Intergenerational Perspectives on Sustainable Consumption

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-128
Author(s):  
Kristina Diprose ◽  
Gill Valentine ◽  
Robert M. Vanderbeck ◽  
Chen Liu ◽  
Katie Mcquaid
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Resource Conservation ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Perceived Impact

This chapter considers how arguments that cast climate change as an intergenerational injustice are complicated by a prevailing belief that younger generations consume more resources and live less sustainably than their elders. It explores urban residents’ narratives of socioeconomic transitions and their perceived impact on contemporary consumption practices, and finds that younger generations are typically blamed for unsustainable consumption. It considers the valorisation of resource conservation through narratives of scarcity and frugality, the influence of social conservative moralising discourses such as “make do and mend” and “qinjian jieyue” (‘being diligent and thrifty’), and the totemic role of waste in making unsustainable consumption visible. These ideas reflect concerns about both environmental and social degradation, attributing climate change to a more general moral decline.

scholarly journals Energy efficiency, resilience to future climates and long-term sustainability: the role of the built environment

2010 ◽  
Vol 368 (1914) ◽  
pp. 1083-1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
The Uk

Just under half of all energy consumption in the UK today takes place indoors, and over a quarter within our homes. The challenges associated with energy security, climate change and sustainable consumption will be overcome or lost in our existing buildings. A background analysis, and the scale of the engineering challenge for the next three to four decades, is described in this paper.

Social bases of material consumption: The relationship between social groups and possession of household appliances in Denmark

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mette Hove Jacobsen
Keyword(s):  
Latent Class ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Material Consumption ◽  
Household Appliances ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Latent Subgroups ◽  
Latent Group ◽  
Shared Understandings

In this article, possession of household appliances in Denmark is used to address the role of social groups in reproducing social norms of material consumption practices. This has been down-played in studies engaging with the ‘practice turn’, especially within the sociology of sustainable consumption. Using latent class analysis, four distinct latent subgroups with similar patterns of material consumption are identified and analysed. On the basis of the possession of appliances, these groups are characterised and labelled unlimited, outdated, limited and updated. After assigning the households to the latent group to which they have the highest probability of belonging, the social character of these groups is examined using logit models, thus making explanations of differences in material consumption practices possible. As identified in other domains of consumption, this study found that patterns of material consumption are socially structured. Researchers within the sociology of sustainable consumption have been particularly interested in studying the role of material arrangements and infrastructures in reproducing shared understandings and common procedures. This article argues that, in order to fully understand the dynamic mechanisms of consumption patterns and the possibilities for sustainable development, the field should equally engage with shared understandings generated and reproduced by social groups.

Climate Change, Consumption and Intergenerational Justice

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Diprose ◽  
Gill Valentine ◽  
Robert Vanderbeck ◽  
Chen Liu ◽  
Katie McQuaid
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Intergenerational Justice ◽  
Global Networks ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change

This book examines lived experiences and perceptions of climate change, changing consumption practices, and intra- and intergenerational justice with urban residents in China, Uganda, and the United Kingdom. The book draws on an interdisciplinary research programme called INTERSECTION, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2014 to 2017. INTERSECTION was an innovative, cross-national programme that employed participatory arts and social research methods with urban residents in three cities: Jinja in Uganda, Nanjing in China, and Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Drawing together a unique dataset from these three cities -- which are very differently positioned in relation to global networks of production and consumption, (de)industrialisation and vulnerability to climate change -- the research demonstrates how people engage selectively with the ‘global storm’ and the ‘intergenerational storm’ of climate change.  The research reveals a ‘human sense of climate’ that clouds its framing as an issue of either international and intergenerational justice. Its chapters focus on the global and intergenerational dimensions of climate change, local narratives of climate change, moral geographies of climate change, intergenerational perspectives on sustainable consumption, and imaging alternative futures through community based and creative research practices.

scholarly journals Consumption in the Circular Economy: Learning from Our Mistakes

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 601
Author(s):  
Dimitris Georgantzis Garcia ◽  
Eva Kipnis ◽  
Efi Vasileiou ◽  
Adrian Solomon
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Key Word ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Hierarchical Nature ◽  
Strong Diffusion ◽  
Collection Methods

The Circular Economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention among businesses, policymakers and academia, and across research disciplines. While the concept’s strong diffusion may be considered its main strength, it has also contributed to the emergence of many different understandings and definitions, which may hinder or slow down its success. Specifically, despite growing attention, the role of the consumption side in the CE remains a largely under-researched topic. In the present review, we first search the literature by means of snowball mapping and a systematic key-word strategy, and then critically analyze the identified sources in order to elucidate the fundamental elements that should characterize consumption in a CE. We extract two pillars, directly from definition, that should be at the nucleus of future research on consumption in the CE: (1) the hierarchical nature of circular strategies, with “reduce” being preferred to all other strategies; and (2) the inadequacy of defining the CE only through its loops or strategies without considering its goal of attaining sustainable development. Moreover, the discussion is placed within the extant consumer research streams deemed relevant, in order to bridge these with the context of the CE. We highlight limitations of said research streams regarding their typical focus on the quality (and not the quantity) of consumption, the lack of heterogeneity in the theories and data collection methods employed, and the non-impact-based instruments typically used to measure consumption behaviors. We show how these limitations have contributed to the emergence of the intention–behavior gap, a phenomenon extant studies identify as key to overcome for encouraging sustainable consumption practices. In particular, we focus the analysis on the intention–behavior gap in order to: (1) establish the state-of-the-art; and (2) uncover avenues for future research addressing extant limitations.

Nimíciwinán, nipimátisiwinán – “Our food is our way of life”: On-Reserve First Nation perspectives on community food security and sovereignty through oral history in Fisher River Cree Nation, Manitoba

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailesh Shukla ◽  
Jazmin Alfaro ◽  
Carol Cochrane ◽  
Cindy Garson ◽  
Gerald Mason ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Community Food Security ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Indigenous Foods ◽  
Oral History Interviews

Food insecurity in Indigenous communities in Canada continue to gain increasing attention among scholars, community practitioners, and policy makers. Meanwhile, the role and importance of Indigenous foods, associated knowledges, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples (Council of Canadian Academies, 2014) that highlight community voices in food security still remain under-represented and under-studied in this discourse. University of Winnipeg (UW) researchers and Fisher River Cree Nation (FRCN) representatives began an action research partnership to explore Indigenous knowledges associated with food cultivation, production, and consumption practices within the community since 2012. The participatory, place-based, and collaborative case study involved 17 oral history interviews with knowledge keepers of FRCN. The goal was to understand their perspectives of and challenges to community food security, and to explore the potential role of Indigenous food knowledges in meeting community food security needs. In particular, the role of land-based Indigenous foods in meeting community food security through restoration of health, cultural values, identity, and self-determination were emphasized by the knowledge keepers—a vision that supports Indigenous food sovereignty. The restorative potential of Indigenous food sovereignty in empowering individuals and communities is well-acknowledged. It can nurture sacred relationships and actions to renew and strengthen relationships to the community’s own Indigenous land-based foods, previously weakened by colonialism, globalization, and neoliberal policies.

The Role of Late-Night Infotainment Comedy in Communicating Climate Change Consensus

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward John Roy Clarke ◽  
Anna Klas ◽  
Joshua Stevenson ◽  
Emily Jane Kothe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Mitigation Policy ◽  
Behavioural Intentions ◽  
Late Night ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Adaptation Policies ◽  
Diverse Audience

Climate change is a politically-polarised issue, with conservatives less likely than liberals to perceive it as human-caused and consequential. Furthermore, they are less likely to support mitigation and adaptation policies needed to reduce its impacts. This study aimed to examine whether John Oliver’s “A Mathematically Representative Climate Change Debate” clip on his program Last Week Tonight polarised or depolarised a politically-diverse audience on climate policy support and behavioural intentions. One hundred and fifty-nine participants, recruited via Amazon MTurk (94 female, 64 male, one gender unspecified, Mage = 51.07, SDage = 16.35), were presented with either John Oliver’s climate change consensus clip, or a humorous video unrelated to climate change. Although the climate change consensus clip did not reduce polarisation (or increase it) relative to a control on mitigation policy support, it resulted in hyperpolarisation on support for adaptation policies and increased climate action intentions among liberals but not conservatives.

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