Keeping up with the Patels: Conspicuous consumption drives the adoption of cars and appliances in India

Ramakrishnan, Anjali; Kalkuhl, Matthias; Ahmad, Sohail; Creutzig, Felix

doi:10.1016/j.erss.2020.101742

Cited by 29 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Ownership of high-emissions vehicles is correlated with income but may also be a sign of aspiration for social status 43 . High-SES people can lead mitigation through shifting social norms from valuing private vehicle ownership and use 44 to valuing living in walkable neighbourhoods and bicycling or using other low-emissions travel options.…”

Section: Consumermentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Consumermentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Dominant logics of urban planning and spatial development privilege private consumption, constructing highways for private automobiles, shopping malls for brand-conscious consumers while sacrificing parks and public spaces to make way for gated enclaves (Voyce, 2007;Gopakumar, 2020). Indeed, consumerism depends on and justifies the creation of spaces and infrastructures that cater to the lifestyles of the well-off as opposed to livelihoods for the more numerous urban poor, who in turn aspire to consumption, belonging and mattering themselves (Gago, 2017;Ramakrishnan et al, 2020). Conversely, those who do not yet consume do not have the same value in the eyes of the state, especially as neoliberal stigma frames poverty as a problem of individual failure as opposed to structural inequalities (De Souza, 2019).…”

Section: Green Consumption and Social Status In A Neoliberal Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is it sustainable consumption or performative environmentalism?

Anantharaman

2022

Consumption and Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

What are the cultural politics of what becomes recognised as sustainable consumption and consequently good environmental citizenship? And how does this contour who is able to participate in urban environmental politics? In this article, I draw on Bourdieusian theories of distinction to explore the links between (sustainable) consumption, moral authority and participation in environmental politics in Bangalore, India. I re-theorise the term performative environmentalism to argue that when the new middle classes successfully claim cultural authority over sustainable consumption, it obscures the daily environmental practices of the poor in a manner that further disenfranchises their already tenuous right to the city and its environments. This analysis connects the study of consumption practices to scholarship on just sustainabilities by exploring the relational poverty and class politics of sustainable consumption. By focusing on how sustainability and poverty discourses articulate with each other, I show that performative environmentalism exacerbates the exclusion of the working poor from participation in environmental politics by reinforcing class inequalities, restigmatising poverty and monopolising ecological legitimacy for higher status groups. Doing so, I connect cultural and practice-based studies of green consumption to broader questions about how inequality is reproduced in neoliberalising cities through everyday practices.

show abstract

“…In addition, these tokenistic actions may coexist with other behaviours that are also intended to enhance good reputation, but which have a very negative impact on the environment. For example, in order to signal their wealth or their status, individuals may be incentivized to buy larger homes and bigger cars, in spite of their larger environmental footprint (Bellet, 2017;Hennighausen et al, 2016;Ramakrishnan et al, 2020).…”

Section: Psychological Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The belief-action gap in environmental psychology: How wide? How irrational?

Grandin¹,

Boon-Falleur²,

Chevallier³

2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The belief-action gap was originally conceptualized by psychologists who aimed to ground behaviour in beliefs but found that their models had little predictive value. The recurrent use of this concept often comes with the assumption that human behaviour is somewhat irrational or weirdly misaligned with their beliefs. This gap is particularly striking in the environmental domain, where many people seemingly think one way but act another. In this chapter, we review a number of factors that hinder general beliefs from translating into actual behaviours. We emphasize the existence of measurement issues, information deficits about the exact impact of one’s actions, structural factors and psychological factors that together impact the robustness of the association between beliefs and actions. In particular, socio-cognitive factors have a massive impact on people’s decisions to act in ways that are aligned with their deep- seated beliefs. Once all these factors are properly taken into account, it becomes clear that the belief-action gap is not a token of human irrationality but should in fact be expected.

show abstract

Keeping up with the Patels: Conspicuous consumption drives the adoption of cars and appliances in India

Cited by 29 publications

References 48 publications

The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions

The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions

Is it sustainable consumption or performative environmentalism?

The belief-action gap in environmental psychology: How wide? How irrational?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About