Slower Consumption Reflections on Product Life Spans and the “Throwaway Society”

Cooper, Tim

doi:10.1162/1088198054084671

Cited by 344 publications

(279 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Another important aspect of such object-self relations is the ethics of care that accompany them (cf., [36,37] which highlight the sense of responsibility for products and second-hand exchange). The idea that individuals will take less care when using products that are accessed rather than owned is a common concern surrounding access-based consumption [19,27,32].…”

Section: Ownership Responsibility and Pssmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Is Ownership an Issue? Exploring Factors That Determine Public Acceptance of Product-Service Systems

Cherry

Pidgeon

2018

Sustainability

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Shifting away from ownership towards access-based consumption, innovative new business models known as product-service systems (PSS) are advocated as part of a more circular, resource efficient economy. With product ownership (and responsibility for repair) remaining with providers, pay-per-use services are promoted as one such model, which can both increase product longevity and reduce the 'burdens of ownership' on consumers. However, PSS also require public acceptance of access-based consumption, including the long-term use of non-owned products and a range of accompanying contractual obligations. We conducted a series of deliberative workshops with the public, aiming to explore the concept of pay-per-use PSS and the role that concerns about ownership and responsibility may have in determining public acceptance. Rather than focusing on innate desires for product ownership, we found that participants' concerns regarding pay-per-use PSS were usually related to wider fears surrounding the risks and responsibilities of entering into contract-based service agreements. Identifying four public narratives of service provision (Ownership and convenience; Risk and responsibility; Affordability and security; Care and control), we argue that successful introduction of PSS will only be possible if careful consideration is given to deeply held values pertaining to ownership, responsibility and trust that influence such cultural understandings.

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Section: Ownership Responsibility and Pssmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Is Ownership an Issue? Exploring Factors That Determine Public Acceptance of Product-Service Systems

Cherry

Pidgeon

2018

Sustainability

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“…They suggest that a conservative ethics of care was a significant part of respondents' accounts of why they participated in second hand exchange, an ethics with only tenuous connections to the environmental or social implications of buying new. Similarly, Cooper (2005) found a sense of responsibility to possessions, with respondents commonly reporting the desire that items they dispose of should go to some further good use.…”

Section: Agency Responsibility and The Meso-scalementioning

confidence: 98%

“…Cooper (2005) reports on research with consumers on expectations and attitudes towards the longevity of household appliances, revealing issues about the effective technical life of products, but also of technical and aesthetic obsolescence. Forms of care and recognition of value are also shown through the storage in cupboards, lofts and garages of goods and materials with no immediate value, and often with no prospect of future use.…”

Section: Agency Responsibility and The Meso-scalementioning

confidence: 99%

Stewardship of things: The radical potential of product stewardship for re-framing responsibilities and relationships to products and materials

Lane

Watson

2012

Geoforum

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Abstract:In the context of broad-based concerns about the need to move towards a more sustainable materials economy, particularly as they are expressed in debates around ecological modernisation (EM), we argue that product stewardship has radical potential as a means to promote significant change in the relationship between society and the material world. We focus on two important dimensions that have been neglected in approaches to product stewardship to date. Firstly, we argue that immanent within the basic concept of stewardship is a problematisation of dominant understandings of property ownership in neoliberal market economies. In the space opened up by notions of stewardship, different ways of enacting both rights and responsibilities to products and materials emerge which have potential to advance the sustainability of material economies. Secondly, through exploration of existing expressions of product stewardship, we uncover a neglected scale of action. Both policy and dominant articulations of EM focus primarily on the efficiency of production processes; and secondarily, the attitudes and behaviours of individual consumers. Missing from this is the 'meso-scale' of social collectives including households, neighbourhoods, more distributed communities and small scale social enterprises. Based on a review of existing research from Australia and the UK, including our own, we argue that understanding of embedded practices of material responsibility at the household scale can both reinvigorate the concept of product stewardship as a potentially radical intervention, and reveal the potential of the meso-scale as a challenging but worthwhile realm of policy intervention.Stewardship of things: The radical potential of product stewardship for re-framing responsibilities and relationships to products and materials Lane and Watson 2

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“…In business, sustainability has been defined as "the consumption of goods and services that meet basic needs and quality of life without jeopardising the needs of future generations" (OECD, 2002). As Cooper (2005) indicates, this may be interpreted in a number of ways, but principally sustainability is about limiting the throughput of resources, while making the best use of those resources available (Gordon, Carrigan and Hastings, 2011). While it is broadly accepted that sustainable development relies on three distinct pillars: economic growth, environment protection and social progress (e.g., Figge et al, 2002;Pope et al, 2004;Gibson, 2006;Murphy, 2012), most researchers dwell on the economy pillar and short-term economic benefits (Drexhage and Murphy, 2010).…”

Section: Linking Green Marketing and Sustainable Development: A Theormentioning

confidence: 99%

Green marketing as a strategic tool for the sustainable development of less favoured areas of Greece: women's agro-tourism cooperatives

Tsiaras

Triantafillidou

Katsanika

2016

IJECRM

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Sustainable development and green marketing are two terms that dominate in the modern era. The aim of this paper is to examine how green marketing can contribute as a strategic tool to the sustainable development of less favoured areas, focussing on women's agro-tourism cooperatives and their impact on local and national level. Women's agro-tourism cooperatives, whose number has considerably increased in Greece in the past 20 years, are a perfect example for the application of green economy. Despite certain obstacles, they fulfil the principles of sustainable development, taking under consideration the three pillars of sustainability: economic growth, environmental protection and social equity. The future of women's cooperatives in Greece is very promising; the vast majority has already survived the economic crisis and there is room for further improvement regarding product, price, place and promotion.

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Slower Consumption Reflections on Product Life Spans and the “Throwaway Society”

Cited by 344 publications

References 40 publications

Why Is Ownership an Issue? Exploring Factors That Determine Public Acceptance of Product-Service Systems

Why Is Ownership an Issue? Exploring Factors That Determine Public Acceptance of Product-Service Systems

Stewardship of things: The radical potential of product stewardship for re-framing responsibilities and relationships to products and materials

Green marketing as a strategic tool for the sustainable development of less favoured areas of Greece: women's agro-tourism cooperatives

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