Power and Politics in Sustainable Consumption Research and Practice

With growing awareness of environmental deterioration, atmospheric pollution and resource depletion, the last several decades have brought increased attention and scrutiny to global consumption levels. However, there are significant and well documented limitations associated with current efforts to encourage more sustainable consumption patterns, ranging from informational and time constraints to the highly individualizing effect of market-based participation. This volume, featuring essays solicited from experts engaged in sustainable consumption research from around the world, presents empirical and theoretical illustrations of the various means through which politics and power influence (un)sustainable consumption practices, policies and perspectives. With chapters on compelling topics including collective action, behaviour-change and the transition movement, the authors discuss why current efforts have largely failed to meet environmental targets and explore promising directions for research, policy and practice. Featuring contributions that will help the reader open up politics and power in ways that are accessible and productive and bridge the gaps with current approaches to sustainable consumption, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of sustainable consumption and the politics of sustainability.

"This timely, accessible, and thought-provoking collection brings together leading scholars to deftly explore the systems and norms keeping us on pathways to social and ecological disintegration. It is a vital reminder that there are no easy wins when it comes to changing production and consumption patterns, with the authors facing key challenges head-on. An essential read for policy makers, change agents, business leaders, and researchers alike." -- Kersty Hobson, University of Cardiff, UK"The authors of this book do not flinch from asking the hardest questions about the causes of climate change, the defining crisis of our time. They move the discussion of consumption and sustainability forward in new and important directions and challenge a lot of the accepted wisdom. Essential reading for anyone searching for ways to promote a more sustainable kind of consumer culture." -- Richard Wilk, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Indiana University, and Director of the Open Anthropology Institute, USA"This is a bold and engaging book that tells it like it is: research, policy and practice in sustainable consumption have failed to take power, politics and social difference seriously. And in answer to this claim is offered a set of theoretically and empirically rich chapters by leading experts from around the world that critically interrogate a wide range of intersecting themes at multiple levels. It is exactly the kind of collection needed to shake up this emerging interdisciplinary field." -- Sherilyn MacGregor, Sustainable Consumption Institute and Politics Department, The University of Manchester, UK"This book studies the trajectories of increasing household debt in the contexts of the USA, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Norway. The author examines remedies to prevent and alleviate the over-indebtedness “epidemic,” cr

Cindy Isenhour is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and in the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, USA. Mari Martiskainen is a Research Fellow at Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, UKLucie Middlemiss is Associate Professor in Sustainability, and Co-director of the Sustainability Research Institute, in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds, UK.