Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T02:40:15.534Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - The Higher Monkey Climb

Shame as a Tool in Seeking a Sustainable World

from Part IV - Bending the Curve

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

By
Richard Wilk
Edited by
Paul Roscoe  and
Cindy Isenhour
Paul Roscoe
Affiliation:
University of Maine
Cindy Isenhour
Affiliation:
University of Maine
Get access

Summary

Rich countries and their elites emit most of the greenhouse gases responsible for global climate change. Why should the poor and middle classes cut their emissions while privileged elites continue their irresponsible behavior toward the common good? This chapter draws on economic anthropology and treats the atmosphere as common property, suggesting some ways of controlling the free riding of the super wealthy.

Keywords

Climate changecommonsconsumptionelitesinequalityshaming
Type
Chapter
Information
Consumption, Status, and Sustainability
Ecological and Anthropological Perspectives
 , pp. 249 - 271
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrahams, Roger 1983 The Man-of-Words in the West Indies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Acheson, James 1988 The Lobster Gangs of Maine. Hannover, NH: The New England University Press.Google Scholar
Amatulli, C., Costabile, C., and Guido, G. 2017 Sustainable Luxury Brands: Evidence from Research and Implications for Managers. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Annis, Sheldon 1987 God and Production in a Guatemalan Town. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Athwal, Navdeep, Wells, Victoria K., Carrigan, Marilyn, and Henniger, Claudia E. 2019 Sustainable Luxury Marketing: A Synthesis and Research Agenda. International Journal of Management Reviews 21:405–426.Google Scholar
Bardhan, Pranab, Bowles, Samuel, and Gintis, Herbert 2000 Wealth Inequality, Wealth Constraints and Economic Performance. Handbook of Income Distribution 1:541–603.Google Scholar
Barendregt, Bart, and Jaffe, Rivke 2014 The Paradoxes of Eco-Chic. In Green Consumption: The Global Rise of Eco-Chic. Barendregt, Bart and Jaffe, Rivke, eds. Pp. 1–16. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Bertilsson, Jon 2015 The Cynicism of Consumer Morality. Consumption Markets & Culture 18:447–467.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Michael John 2014 Shame Campaigns and Environmental Justice: Corporate Shaming as Activist Strategy. Environmental Politics 23:263–281.Google Scholar
Bohannon, Paul 1955 Some Principles of Exchange and Investment among the Tiv. American Anthropologist 57:60–70.Google Scholar
Boje, David M. 2017 The Ethical Answerability of “Storytelling Billionaires” Leadership in Society. Antenarrative (blog). https://davidboje.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/the-ethical-answerability-of-storytelling-billionaires-leadership-in-society/, accessed February 8, 2019.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre 1984 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cardenas, Juan-Camilo 2003 Real Wealth and Experimental Cooperation: Experiments in the Field Lab. Journal of Development Economics 70:263–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiñas, Beverley 1997 The Isthmus Zapotecs: A Matrifocal Culture of Mexico. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Csutora, Mária 2012 The Ecological Footprint of Green and Brown Consumers. Introducing the Behavior-Impact-Gap (BIG) Problem, Fifteenth European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production, Bregenz, Austria. www.erscp2012.eu/upload/doc/ERSCP_Full_Papers/CsutoraM_The_ecological_footprint_of_green_and_brown_consumers.pdf.Google Scholar
Darby, Luke 2018 Billionaires Are the Leading Cause of Climate Change. GQ. www.gq.com/story/billionaires-climate-change, accessed February 8, 2019.Google Scholar
Dayton-Johnson, Jeff, and Bardhan, Pranab 2002 Inequality and Conservation on the Local Commons: A Theoretical Exercise. The Economic Journal 112:577–602.Google Scholar
Dole, Gertrude 1966 Anarchy without Chaos: Alternatives to Political Authority among the Kuikúru. In Political Anthropology. Swartz, Marc J., Turner, Victor W., and Tuden, Arthur, eds. Pp. 73–85. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Dow, James 1981 The Image of Limited Production: Envy and the Domestic Mode of Production in Peasant Society. Human Organization 40:360–364.Google Scholar
Druckman, Angela, and Jackson, Tim 2009 The Carbon Footprint of UK Households 1990–2004: A Socio-Economically Disaggregated, Quasi-Multi-Regional Input-Output Model. Ecological Economics 68(7):2066–2077.Google Scholar
Dunlap, Riley E., and Brulle, Robert J. 2015 Climate Change and Society: Sociological Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Foster, Geoge M. 1965 Peasant Society and the Image of Limited Good. American Anthropologist 67:293–315.Google Scholar
Friedman, Thomas L. 2001 Foreign Affairs; A Tiger by the Tail. New York Times, June 1, Section A:19.Google Scholar
Fuchs, Doris, and Giulo, Antonietta Di 2016 Consumption Corridors and Social Justice: Exploring the Limits. In Sustainable Consumption and Social Justice in a Constrained World. Lorek, Sylvia and Vadovics, Edina, eds. Pp. 14–24. Sustainable Consumption Transitions 6. Budapest: SCORAI.Google Scholar
Garrard-Burnett, Virginia 2013 Neopentecostalism and Prosperity Theology in Latin America: A Religion for Late Capitalist Society. Iberoamericana – Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 42:21–34.Google Scholar
Godelier, Maurice 1986 The Making of Great Men: Male Domination and Power among the New Guinea Baruya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gold News 2019 The World’s Richest Hedge Fund Managers. Gold News. www.goldnews.com.cy/en/listings/the-world%E2%80%99s-richest-hedge-fund-managers, accessed February 10, 2019.Google Scholar
Gough, Ian 2017 Heat, Greed and Human Need: Climate Change, Capitalism and Sustainable Wellbeing. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Graeber, David, and Wengrow, David 2018 How to Change the Course of Human History. Eurozine. www.eurozine.com/change-course-human-history/, accessed February 12, 2019.Google Scholar
Grainger, Corbett A., and Kolstad, Charles D. 2010 Who Pays a Price on Carbon? Environmental and Resource Economics 46:359–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Granda, Chris, Lynch, Margie, and Rashkin, Sam 2008 Tackling Efficiency Paradoxes: Responses to “Energy-Efficient” 10,000 Sq. Ft. Houses and 50-Inch Televisions. In ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Katz, D. and Keel, T. M., eds. Pp. 110–121. Washington, DC: ACEEE.Google Scholar
Grunewald, Nicole, Klasen, Stephan, Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada, and Muris, Chris 2017 The Trade-off Between Income Inequality and Carbon Dioxide Emissions. Ecological Economics 142:249–256.Google Scholar
Hardin, Garrett 1968 The Tragedy of the Commons. Science 162(3859):1243–1248.Google Scholar
Harper, Janice 2013 Mobbed! What to Do When They Really Are out to Get You. Tacoma, WA: Backdoor Press.Google Scholar
Harrison, Lawrence E. 1985 Underdevelopment Is a State of Mind. Lanham, MD: Madison.Google Scholar
Hinduja, Sameer, and Patchin, Justin W. 2014 Bullying beyond the Schoolyard: Preventing and Responding to Cyberbullying. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.Google Scholar
Holt, Doug 1997 Distinction in America? Recovering Bourdieu’s Theory of Tastes from Its Critics. Poetics 25:93–120.Google Scholar
Hull, Jeff 2012 Meet the Largest Landowner in America. Fortune, September 27. http://fortune.com/2012/09/27/meet-the-largest-landowner-in-america/.Google Scholar
Hurth, Victoria, and Wells, Peter 2007 Averting Catastrophic Climate Change: Confronting Wealth. International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development 2(1):63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Tim 2005 Motivating Sustainable Consumption: A Review of Evidence on Consumer Behavior and Behavioral Change. Guilford, UK: Sustainable Development Research Network and Center for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey.Google Scholar
Jorgenson, Andrew K., Schor, Juliet B., Knight, Kyle W., and Huang, Xiaorui 2016 Domestic Inequality and Carbon Emissions in Comparative Perspective. Sociological Forum 31:770–786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuznia, Rob 2015 Rich Californians Balk at Limits: “We Are Not All Equal When It Comes to Water.” Washington Post, June 13. www.washingtonpost.com/national/rich-californians-youll-have-to-pry-the-hoses-from-our-cold-dead-hands/2015/06/13/fac6f998-0e39-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html, accessed February 12, 2019.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George 1996 Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know That Liberals Don’t. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Leggett, Jeremy 2018 How the Ultrarich Could Save the World, If They Wanted to, in 22 Pictures and Charts. Future Today. https://jeremyleggett.net/2018/09/24/how-the-ultra-rich-could-save-the-world-if-they-wanted-to-in-22-pictures-and-charts/, accessed February 12, 2019.Google Scholar
Loudenback, Tanza 2018 The World’s Richest People Spend $234 Billion a Year on Luxury Goods – Here’s How Much They Spend on Yachts, Private Jets, Wine, and Clothes. Business Insider, March 1. www.businessinsider.com/rich-people-spending-on-travel-private-jets-clothes-cars-2018-2, accessed February 15, 2019.Google Scholar
Lovett, Ian 2014a Californians Keep Up with Joneses’ Water Use. New York Times, July 4, Section A:1.Google Scholar
Lovett, Ian 2014b Where Grass Is Greener, a Push to Share Drought’s Burden. New York Times, November 29, Section A:22.Google Scholar
Manjoo, Farhad 2019 Abolish Billionaires. New York Times, February 6. www.nytimes.com/2019/02/06/opinion/abolish-billionaires-tax.html, accessed February 19, 2020.Google Scholar
Marshall, Emily Zobell 2010 Anansi, Eshu, and Legba: Slave Resistance and the West African Trickster. In Human Bondage in the Cultural Contact Zone: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Slavery and Its Discourses. Hörmann, Raphael and Mackenthun, Gesa, eds. Pp. 171–186. Münster, Gemany: WaxMann.Google Scholar
Martin, Emmie 2017 Here’s What It’s Like to Stay on the Lush Hawaiian Island Larry Ellison Bought for $300 Million. CNBC Make It. www.cnbc.com/2017/11/14/see-lanai-the-hawaiian-island-larry-ellison-bought-for-300-million.html, accessed March 31, 2019.Google Scholar
Massarella, Linda 2015 Here’s What Celebrities’ Lawns Look Like during California’s Drought. Page Six. https://pagesix.com/2015/05/09/3941513, accessed February 14, 2019.Google Scholar
McCloskey, Deirdre N. 2007 The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McGuire, Randall, and Netting, Robert M. 1982 Leveling Peasants? The Maintenance of Equality in a Swiss Alpine Community. American Ethnologist 9(2):269–290.Google Scholar
Mellino, Cole 2015 5 Celebrities Busted as Part of #DroughtShaming. EcoWatch. www.ecowatch.com/5-celebrities-busted-as-part-of-droughtshaming-1882065398.html, accessed February 14, 2019.Google Scholar
Moser, Stephanie, and Kleinhückelkotten, Silke 2018 Good Intents, but Low Impacts: Diverging Importance of Motivational and Socioeconomic Determinants Explaining Pro-Environmental Behavior, Energy Use, and Carbon Footprint. Environment and Behavior 50(6):626–656.Google Scholar
Netting, Robert M. 1981 Balancing on an Alp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O’Neil, Adrienne, Sojo, Victor, Fileborn, Bianca, Scovelle, Anna J, and Milner, Allison 2018 The #MeToo Movement: An Opportunity in Public Health? The Lancet 391:2587–2589.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ostrom, Elinor 1990 Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Otto, Ilona M., Kim, Kyoung Mi, Dubrovsky, Nika, and Lucht, Wolfgang 2019 Shift the Focus from the Super-Poor to the Super-Rich. Nature Climate Change 9(2):82–84.Google Scholar
Oxfam 2015 Extreme Carbon Inequality: Why the Paris Climate Deal Must Put the Poorest, Lowest Emitting and Most Vulnerable People First. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill.Google Scholar
Page, Benjamin I., and Jacobs, Lawrence R. 2009 Class War? What Americans Really Think about Economic Inequality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pawson, Ray 2002 Evidence and Policy and Naming and Shaming. Policy Studies 23(3):211–230.Google Scholar
Peck, Emily 2019 Should Billionaires Even Exist? HuffPost. www.huffpost.com/entry/billionaires-tax-the-rich_n_5c51ea30e4b0ca92c6dcafc6, accessed October 8, 2019.Google Scholar
Piketty, Thomas 2015 The Economics of Inequality. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, Eric A., and Weisbach, David A. 2010 Climate Change Justice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Princen, Thomas 2005 The Logic of Sufficiency. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ronson, Jon 2015 So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. New York: Riverhead Books.Google Scholar
Rood, Richard B. 2017 If We Stopped Emitting Greenhouse Gases Right Now, Would We Stop Climate Change? The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/if-we-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-right-now-would-we-stop-climate-change-78882, accessed March 31, 2019.Google Scholar
Rosenblatt, Elizabeth L. 2013 Fear and Loathing: Shame, Shaming, and Intellectual Property. DePauw Law Review 63(1):1–47.Google Scholar
Sager, Lutz 2019 Income Inequality and Carbon Consumption: Evidence from Environmental Engel Curves. Energy Economics 84(Suppl. 1):104507.Google Scholar
Sahakian, M., and Lorek, C. 2018 Laying the Foundations for Consumption Corridors: The Case of Heating Bigger Homes. Third International Conference of the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1987 Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Shipton, Parker 1989 Bitter Money: Cultural Economy and Some African Meanings of Forbidden Commodities. Washington, DC: American Anthropological Association.Google Scholar
Shue, Henry 2014 Climate Justice: Vulnerability and Protection. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Skeel, David A. 2005 Corporate Shaming Revisited: An Essay for Bill Klein. Berkeley Law Scholarship Repository 2(1):105–117.Google Scholar
Sloat, Sarah 2015 California Is Drought-Shaming Its Greatest Water Wasters, Pointlessly. Inverse. www.inverse.com/article/7213-california-is-drought-shaming-its-greatest-water-wasters-pointlessly, accessed February 14, 2019.Google Scholar
Stewart, Nikita, and Gelles, David 2019 The $238 Million Penthouse, and the Hedge Fund Billionaire Who May Rarely Live There. New York Times, January 24, Section A:1.Google Scholar
Uchida, Yukiko, Norasakkunkit, Vinai, and Kitayama, Shinobu 2004 Cultural Constructions of Happiness: Theory and Empirical Evidence. Journal of Happiness Studies 5(3):223–239.Google Scholar
Wallenborn, Grégoire 2018 Rebounds Are Structural Effects of Infrastructures and Markets. Frontiers in Energy Research 6:99. www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fenrg.2018.00099/full, accessed October 7, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wealth-X 2018 World Ultra Wealth Report 2018. www.wealthmanagement.com/sites/wealthmanagement.com/files/wealth-x-wealth-report.pdf, accessed March 15, 2021.Google Scholar
Weber, Max 1991 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Talcott Parsons, trans. New York: Norton Critical Editions.Google Scholar
Wilson, Peter J. 1973 Crab Antics: The Social Anthropology of English-Speaking Negro Societies of the Caribbean. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wolf, Eric 1957 Closed Corporate Communities in Mesoamerica and Central Java. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 13:1–18.Google Scholar
Zhang, Benjamin 2017 Check out the Boeing Airliner President Trump Is Trading in for Air Force One. www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-president-boeing-757-airliner-trump-force-one-2017-1, accessed March 31, 2019.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×