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Consumerism is increasingly recognized as a major drain on global resources and the search for sustainable consumption is emerging as a key policy issue. This text locates the problem within a specific history and recruits specialist opinions from a variety of disciplines.
'Few people who think about the state of the world are content with the status quo. The increasingly complex mix of economic, social, environmental and political problems at all scales requires new ways of thinking. It also requires new ways of integrating mutually supportive ideas and approaches, which is what this useful new book offers around the theme of sustainable consumption. The editors and contributors offer a breadth and depth of research from three domains: the new economics, socio-technical transitions and social practice, with a focus on consumption that meets the needs of people within the limits of the biosphere.' – Peter A. Victor, York University, Canada 'In recent years m...
Shows how consumer society is changing due to demographic ageing, rising income inequality, political paralysis, resource scarcity, and steady jobs being replaced by freelancing. It examines how people are striving to find new ways to ensure livelihoods and the role that the role that worker-consumer cooperatives could play.
Consumer society in the United States and other countries is receding due to demographic ageing, rising income inequality, political paralysis, and resource scarcity. At the same time, steady jobs that compensate employees on a salaried or hourly basis are being replaced by freelancing and contingent work. The rise of the so-called sharing economy, the growth of do-it-yourself production, and the spreading popularity of economic localization are evidence that people are striving to find new ways to ensure livelihoods for themselves and their families in the face of profound change. Indications are that we are at the early stages of a transition away from a system of social organization predi...
Environmental decision-making in recent decades has become increasingly dependent on scientific expertise. Grounded in universal principles of knowledge, these expert evaluations often depart from the assessments of ordinary members of the public. Whether the issue is nuclear power, genetic testing, food safety, or biodiversity, conservation lay people are increasingly charging experts with being ignorant of local contextual considerations. Scientists, as well as many policy-makers, in turn contend that the public is hopelessly irrational in gauging environmental risks. A growing group of social theorists has begun to take a keen interest in these disputes because risk captures central themes of late modernity. Increasing individualization, emerging new social movements, and declining public trust in key institutions are notions that loom large in these debates. Highlighting both theoretical and empirical perspectives, this volume brings together a distinguished group of environmental sociologists who critique and extend current thinking on what it means to live in a 'risk society'.
Sustainability is one of the buzzwords of our times and a key imperative for economic growth, technological development, social equity, and environmental quality. But what does it really mean and how is it being implemented around the world? In this clear-eyed book, Maurie Cohen introduces students to the concept of sustainability, tracing its history and application from local land-use practices, construction techniques and reorientation of business models to national and global institutions seeking to foster sustainable practices. Examining sustainable development in scientific, technological, social and political terms, he shows that it remains an elusive concept and evidence of its unambiguous achievements can be difficult to ascertain. Moreover, developed and developing countries have formulated divergent agendas to engage the notion of sustainability, further complicating its application and progress across the world. Innovative and readily accessible to students from a range of disciplines, this primer takes us on a journey to show that sustainability is as much about unchartered waters as it is about formulating answers to urgent global issues.
Putting Sustainability into Practice offers a robust and interdisciplinary understanding of contemporary consumption routines that challenges conventional approaches to social change premised on behavioral economics and social psychology. Empirical research is featured from eight different countries, using both qualitative and quantitative data to support its thesis. Given the complex and systemic nature of contemporary ecological issues like climate change, a rapidly growing group of scholars is seeking new explanations of behavioral patterns and behavioral change. These new accounts clarify why patterns of consumption and waste continue to be unsustainable despite a wealth of information p...
The idea of ecological modernisation originated in Western Europe in the 1980s, gaining attention around the world by the late 1990s. At the core of this social scientific and policy-oriented approach is the view that contemporary societies have the capability of dealing with their environmental crises. Experiences in some countries demonstrate that modern institutions can incorporate environmental interests into their daily routines. Elsewhere, economic and political interests dominate development trajectories and environmental deterioration continues, challenging the premises of ecological modernisation. This volume brings together research on ecological modernisation practices around the ...
Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits explores how to enhance peoples’ chances to live a good life in a world of ecological and social limits. Rejecting familiar recitations of problems of ecological decline and planetary boundaries, this compact book instead offers a spirited explication of what everyone desires: a good life. Fundamental concepts of the good life are explained and explored, as are forces that threaten the good life for all. The remedy, says the book’s seven international authors, lies with the concept of consumption corridors, enabled by mechanisms of citizen engagement and deliberative democracy. Across five concise chapters, readers are i...
Structural environmental reform by firms and industries, governmental and intergovernmental agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and others is a worldwide phenomenon and the focus of this definitive collection. Includes a comprehensive introduction to and overview of Ecological Modernisation Theory; original, state-of-the-art review essays by distinguished international scholars; a selection of the best published works and debates from a quarter-century of related social science scholarship; an emphasis on environmental issues in Asian and other emerging economies; and an agenda for continued scholarship, policymaking, and practice. Accessible to students, policymakers, professionals, executives, and others interested in deeply understanding contemporary environmental issues and taking effective action for environmental solutions. Rigorous and sophisticated for use in graduate and advanced studies. Appropriate for courses in Sociology, Political Science, Policy Studies, Geography, Environmental Studies, Environmental Planning, Business, Economics, Asian Studies, Development Studies, and other fields.