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Sustainability

Class 18: Consumption CofC Fall 2010. Sustainability. Emerging Concerns over Societal Consumption. Consumerism : problem is material acquisition, which has become the dominant social paradigm

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Sustainability

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  1. Class 18: Consumption CofC Fall 2010 Sustainability

  2. Emerging Concerns over Societal Consumption • Consumerism: problem is material acquisition, which has become the dominant social paradigm • Commoditization: problem is the substitution of marketable goods & services for personal relationships, culture and other expressions of human well-being • Overconsumption: problem is using more than necessary

  3. Problems from Policy Side • Focus is rarely on demand side (I.e. consumption), because implicates individual values/preferences; policy typically target production for change • Relatedly, expanding the pool of resources or spreading wealth (even if top to bottom) is politically more palatable than redistribution of resources/wealth • This has resulted in “economistic reasoning and the pragmatism of growth politics.”

  4. Problems from Technology Side • Over-reliance on development of new technologies to mitigate environmental harm • Technology ONLY reduces enviro impact, if all else remains constant (consumer demand, values, etc) • Technology often permits increases in demand that generate more enviro damage (e.g. cars).

  5. Economistic Reasoning • Consumption is sacrosanct and is the core of economic growth--consume to grow the economy • This leads to production-focused policy resolutions • If water supplies are tight, produce more water • If toxins accumulate, produce with fewer toxins (not forgo altogether) • “More is better trap” • Wastes are bad, but focus is on minimization of those by-products through eco-effeciencyor recycling • Production side views resources as infinite--without a cost associated with inputs or outputs of ecol system

  6. Policy Considerations for “Consumption” Side Analysis (Princen, pp 1-17) • Social Embeddedness of Consumption: choices are part of attempts to find meaning, status and identity--thus choices are heavily influence by social context • Individualization: ignore larger societal forces • Commodization: converting life decisions to purchases • Chains of Material Provisioning and Resource Use (lifecycle or cradle to grave economics): econ transactions are a series of linked decisions (in comm chain) from resources extraction to transportation, production, purchase and disposal. • Distancing: individualization cuts off contextual understanding of choices • Downstreaming: power shifted from means of prod to consumption • Production as Consumption: Consuming occurs at all links in commodity chain--> e.g. resource extraction of trees --> production IS consumption • Responsibility therefore shifts from individuals to all nodes along chain.

  7. Individualization • Solution (The Lorax), planting tree, understands enviro degradation as the product of individual shortcomings (the Onceler’sgreed, for example), best countered by action that is staunchly individual and typically consumer-based (buy a tree and plant it!) It embraces the notion that knotty issues of consumption, consumerism, power and responsibility can be resolved neatly and cleanly through enlightened, uncoordinated consumer choice. Education is a critical ingredient in this view—

  8. Individualization of Responsibility • Responsibility for enviro degradation is upon the individual (e.g. paper or plastic)  it is destructive consumer choice • When responsibility for environmental problems is individualized, there is little room to ponder institutions, the nature and exercise of political power, or ways of collectively changing the distribution of power and influence in society—to, in other words, “think institutionally.

  9. Why? IndividRepsonsibility? • historical baggage of mainstream environmentalism • the core tenets of liberalism (economic) • the dynamic ability of capitalism to commodify dissent, and • the relatively recent rise of global environmental threats to human prosperity.

  10. Consequence • Indiv of responsibility is “narrowing” • It is undermining our capacity to react effectively to environmental threats to human well-being • This indiv of responsibility calls for people to see themselves as consumers first and citizens second • the individually responsible consumer is encouraged to purchase a vast array of “green” or “eco-friendly” products on the promise that the more such products are purchased and consumed, the healthier the planet’s ecological processes will become. “Living lightly on the planet” and “reducing your environmental impact” becomes, paradoxically, a consumer-product growth industry (p34) • Must be reversed citizens engaged in participatory democracy

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