Consumption governance toward more sustainable consumption

This article deliberates on strategies of consumption governance toward more sustainable consumption. We discuss theoretical concepts stemming from various social science perspectives to (1) promote more sustainable consumption, (2) compare strategies stemming from individualist understanding of consumer behavior, and (3) call for a mix of strategies acknowledging collective dimensions of consumption to change consumer behavior in order to advance sustainable consumption. We thereby criticize overtly individualistic approaches and plea for acknowledging the collective dimensions of consumption that should be recognized in order to promote more sustainable consumption. We outline possible contributions of the collective dimensions in lifestyle movements and a mix of stakeholders that assist in achieving more sustainable consumption

Between shaming corporations and promoting alternatives : the politics of an 'ethical shopping map'

Ethical consumption can take different forms, some more contentious like boycotts or public campaigns, some aiming at the establishment or promotion of alternative consumption practices (buycotts). This study looks at how these tactics are articulated by analyzing the development of an 'ethical shopping map,' an action situated in the latter category of 'supportive' actions. In 2007, a Swiss nongovernmental organization published this map as part of its ongoing campaign fighting for the respect of social standards in the global garment industry. A project pursued by a regional group of volunteers of the organization, the map listed stores where ethical clothes can be purchased in a big Swiss city. This article consists of an ethnographic analysis of the process of elaboration of the map and discusses its inclusion into the tactical repertoire of the anti-sweatshop campaign. Based on participant observation and interviews with volunteers and campaign staff, it examines what drives the activists' concern with alternative forms of consumption. It looks at the rationales and meanings the volunteers put behind the map and the different uses of the map that are suggested, and examines the ultimate 'failure' of making it a lasting part of the campaign's tactical action repertoire. Doing so, the article reveals the inherent tension of 'ethical consumption,' between supportive action forms based on buycotts and denunciatory actions of public shaming of firms whose practices are criticized

Associations for the Preservation of Small-Scale Farming and Related Organisations

During the 2000s in France, the rapid development of “AMAP” (Associations for the Preservation of Paysan [Small-scale] Farming)— which are a sort of appropriation/adaptation of the North American Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives—can be seen as part of a wider trend towards consumers’ growing awareness of and reaction to the environmental and health risks linked to the drive for productivity in agriculture. This case study shows the strength but also the limits of these kinds of collective action. On the one hand, the emergence of AMAPs can be seen as an immediate and concrete response to this fundamental shared concern, and a very coherent one insofar as it can combine not only the protection of environment with that of health, but also the defence of small-scale farming with the interests of consumers, fair-trade with local production, activism with conviviality, and so on. But on the other hand, it can also provoke tensions and encounter limits, such as the definition of this action as solidarity versus charity, the relative absence of the lower classes, the lack of land and of local organic food producers, and the need to construct a supra-local movement in order to influence national or European policies