Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology Volume 2
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I Methods
- Part II Embodied Environmental Sociology
- Part III Beyond the Human
- Part IV Sustainability and Climate Change
- 12 Possibilities and Politics in Imagining Degrowth
- 13 Sustainable Consumption
- 14 Sustainability Cultures: Exploring the Relationships Between Cultural Attributes and Sustainability Outcomes
- 15 Socio-Ecological Sustainability and New Forms of Governance: Community Forestry and Citizen Involvement with Trees, Woods, and Forests
- 16 Carbon Markets and International Environmental Governance
- 17 The Multi-Level Governance Challenge of Climate Change in Brazil
- Part V Resources
- Part VI Food and Agriculture
- Part VII Social Movements
- Index
- References
13 - Sustainable Consumption
from Part IV - Sustainability and Climate Change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2020
Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology Volume 2
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I Methods
- Part II Embodied Environmental Sociology
- Part III Beyond the Human
- Part IV Sustainability and Climate Change
- 12 Possibilities and Politics in Imagining Degrowth
- 13 Sustainable Consumption
- 14 Sustainability Cultures: Exploring the Relationships Between Cultural Attributes and Sustainability Outcomes
- 15 Socio-Ecological Sustainability and New Forms of Governance: Community Forestry and Citizen Involvement with Trees, Woods, and Forests
- 16 Carbon Markets and International Environmental Governance
- 17 The Multi-Level Governance Challenge of Climate Change in Brazil
- Part V Resources
- Part VI Food and Agriculture
- Part VII Social Movements
- Index
- References
Summary
In this chapter I summarize sociological literature on sustainable consumption. This review showcases, in public discourse, the prominence of consumer-focussed solutions and, in academic research, the predominance of relatively individualistic theories of engagement in sustainable consumption practices. Regarding public discourse, I note that despite compelling evidence that environmental issues from climate change to biodiversity loss are shaped by cultural and institutional dynamics like norms, state policy, and urban design, individual consumption choices are subject to much scrutiny in the public sphere. Regarding academic research, I suggest that social practice theories offer a valuable alternative to understand individual motivations in the context of broader social structures. Relatedly, I outline two related problems with mainstream, contemporary sustainable consumption. The material problem is that individual sustainable consumption activities like buying a hybrid car are largely unrelated to individuals’ environmental impact. This is closely tied to the second, symbolic, challenge—like any social practice, sustainable consumption is built upon class, gender, and race inequality. Inattention to these axioms of inequality constitutes a threat to the pursuit of a just sustainability. The chapter concludes with a discussion of future research directions on sustainable consumption, a rich and timely area of environmental sociological scholarship.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 221 - 235Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020
References
Alkon, A. H. (2012). Black, White, and Green: Farmers’ Markets, Race, and the Green Economy. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Agyeman, J., and Evans, B. (2004). “Just sustainability”: The emerging discourse of environmental justice in Britain? The Geographical Journal, 170(2), 155–164.Google Scholar
Aiken, G. T., Middlemiss, L., Sallu, S. and Hauxwell-Baldwin, R. (2017) Researching climate change and community in neoliberal contexts: An emerging critical approach. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 8(4), e463.Google Scholar
Anantharaman, M. (2017). Elite and ethical: The defensive distinctions of middle-class bicycling in Bangalore, India. Journal of Consumer Culture, 17(3), 864–886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnard, A. V. (2016). Freegans: Diving into The Wealth of Food Waste in America. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Baudrillard, J. (2016). The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Bennett, E. A., Cordner, A., Klein, P. T., Savell, S., and Baiocchi, G. (2013). Disavowing politics: Civic engagement in an era of political skepticism. American Journal of Sociology, 119(2), 518–548.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Oxon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cairns, K., Johnston, J., and MacKendrick, N. (2013). Feeding the “organic child”: Mothering through ethical consumption. Journal of Consumer Culture, 13(2), 97–118.Google Scholar
Carfagna, L. B., Dubois, E. A., Fitzmaurice, C. et al. (2014). An emerging eco-habitus: the reconfiguration of high cultural capital practices among ethical consumers. Journal of Consumer Culture, 14(2), 158–178.Google Scholar
Carolan, M. S. (2004). Ecological modernization theory: What about consumption? Society and Natural Resources, 17(3), 247–260.Google Scholar
Carolan, M. (2015). Affective sustainable landscapes and care ecologies: Getting a real feel for alternative food communities. Sustainability Science, 10(2), 317–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, C. F., Kotchen, M. J., and Moore, M. R. (2003). Internal and external influences on pro-environmental behavior: Participation in a green electricity program. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 23(3), 237–246.Google Scholar
Cohen, M. J., Brown, H. S., and Vergragt, P. (eds.). (2013). Innovations in Sustainable Consumption: New Economics, Socio-Technical Transitions and Social Practices. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Csutora, M. (2012). One more awareness gap? The behaviour–impact gap problem. Journal of Consumer Policy, 35(1), 145–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, R. B. (2016). Ethical markets in the artisan economy: Portland DIY. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 40(2), 235–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, H. E. (1990). Toward some operational principles of sustainable development. Ecological Economics, 2(1), 1–6.Google Scholar
Earth Overshoot Day. (2018) Retrieved from www.overshootday.org/. Accessed on July 9, 2018.Google Scholar
Elliott, R. (2013). The taste for green: The possibilities and dynamics of status differentiation through “green” consumption. Poetics, 41(3), 294–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, M. (1988). Technologies of The Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Freudenburg, W. R. (2006). Environmental degradation, disproportionality, and the double diversion: Reaching out, reaching ahead, and reaching beyond. Rural Sociology, 71(1), 3–32.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Y., and Lang, T. (2015). The Unmanageable Consumer (20th Anniversary edition). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Geiger, S. M., Fischer, D., and Schrader, U. (2017). Measuring what matters in sustainable consumption: An integrative framework for the selection of relevant behaviors. Sustainable Development, 26(1), 18–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M, Gaffney, O, et al. (2013). Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature, 495(7441), 305.Google Scholar
Gould, K. A., Pellow, D. N., and Schnaiberg, A. (2004). Interrogating the treadmill of production: Everything you wanted to know about the treadmill but were afraid to ask. Organization and Environment, 17(3), 296–316.Google Scholar
Halkier, B. (2009). A practice theoretical perspective on everyday dealings with environmental challenges of food consumption. Anthropology of Food, (S5) http://aof.revues.org/index6405.html, accessed July 9, 2018.Google Scholar
Hawken, P., Lovins, A. B., and Lovins, L. H. (2013). Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hertwich, E. G. (2005). Life cycle approaches to sustainable consumption: A critical review. Environmental Science and Technology, 39(13), 4673–4684.Google Scholar
Huddart Kennedy, E., Parkins, J. R., & Johnston, J. (2016). Food activists, consumer strategies, and the democratic imagination: Insights from eat-local movements. Journal of Consumer Culture, 18(1), 149–168.Google Scholar
Jackson, T. (2005). Motivating sustainable consumption: A review of evidence on consumer behaviour and behavioural change. A report to the Sustainable Development Research Network. Centre for Environmental Strategies, University of Surrey.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. (2008). The citizen-consumer hybrid: Ideological tensions and the case of Whole Foods Market. Theory and Society, 37(3), 229–270.Google Scholar
Johnston, J., and Cairns, K. (2013). Searching for the “alternative,” caring, reflexive consumer. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 20(3), 403–408.Google Scholar
Kennedy, E. H. (2011). Rethinking ecological citizenship: The role of neighbourhood networks in cultural change. Environmental Politics, 20(6), 843–860.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, E. H., Krahn, H., and Krogman, N. T. (2014). Egregious emitters: Disproportionality in household carbon footprints. Environment and Behavior, 46(5), 535–555.Google Scholar
Kennedy, E. H., Krahn, H., and Krogman, N. T. (2015). Are we counting what counts? A closer look at environmental concern, pro-environmental behaviour, and carbon footprint. Local Environment, 20(2), 220–236.Google Scholar
Kennedy, E. H., Cohen, M. J., & Krogman, N. (eds.). (2016a). Putting Sustainability into Practice: Applications and Advances in Research on Sustainable Consumption. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Kennedy, E. H., Cohen, M. J., & Krogman, N. T. (2016b). Social practice theories and research on sustainable consumption. In Putting Sustainability into Practice: Applications and Advances in Research on Sustainable Consumption (3–22). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Kennedy, E. H., Johnston, J., and Parkins, J. R.. (2017). Small‐p politics: How pleasurable, convivial and pragmatic political ideals influence engagement in eat‐local initiatives. The British Journal of Sociology. DOI:0.1111/1468-4446.12298. [Epub ahead of print].Google Scholar
Kennedy, E. H. and Kmec, J. A.. 2018. (2018). Reinterpreting the gender gap in household pro-environmental behaviour. Environmental Sociology, 4(3), 299–310.Google Scholar
Kia. (2017). Hero’s Journey. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/melissa-mccarthy-kia-s-super-bowl-ad/307782/.Google Scholar
Kollmuss, A., and Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? Environmental Education Research, 8(3), 239–260.Google Scholar
Lamont, M., Silva, G. M., Welburn, J. et al. (2016b). Getting Respect: Responding to Stigma and Discrimination in The United States, Brazil, and Israel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lamont, M. (1992). Money, Morals, And Manners: The Culture of The French and the American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Y., Qu, Y, Lei, Z, and Jia, H. (2017). Understanding the evolution of sustainable consumption research. Sustainable Development, 25(5), 414–430.Google Scholar
Lorenzen, J. A. (2012). Going green: The process of lifestyle change. Sociological Forum 27(1), 94–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maniates, M. F. (2001). Individualization: Plant a tree, buy a bike, save the world? Global Environmental Politics, 1(3), 31–52.Google Scholar
Middlemiss, L. (2014). Individualised or participatory? Exploring late-modern identity and sustainable development. Environmental politics, 23(6), 929–946.Google Scholar
Mol, A. P., and Spaargaren, G. (2004). Ecological modernization and consumption: A reply. Society and Natural Resources, 17(3), 261–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norgaard, K. M., Reed, R., and Van Horn, C. (2011). A continuing legacy: Institutional racism, hunger, and nutritional justice on the Klamath. In Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability, eds. Alkon, A. H. and Agyeman, J. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 23–45.Google Scholar
Perrin, A. J. (2009). Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Reisch, L. A., Cohen, M. J., Thøgersen, J. B., and Tukker, A. (2016). Frontiers in sustainable consumption research. GAIA-Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 25(4), 234–240.Google Scholar
Ritzer, G., & Jurgenson, N. (2010). Production, consumption, prosumption: The nature of capitalism in the age of the digital “prosumer.” Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(1), 13–36.Google Scholar
Rockström, J., Steffen, W, Noone, K, Persson, Å, Chapin, F. S. et al. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature 461(7263): 472–475. doi:10.1038/461472a.Google Scholar
Rose, N. (2000). Community, citizenship, and the third way. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(9), 1395–1411.Google Scholar
Sanne, C. (2002). Willing consumers – or locked-in? Policies for a sustainable consumption. Ecological Economics, 42(1), 273–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelly, C. (2017). Dwelling in Resistance: Living with Alternative Technologies in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Schor, J. (2008). The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Shove, E. (2010). Beyond the ABC: Climate change policy and theories of social change. Environment and Planning A, 42(6), 1273–1285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shove, E., and Warde, A. (2002). Inconspicuous consumption: The sociology of consumption, lifestyles and the environment. In Dunlap, R. E., Buttel, F. H., Dickens, P, and Gijswijt, A (eds.) Sociological Theory and The Environment: Classical Foundations, Contemporary Insights (230–251). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
Soneryd, L., and Uggla, Y. (2015). Green governmentality and responsibilization: New forms of governance and responses to “consumer responsibility.” Environmental Politics, 24(6), 913–931.Google Scholar
Soper, K. (2004). Rethinking the “good life”: The consumer as citizen. Capitalism Nature Socialism, 15(3), 111–116.Google Scholar
Southerton, D., Warde, A., and Hand, M. (2004). The limited autonomy of the consumer: Implications for sustainable consumption. Sustainable Consumption: The Implications of Changing Infrastructures of Provision, 32–48. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Steffan, W., Richardson, K., Röckström, J. et al. Planetary boundaries: Guiding development on a changing planet. Science, 347 (6223) DOI:10.1126/science.1259855.Google Scholar
Stern, P.C., Dietz, T., Abel, T.D., Guagnano, G.A. and Kalof, L. (1999). A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism. Human Ecology Review, 6(2), 81–97.Google Scholar
Stolle, D., and Micheletti, M. (2013). Political Consumerism: Global Responsibility in Action. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swidler, A. (1986). Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review, 51, 273–286.Google Scholar
Szasz, A. (2007). Shopping Our Way to Safety: How We Changed from Protecting the Environment to Protecting Ourselves. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Vergragt, P., Akenji, L., and Dewick, P. (2014). Sustainable production, consumption, and livelihoods: global and regional research perspectives. Journal of Cleaner Production, 63, 1–12.Google Scholar
Warde, A. (2017). Sustainable Consumption: Practices, Habits and Politics. In Consumption (181–204). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.Google Scholar
Warde, A. (2005). Consumption and theories of practice. Journal of Consumer Culture, 5(2), 131–153.Google Scholar
Wiidegren, Ö. (1998). The new environmental paradigm and personal norms. Environment and Behavior, 30(1), 75–100.Google Scholar
- 4
- Cited by