Broadening Anti-Consumption Research: A History of Right-Wing Prohibitions, Boycotts, and Resistance to Sustainability

2020 ◽  
pp. 027614672098342
Author(s):  
Terrence H. Witkowski
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Consumption Behavior ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
American Experience ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Advanced Knowledge ◽  
Temporal Dimensions ◽  
Research Domain

Anti-consumption scholarship has been ideologically one-sided. It has established a research domain aligned with projects favored by the global political left, such as being environmentally sustainable, consuming ethically, and resisting corporate capitalism, while overlooking strains of anti-consumption thought and action driven by conservative interests. It has advanced knowledge of individuals, their reasoning, and market behavior patterns in the here and now, but has neglected the state-sponsored and temporal dimensions of anti-consumption phenomena. This article seeks to redress this imbalance and broaden the field through a historical counternarrative illustrating right-wing prohibitions, boycotts of media content, brands, and companies, and, most recently, resistance to sustainable consumption. The different interests served, effects on consumption behavior, and market and societal impacts of these anti-consumption efforts in the American experience are analyzed. Implications for the domain of anti-consumption and macromarketing research and opportunities for potential global study are discussed.

Fighting climate change: What’s being mindful, outside and at school got to do with it?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Pham
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
Connection To Nature ◽  
Consumption Behavior ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Existential Crisis ◽  
Undergraduate Programs

Although climate change education strategies have succeeded in spreading awareness, they also create a sense of fear and urgency that not only fails to change environmentally unsustainable behavior but may increase this behavior. The failure of current strategies and the paradoxical increase of environmentally unsustainable behavior may be explained by a theory known as terror management theory. This theory posits that if people are faced with an existential crisis, like climate change, they may cling even tighter onto their current ways. A novel solution to alleviate terror management theory is inspiring and empowering people. Inspiration and empowerment will teach people to see environmentally sustainable behavior as a healthier alternative to their current ways rather than an existential crisis. Therefore, they are more likely to welcome change rather than fear it. My study aims to see if mindfulness, connection to nature, and differing undergraduate programs affects sustainable consumption behavior. These factors are thought to inspire and empower people. If these factors can affect sustainable consumption behavior, then they may inspire and empower people to fight climate change. I predict that individuals who are more mindful and connected to nature will also have more sustainable consumption behavior. Furthermore, programs that highlight environmental issues will allow students to have a better connection to nature and more sustainable consumption behavior. If there is evidence to support, my hypotheses then factors that influence sustainable consumption behavior should be taught in schools. These factors would not only increase environmental behavior but increase the student’s overall wellbeing.

Masters of the Universe

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Stedman Jones
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Current Economic Crisis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
New Policies ◽  
Interwar Europe ◽  
The Relationship

Based on archival research and interviews with leading participants in the movement, this book traces the ascendancy of neoliberalism from the academy of interwar Europe to supremacy under Reagan and Thatcher and in the decades since. The book argues that there was nothing inevitable about the victory of free-market politics. Far from being the story of the simple triumph of right-wing ideas, the neoliberal breakthrough was contingent on the economic crises of the 1970s and the acceptance of the need for new policies by the political left. This edition includes a new foreword which addresses the relationship between intellectual history and the history of politics and policy. Fascinating, important, and timely, this is a book for anyone who wants to understand the history behind the Anglo-American love affair with the free market, as well as the origins of the current economic crisis.

From Propaganda to Scholarship: Dr Joseph Schechtman and the Origins of Israeli Polemics on the Palestinian Refugees

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Masalha
Keyword(s):  
Right Wing ◽  
Population Transfer ◽  
Arab Population ◽  
Palestinian Refugees ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
Arab States ◽  
Refugee Problem ◽  
Secret History

In 1948 an official ‘Transfer Committee’ was appointed by the Israeli Cabinet to plan the Palestinian refugees' resettlement in the Arab states. Apart from doing everything possible to reduce the Arab population in Israel, the Transfer Committee sought to amplify and consolidate the demographic transformation of Palestine by: preventing the Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes; the destruction of Arab villages; settlement of Jews in Arab villages and towns; and launching a propaganda campaign to discourage Arab return. One of the Transfer Committee's initiatives was to invite Dr Joseph Schechtman, a right-wing Zionist Revisionist leader and expert on ‘population transfer’, to join its efforts. In 1952 Schechtman published a propagandists work entitled The Arab Refugee Problem. Since then Schechtman would become the single most influential propagator of the Zionist myth of ‘voluntary’ exodus in 1948. This article examines the leading role played by Schechtman in promoting Israeli propaganda and politics of denial. Relying on newly-discovered Israeli archival documents, the article deals with little known and new aspects of the secret history of the post-1948 period.

A Left History of Liquorice: What It Means to Write "Left" History

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan D. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Historical Study ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Special Edition ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This article is part of a special Left History series reflecting upon changing currents and boundaries in the practice of left history, and outlining the challenges historians of the left must face in the current tumultuous political climate. This series extends a conversation first convened in a 2006 special edition of Left History (11.1), which asked the question, “what is left history?” In the updated series, contributors were asked a slightly modified question, “what does it mean to write ‘left’ history?” The article charts the impact of major political developments on the field of left history in the last decade, contending that a rising neoliberal and right-wing climate has constructed an environment inhospitable to the discipline’s survival. To remain relevant, Palmer calls for historians of the left to develop a more “open-ended and inclusive” understanding of the left and to push the boundaries of inclusion for a meaningful historical study of the left. To illustrate, Palmer provides a brief materialist history of liquorice to demonstrate the mutability of left history as a historical approach, rather than a set of traditional political concerns.

scholarly journals Social Tipping Interventions Can Promote the Diffusion or Decay of Sustainable Consumption Norms in the Field. Evidence from a Quasi-Experimental Intervention Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3529
Author(s):  
Joël Berger
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiments ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Carbon Neutrality ◽  
Consumption Decisions ◽  
Policy Tool ◽  
Field Evidence ◽  
Current Prevalence ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Recent Laboratory

The diffusion of environmentally sustainable consumption patterns is crucial for reaching net carbon neutrality. As a promising policy tool for reaching this goal, scholars have put forward social tipping interventions (SOTIs). “Social tipping” refers to the phenomenon that a small initial change in a parameter of a social system can create abrupt, nonlinear change via self-reinforcing feedback. If this reduces the burden on the environment, it is of potential interest for environmental policy. SOTIs are attempts to create social tipping intentionally. SOTIs produce rapid norm changes in laboratory experiments. However, little is known about the potential of SOTIs in the field. This research reports on a field intervention promoting the consumption of hot beverages in reusable mugs instead of one-way cups, conducted at Swiss university cafeterias (N = 162,523 consumption decisions). Two SOTIs involved an appeal promoting sustainable consumption with regular feedback about the current prevalence of sustainable consumption. Two control treatments involved either the same appeal without feedback or no intervention. This research offers three key findings. First, SOTIs involving regular normative feedback can transform sustainable consumption from a minority behavior into a social norm within weeks. Second, tipping points in real-world environmental dilemmas may exceed the values found in recent laboratory experiments (≥50% vs. ≥25%). Third, SOTIs can also promote the decay of sustainable consumption. By implication, the risk-free use of SOTIs requires deeper insights into the boundary conditions of these dynamics.

Book Reviews: Les Chemins de fer Privés des Franches Montagnes. Naissance, Exploitation et défis d'un réseau (1892–1943) [Private Railways of the Franches Mountains. Birth, Exploitation and Challenges of a Network (1892–1943)], Das Verkehrsbuch der Schweiz. Faszinierendes und Ungewöhnliches Rund um das Thema Mobilität. Zum 50–Jahr-Jubiläum 2009 [Traffic and Transport in Switzerland. Thrilling News and Peciularities around the Topic of Mobility. Festschrift for the 50th Anniversary of the Swiss Transport Museum], Automatisierung, Schnellverkehr und Modernisierung bei den SBB 1955 bis 2005 [The Railroad of the Future: Automation, Rapid Transit and Modernization in the SBB, 1955 to 2005], La Bataille de la Route [The Battle for the Road], per Rickheden, Världens Nordligaste spårväg. Till 100–årsminnet av Kirunas spårvägar [The World's Northernmost Tram. To Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Kiruna Tram System], Die Moderne Straße. Planung, Bau und Verkehr vom 18. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert [The Modern Road. Planning, Building and Traffic from 18th Century to the 20th Century, Palm Oil and Small Chop, Airborne Dreams: ‘Niseir’ Stewardesses and Pan American World Airways, Railroads in the African American Experience: A Photographic Journey, Fahren und Fliegen in Krieg und Frieden. Kulturen Individueller Mobilitätsmaschinen 1880–1930 [Driving and Flying in Peace and War. Cultures of Individual Mobility Machines], Radelnde Nationen: Die Geschichte des Fahrrads in Deutschland und den Niederlanden bis 1940 [Cycling Nations. History of the Bicycle in Germany and the Netherlands until 1940], Sometimes Eagle's Wings: The Saga of Aéropostale, the Quest for Speed

2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-235
Author(s):  
Etienne Auphan ◽  
Anne Ebert ◽  
Alfred Gottwaldt ◽  
Massimo Moraglio ◽  
Martin Schiefelbusch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
The Road ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Road Planning ◽  
History Of ◽  
Pan American ◽  
Peace And War
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