Collective dissonance and the transition to post-consumerism

Cohen, Maurie J.

doi:10.1016/j.futures.2013.07.001

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(42 reference statements)

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“…It seems unlikely that economic distress alone is sufficient to induce a profound and enduring shift in automobility habits or the cultural standing of cars in modern societies (Pooley, 2010); and in any case a resumption of economic prosperity may well stimulate a resumption of the old patterns of automobility culture. As Cohen (2013) has observed, there may be a time-lag effect between a shift in concrete conditions (economic, environmental) and a corresponding shift in social attitudes. Put another way, older cultural norms may persist: and this may apply to automobility as much as any other area.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

From ‘freedom of the open road’ to ‘cocooning’: Understanding resistance to change in personal private automobility

Wells

Xenias

2015

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

From ‘freedom of the open road’ to ‘cocooning’: Understanding resistance to change in personal private automobility

Wells

Xenias

2015

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

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“…This percentage has varied little since 1986 (−0.7% to +0.7%). There is recent literature investigating downward consumption trends in wealthy countries [42,43]. The trends that have driven ethylene consumption have levelled off in the U.S. because it is a mature and wealthy market, but this may not be the case for other countries, which consume products derived from U.S. ethylene.…”

Section: Relationships Between Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethylene Supply in a Fluid Context: Implications of Shale Gas and Climate Change

Foster

2018

Energies

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The recent advent of shale gas in the U.S. has redefined the economics of ethylene manufacturing globally, causing a shift towards low-cost U.S. production due to natural gas feedstock, while reinforcing the industry’s reliance on fossil fuels. At the same time, the global climate change crisis compels a transition to a low-carbon economy. These two influencing factors are complex, contested, and uncertain. This paper projects the United States’ (U.S.) future ethylene supply in the context of two megatrends: the natural gas surge and global climate change. The analysis models the future U.S. supply of ethylene in 2050 based on plausible socio-economic scenarios in response to climate change mitigation and adaptation pathways as well as a range of natural gas feedstock prices. This Vector Error Correction Model explores the relationships between these variables. The results show that ethylene supply increased in nearly all modeled scenarios. A combination of lower population growth, lower consumption, and higher natural gas prices reduced ethylene supply by 2050. In most cases, forecasted CO2 emissions from ethylene production rose. This is the first study to project future ethylene supply to go beyond the price of feedstocks and include socio-economic variables relevant to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

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“…US per capita vehicle miles traveled, fuel consumption, and number of vehicles all appear to have peaked in 2004 (54), and we have seen energy use reductions in homes and increases in ride-sharing services. Millennials are a key demographic that has shown signs of reducing some forms of consumption (55), such as a declining interest in owning cars (56,57). However, a significant portion of future environmental impacts will come from developing countries as they grow.…”

Section: Growth In Population and Affluencementioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming Consumption: From Decoupling, to Behavior Change, to System Changes for Sustainable Consumption

O’Rourke

Lollo

2015

Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour.

143

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Consumption, although often considered an individual choice, is deeply ingrained in behaviors, cultures, and institutions, and is driven and supported by corporate and government practices. Consumption is also at the heart of many of our most critical ecological, health, and social problems. What is referred to broadly as sustainable consumption has primarily focused on making consumption more efficient and gradually decoupling it from energy and resource use. We argue for the need to focus sustainable consumption initiatives on the key impact areas of consumption-transport, housing, energy use, and food-and at deeper levels of system change. To meet the scale of the sustainability challenges we face, interventions and policies must move from relative decoupling via technological improvements, to strategies to change the behavior of individual consumers, to broader initiatives to change systems of production and consumption. We seek to connect these emerging literatures on behavior change, structural interventions, and sustainability transitions to arrive at integrated frameworks for learning, iteration, and scaling of sustainability innovations. We sketch the outlines of research and practice that offer potentials for system changes for truly sustainable consumption.

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Collective dissonance and the transition to post-consumerism

Cited by 23 publications

References 33 publications

From ‘freedom of the open road’ to ‘cocooning’: Understanding resistance to change in personal private automobility

From ‘freedom of the open road’ to ‘cocooning’: Understanding resistance to change in personal private automobility

Ethylene Supply in a Fluid Context: Implications of Shale Gas and Climate Change

Transforming Consumption: From Decoupling, to Behavior Change, to System Changes for Sustainable Consumption

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