BUILDING SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES: EXPLORING SUSTAINABILITY POLICY AND PRACTICE IN THE AGE OF HIGH CONSUMPTION

This dissertation is an attempt to examine how humans in wealthy, post-industrial urban contexts understand sustainability and respond to their concerns given their sphere of influence. I focus specifically on sustainable consumption policy and practice in Sweden, where concerns for sustainability and consumer-based responses are strong. This case raises interesting questions about the relative strength of sustainability movements in different cultural and geo-political contexts as well as the specific factors that have motivated the movement toward sustainable living in Sweden. The data presented here supports the need for multigenic theories of sustainable consumerism. Rather than relying on dominant theories of reflexive modernization, there is a need for locally and historically grounded analyses. The Swedish case illustrates that the relative strength of sustainable living is linked not only to high levels of awareness about social, economic and ecological threats to sustainability, but also to a strong and historically rooted emphasis on equality in Sweden. In this context, sustainable living is often driven by concerns for global equity and justice. The research therefore affirms the findings of those like Hobson (2002) and Berglund and Matti (2005) who argue that concerns for social justice often have more resonance with citizen-consumers - driving more progressive lifestyle changes than personal self-interest. Yet despite the power of moral appeals, this research also suggests that the devolution of responsibility for sustainability - to citizens in their roles as consumers on the free market – has failed to produce significant change. While many attribute this failure to “Gidden’s Paradox” or the assumption that people will not change their lifestyles until they see and feel risks personally, the data presented here illustrates that even those most committed to sustainable living confront structural barriers that they do not have the power to overcome. The paradox is not that people can’t understand or act upon threats to sustainability from afar; but rather that it is extremely difficult to live more sustainably without strong social support, market regulation and political leadership. Sustainability policy must work to confront the illusion of choice by breaking down structural barriers, particularly for people who do not have the luxury of choosing alternatives

Can Consumer Demand Deliver Sustainable Food?: Recent Research in Sustainable Consumption Policy & Practice

From the growth of the Slow Food movement, the growth of patronage at farmers’ markets, and the expansion of ecolabeled foods – an unprecedented number of consumer-based movements have risen in response to concerns about the environmental and social effects of contemporary globalized food systems. Recent research suggests that these movements are often successful in their efforts to support more sustainable food systems. Meanwhile, other scholars point out that, despite common assumptions, the contemporary focus on consumer responsibility in policy and practice indicates much more than a process of reflexive modernization. The devolution of responsibility to consumers and the dominance of market-based solutions, these scholars argue, reflect the growing influence of neoliberal environmental governance. From this perspective these movements are, at best, naïve in their assumption that consumers have the power necessary to overcome the structural barriers that inhibit significant change. At worst, critics argue, the contemporary focus on consumer responsibility and “sustainable lifestyles” allows governments to avoid responsibility, excludes those without access to consumer choice, reproduces social hierarchies and fails to deliver the political and redistributive solutions necessary to achieve sustainability. Yet despite significant theorization and speculation, empirical studies on the effects of consumer-based movements are still relatively scarce. Drawing on research across the social sciences and from a range of geographical settings – this paper surveys the existing empirical evidence about the effectiveness of consumer-based movements in their attempts to influence more sustainable food systems

On the Politics of Climate Knowledge: Sir Giddens, Sweden and the Paradox of Climate (In)Justice

There is a widespread assumption that most people will not effectively respond to climate risk until they personally experience its negative effects. Yet this assumption raises some interesting questions in the Swedish context. The majority of Swedes say they have not experienced the negative effects of climate change, but they are among the world’s citizens most concerned about and active on the issue. These observations raise the question - why do many Swedes act progressively if they do not feel environmental risks “closer to home”? Is there something exceptional about Swedish environmental ethics, political culture or governance structures? This paper explores these questions, using the Swedish case to challenge essentializing concepts like “Giddens’ paradox” which, too often, equate risk perception with self-interest, neglect concern for climate justice and depoliticize climate knowledge. This research suggests that concern for climate justice, rather than self-interest, proves to be a more powerful motivator for climate action in the Swedish context and potentially beyond

How the Grass Became Greener in the City: Urban Imaginings and Practices of Sustainability

Far removed from a direct connection to the land and environmental feedback, most urban inhabitants have little choice but to rely on external sources of information as they formulate their understanding of sustainability. This reliance on analytical, scientifically produced, and highly technical sources of information—such as life-cycle analyses, carbon footprints and climate change projections—solidifies definitions of sustainable living centered on technological resource efficiencies while concentrating the power to define sustainability with experts and the industrial and political elite. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic field work in and around Stockholm, Sweden, this paper explores how urban alienation shapes ideas about sustainable living among ecologically concerned citizen-consumers and how the urban focus on efficiency has led many to argue that the grass is now greener in the city. Meanwhile this ethnographic research demonstrates that the efficiency-based perspectives so dominant in urban settings are contested by other Swedes who argue that sustainable living also depends on localized connections to the land and communal self-sufficiency. Despite these contrasting perspectives, research presented here suggests that these views are united in the Swedish context by a historically-rooted concern for global equity. As such, the concept of “a fair share of environmental space” resonates with many Swedes who are concerned about human and environmental health, regardless of where they live or how they define or practice sustainable living

Decoupling and Displaced Emissions On Swedish Consumers, Chinese Producers and Policy to Address the Climate Impact of Consumption

New developments in consumption-based emissions accounting suggest that the reductions claimed by wealthy, environmentally progressive nations have often come at the expense of increased emissions elsewhere – and thus net growth in global GHG concentrations. This paper traces Sweden\u27s attempts to translate growing recognition of displaced emissions into national environmental policy. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research and policy analysis in Sweden and China, we argue that while the logical implications of consumption-based analyses point to the need to address production and consumption as an integrated system, complex governance challenges and the political precariousness of these ideas have thus far limited policy to the reinvention of consumer awareness campaigns and an international extension of long-standing ecological efficiency efforts. We argue that consumption-based emissions indicators justify more ambitious demand-side policy response

2014 Film Series: The Human Dimensions of Climate Change

In the spring of 2014, Cindy Isenhour and Jen Bonnet coordinated the inaugural Human Dimensions of Climate Change film series, sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, Native American Programs, the Climate Change Institute, and Fogler Library. Each week for three weeks a different film was shown, followed by discussion with campus scholars. A library exhibit accompanied the series and highlighted a wide range of resources related to the topic, http://www.library.umaine.edu/displays/HumansClimate.htm

2016 Film Series: Human Dimensions of Climate Change

In the spring of 2016, Cindy Isenhour and Jen Bonnet coordinated the third annual Human Dimensions of Climate Change film series, sponsored by Fogler Library, the Climate Change Institute, and the Departments of Anthropology, Political Science, and Communication and Journalism. Each week for three weeks a different film was shown, followed by discussion with campus scholars. A library exhibit accompanied the series and highlighted a wide range of resources related to the topic, http://libguides.library.umaine.edu/humans-climate

On Materiality and Meaning: Ethnographic Engagements with Reuse, Repair & Care

The reimagination and revaluation of discarded goods, through repair and reuse is, for many, a quotidian and mundane element of everyday life. These practices are the historical precedent and continue to be the stuff of common sense for a significant portion of human society. And yet, reuse, repair and other elements of a ‘circular economy’ have recently emerged as a significant focus in environmental and economic policy. Proponents claim that reuse practices represent a potentially radical alternative to mainstream consumer culture and a form of carework that generates new social possibilities and personal affects. This essay explores the myriad dimensions of reuse as care, relational practice and as consumer alternative by examining these practices in their social context, lived experience and as embedded within larger political and economic structures of capitalist accumulation and abandonment. We argue that the study of reuse, in old and new forms, takes on added political significance in an era of environmental and economic crises, especially as a critical part of state-based approaches toward the circular economy that attempt to appropriate carework in new forms of value generation

Linking Rural and Urban Circular Economies Through Reuse and Repair

Increasing resource scarcity and what has been called “the end of cheap nature” are prompting policymakers and scholars to foster more circular economies to reduce waste and lengthen the lifespan of material goods. Our essay critically examines the political and economic relationships between urban and rural geographies in the context of secondhand economies. Practices of bartering, swapping, selling, and repairing used goods have long been important to rural people and places, but the increasing commodification of discards risks upending rural livelihoods and ways of being as goods move toward urban centers. We explore the relationship between rural and urban reuse economies and suggest how future scholars of rural North America might contribute to strengthening and supporting localized reuse practices