclusive domains of activity and theory. Recent consumption practices and discourses — although they raise many complex issues both empirically and theoretically — have begun to revise this perception. This article offers reasons for enlarging the framework of thinking about the contemporary `civic' or `republican' aspects of consumption in order to include considerations that have been little registered even in the argument of those whose special interest is in the environmentally concerned citizen or `ethical' consumer. It argues for the need to recognize the extent to which moral concerns may now be coinciding with more self-interested forms of disaffection with `consumerist' consumption, and revisions in thinking on the part of affluent consumers themselves about the `good life' and what conduces to human flourishing and personal fulfilment. Theorized under the concept of `alternative hedonism', attention is paid to the ways in which affluent consumption is both compromised by its negative effects (including congestion, pollution, overwork, stress) and pre-emptive of other possible pleasures and satisfactions. This theoretical approach is presented as distinctive in allowing for a consumer whose privately experienced and self-interested needs may come to encompass public goods and the gratifications of a more socially accountable consumption. The article advances a case for viewing the `alternative hedonist' reaction to consumerism as further adding to the ways in which consumption may be said today to be acquiring a `republican' dimension and emerging as a site of citizenship, and thereby of pressure for a sustainable consumption.
This article considers the potential of a revival of interest in theories of practice for the study of consumption. It presents an abridged account of the basic precepts of a theory of practice and extracts some broad principles for its application to the analysis of final consumption. The basic assumption is that consumption occurs as items are appropriated in the course of engaging in particular practices and that being a competent practitioner requires appropriation of the requisite services, possession of appropriate tools, and devotion of a suitable level of attention to the conduct of the practice. Such a view stresses the routine, collective and conventional nature of much consumption but also emphasizes that practices are internally differentiated and dynamic. Distinctive features of the account include its understanding of the way wants emanate from practices, of the processes whereby practices emerge, develop and change, of the consequences of extensive personal involvements in many practices, and of the manner of recruitment to practices. The article concludes with discussion of some theoretical, substantive and methodological implications.
Is more economic growth the solution? Will it deliver prosperity and well-being for a global population projected to reach nine billion? In this explosive book, Tim Jackson a top sustainability adviser to the UK government makes a compelling case against continued economic growth in developed nations. No one denies that development is essential for poorer nations. But in the advanced economies there is mounting evidence that ever-increasing consumption adds little to human happiness and may even impede it. More urgently, it is now clear that the ecosystems that sustain our economies are collapsing under the impacts of rising consumption. Unless we can radically lower the environmental impact of economic activity and there is no evidence to suggest that we can we will have to devise a path to prosperity that does not rely on continued growth. Economic heresy? Or an opportunity to improve the sources of well-being, creativity and lasting prosperity that lie outside the realm of the market? Tim Jackson provides a credible vision of how human society can flourish within the ecological limits of a finite planet. Fulfilling this vision is simply the most urgent task of our times. This book is a substantially revised and updated version of Jackson's controversial study for the Sustainable Development Commission, an advisory body to the UK Government. The study rapidly became the most downloaded report in the Commission's nine year history when it was launched earlier this year. In 2017, PWG was published in a second, substantially revised and re-written edition that updates the arguments and considerably expands upon them. https://www.cusp.ac.uk/pwg/
This article examines and extends the notion of voluntary simplifiers (VS). VS are individuals who have freely chosen a frugal, anticonsumer lifestyle that features low resource use and environmental impact. The article will begin by reviewing empirical work with VS and their mainstream counterparts, non-voluntary simplifiers (NVS). It will go on to identify and locate within this literature an intermediate group: beginner voluntary simplifiers (BVS). BVS may support some aspects of sustainability (such as buying fair-trade coffee or recycling domestic waste) without either embracing a complete lifestyle change like VS, or completely dismissing ethical or environ-mental features of products and services they consume, like NVS. Insight into the complex decision-making processes of BVS is crucial for the understanding of the concept of voluntary simplification and is therefore important for the advancement of sustainable consumption. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Discourses of ‘sustainable lifestyles’ and ‘lifestyle change’ are becoming ubiquitous in media, comment and environmental policy, but there is ambiguity about what this means and entails. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork exploring ‘sustainable lifestyles’ from the perspective of persons who identify themselves as living, or attempting to live, in more sustainable and/or environmentally friendly ways, the tensions, constraints, rewards and opportunities detailed in respondents’ narratives are described. ‘Sustainable lifestyles’ are far more complex than the rhetoric would suggest. They need to be understood in relation to wider social and cultural processes. ‘Structural changes’ to enable ‘lifestyle choices’ that are conducive to sustainability are needed, but it is important to look beyond ‘sustainability’ (however defined) and appeal to other agendas and identities in order to motivate pro-environmental behaviour.
This paper uses the concept of ‘moral economy’ to challenge the conventional view that defines morality and the market as oppositional terms. Drawing on evidence from life history interviews with key actors in the British food industry, the paper outlines how moral and ethical questions are articulated through notions of space and time.
Using case study material from the chicken and sugar industries, the paper examines the way that ethical and moral issues are expressed through the dimensions of time
(via notions of remembering and forgetting) and space (via notions of connecting and disconnecting) and via notions of visibility and invisibility. The paper concludes by
examining how our understanding of the moral economies of food can be advanced through the adoption of a relational view of geographical scale and temporal connection,
contrasting the attribution of individual blame with a politics of collective responsibility.
This paper uses evidence from focus groups in England to consider how consumers think about and, more importantly, distinguish foods by both primary and secondary qualities, using both their own judgement but also advice produced by various organisations acting as ‘knowledge intermediaries’, such as independent certification bodies. We thus consider the ‘sorting out’ that consumers do with food, particularly in developing typologies of ‘goodness’ and ‘badness’, and the cues on which they base these judgements, from the material immediacy of ‘mucky carrots’ to the abstract remoteness of organic certification. In particular, we problematise the ‘knowledge-fix’ that underlies attempts to provide knowledge to promote more sustainable and ethical consumption. This raises problems of how consumers give assurance schemes meaning, how ethical and sustainable schemes are subject to re-fetishization and how consumers tend towards increasing scepticism and distrust of such claims, thus making a ‘politics of reconnection’ far from easy.
The ecological unsustainability of current consumption patterns is now well documented. One aspect of this problem which has not been sufficiently addressed is the growth of “excess consumption” driven by falling goods prices. The index of department store prices have fallen substantially since the early 1990s, in large part because global capital mobility and excess global labor supply has allowed firms to depress wages and avoid paying environmental costs. Consumers have responded by purchasing increasing numbers of these artificially cheap goods. The example of apparel is discussed in some detail, and data from other goods categories are presented. These trends suggest that achieving sustainable consumption in the US is not only a technical issue but will also involve fundamental changes in the global political economy to eliminate the artificially low prices of imported goods.
One alleged weapon against unsustainable environmental impact is for the wealthy to consume less. This sufficiency strategy is to complement the efficiency strategy of lowering ratios of resource inputs to economic outputs; the former would reduce the affluence factor in I = PAT, the latter the technology factor. That the latter strategy suffers from a consumption rebound is widely recognized. This paper identifies a similar rebound when the affluence factor is autonomously lowered: The lower initial demand lowers prices, which in turn stimulates new demand by others. The strategy moreover addresses only the rich, raising questions of its theoretical maximum efficacy. Its proponents usually conflate frugality with the North–South dichotomy and intragenerational with intergenerational equity. Moreover, there are difficulties with the supporting arguments that frugality is good for one’s own sake as well as for the environment, and that the rich should ‘lead the way’ to living more lightly. Personal behaviour change is furthermore not a substitute for international political efforts. Finally, since all changes in right-side factors of the I = PAT equation change other right-side factors, such indirect attacks on impact should be abandoned in favor of supply and emissions quotas.
This paper examines the nature of environmental action in and around the home. Given the rise of local sustainable development and the emphasis placed on individual actions for sustainability, the paper examines the role of citizens in adopting sustainable lifestyles, incorporating a range of behavioural responses from energy saving and water conservation, to waste recycling and green consumption. Focussing on the debate in geography concerning the engagement of the public in environmental action, the paper argues that despite the assertions of those who advocate a deliberative approach to engagement (see [Owens, S., 2000. Engaging the public: information and deliberation in environmental policy. Environment and Planning A 32, 1141–1148]), an approach based on a social–psychological understanding of behaviour can have significant benefits. Such an approach is being developed by geographers in a range of settings and in this paper these developments are situated within the context of existing research that has identified environmental ‘activists’ in terms of their values, attitudes and demographic composition. The paper aims to examine environmental behaviour in relation to two key issues: (1) the way in which environmental action is framed in everyday practices (such as consumption behaviour) and (2) how these practices are reflected amongst different segments of the population to form lifestyle groups. The paper provides new insights for examining sustainable lifestyles that further our appreciation of how actions to help the environment are lived in everyday practices and framed by different lifestyle groups. Accordingly, the paper offers both academics and policy makers new insights into the potential use of focussing on lifestyle groups as a means for changing behaviour.
In this short and deliberately provocative paper I reflect on what seems to be a yawning gulf between the potential contribution of the social sciences and the typically restricted models and concepts of social change embedded in contemporary environmental policy in the UK, and in other countries too. As well as making a strong case for going beyond what I refer to as the dominant paradigm of ‘ABC’—attitude, behaviour, and choice—I discuss the attractions of this model, the blind spots it creates, and the forms of governance it sustains. This exercise provides some insight into why so much relevant social theory remains so marginalised, and helps identify opportunities for making better use of existing intellectual resources.
Geography’s debates about how to maintain a sense of morally responsible action often emphasise the problematic nature of caring at a distance, and take for granted particular kinds of moral selfhood in which responsibility is bound into notions of human agency that emphasise knowledge and recognition. Taking commodity consumption as a field in which the ethics, morality, and politics of responsibility has been problematised, we argue that existing research on consumption fails to register the full complexity of the practices, motivations and mechanisms through which the working-up of moral selves is undertaken in relation to consumption practices. Rather than assuming that ethical decision-making works through the rational calculation of obligations, we conceptualise the emergence of ethical consumption as ways in which everyday practical moral dispositions are re-articulated by policies, campaigns and practices that enlist ordinary people into broader projects of social change. Ethical consumption, then, involves both a governing of consumption and a governing of the consuming self. Using the example of Traidcraft, we present a detailed examination of one particular context in which self-consciously ethical consumption is mediated, suggesting that ethical consumption can be understood as opening up ethical and political considerations in new combinations. We therefore argue for the importance of the growth of ethical consumption as a new terrain of political action, while also emphasising the grounds upon which ethical consumption can be opened up to normative critique.
Shopping is generally considered to be a pleasurable activity. But in reality it can often be complicated and frustrating. Daniel Miller explores the many contradictions faced by shoppers on a typical street in London, and in the process offers a sophisticated examination of the way we shop, and what it reveals about our relationships to our families and communities, as well as to the environment and the economy as a whole. Miller's companions are mostly women who confront these contradictions as they shop. They placate their children with items that combine nutrition with taste or usefulness with style. They decide between shopping at the local store or at the impersonal, but less expensive, mall. They tell of their sympathy for environmental concerns but somehow avoid much ethical shopping. They are faced with a selection of shops whose shifts and mergers often reveal extraordinary stories of their own. Filled with entertainingâand thoroughly familiarâstories of shoppers and shops, this book will interest scholars across a broad range of disciplines.
Who has not known a tightwad? Yet this pervasive consumer trait--being frugal--has been ignored in the scholarly consumer behavior literature. This research articulates the nature of this overlooked consumer trait and then develops, evaluates, and empirically applies a multi-item scale of frugality. The results from a six-study program of empirical research are reported. These studies describe (1) the psychometric properties of a frugality measure, (2) demonstrations of how frugality assists the empirical study of consumer usage and acquisition behaviors, and (3) frugality scale norms from a probability sample of the general adult population. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.
The Consumer Society. Myths and Structures Society Under Siege The global challenge of sustainable consumption
- J Baudrillard
- Cambridge
- Z Bauman
Baudrillard, J., 1970. The Consumer Society. Myths and Structures. Polity Press, Cambridge. Bauman, Z., 2002. Society Under Siege. Polity Pres, Cambridge. Bond, S., 2005. The global challenge of sustainable consumption. Consumer Policy Review 15 (2), 38–44.
Un)sustainable consumption Negotiating Environmental Change: New Perspectives from Social Science
- J Burgess
- T Bedford
- K Hobson
- G Davies
- C M Harrison
Burgess, J., Bedford, T., Hobson, K., Davies, G., Harrison, C.M., 2003. (Un)sustainable consumption. In: Berkhout, F., Leach, M., Scoones, I. (Eds.), Negotiating Environmental Change: New Perspectives from Social Science, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Conspicuous consumption and hidden impacts. Paper Presented at the University of Surrey
- R Clift
Clift, R., 2008. Conspicuous consumption and hidden impacts. Paper Presented at the University of Surrey. <http://www.surrey.ac.uk/errg/PDFs/ PowerPoint_Clift.pdf>.
Exploring Sustainable Consumption: Environmental Policy and the Social Sciences Slower consumption: reflections on product life spans and the 'throwaway society
- M Cohen
- J Murphy
Cohen, M., Murphy, J. (Eds.), 2001. Exploring Sustainable Consumption: Environmental Policy and the Social Sciences. Elsevier, Oxford. Cooper, T., 2005. Slower consumption: reflections on product life spans and the 'throwaway society'. Journal of Industrial Ecology 9 (1), 51–67.
Consumer Culture and Postmodernism
- M Featherstone
- Sage
- London
- J K Galbraith
Featherstone, M., 1991. Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. Sage, London. Galbraith, J.K., 1958. The Affluent Society. Hamish Hamilton, London.
Sucking eggs: what your wartime granny could teach you about diet. Thrift and Going Green Organisation for Economic Co-operative and Development, 2002. Towards Sustainable Household Consumption? Trends and Policies in OECD Countries
- P Nicol
Nicol, P., 2009. Sucking eggs: what your wartime granny could teach you about diet. Thrift and Going Green. Chatto & Windus, London. Organisation for Economic Co-operative and Development, 2002. Towards Sustainable Household Consumption? Trends and Policies in OECD Countries. OECD, Paris.
The Great Transformation Geography and ethics: everyday mediations through care and consumption
- K Polanyi
Polanyi, K., 1944. The Great Transformation. Beacon Press, Boston. Popke, J., 2006. Geography and ethics: everyday mediations through care and consumption. Progress in Human Geography 30 (4), 504–512.
After affluence: consumerism in historical perspective. Paper Given at the University of Manchester as part of the Sustainable Consumption Institute's Public Lecture Series
- F Trentmann
Trentmann, F., 2009 After affluence: consumerism in historical perspective. Paper Given at the University of Manchester as part of the Sustainable Consumption Institute's Public Lecture Series. UNDP, 1998. Human Development Report. OUP, Oxford.