CCSC Seminar with Dr Cecilia Soler (Gothenburg University)

Sustainable consumption outside or inside markets – definitions, categorizations, and consequences for the capacity to achieve change

Abstract

This talk focuses on the various theoretical perspectives represented in sustainable consumption research and how sustainable consumption research can contribute to the shaping of environmentally sustainable markets. In my talk I will discuss the normative character of sustainable consumption research and the necessary focus on environmentally unsustainable affluent consumption. I will present and discuss individualistic and non-individualistic (market related) theoretical approaches within the scientific field of sustainable consumption and the performative and political effects these perspectives.

About the speaker

My research on sustainable consumption focuses on how consumer culture and marketing practices shape consumption. In particular I am concerned with the construction of affluent consumer identities and ever-increasing levels of novelty consumption. I also study the impact such identities have on perceived consumer stress. My second preferred field of interest concerns sustainability certifications in global supply chains and how competing certifications influence exchange on the global market and simultaneously have an impact on environmental protection and social justice in production. Third, I study the socio-material features of poverty alleviating consumption among urban subsistence households in India.

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