Sustainability: Issues of Scale, Care and Consumption

Abstract

This paper investigates how consumers interested in sustainability are affected by conflicts in caring and scale. Contrasting previous emphasis relating scale to production, the paper illustrates how scale influences consumption and social reproduction, including consumers’ more concrete preoccupations with caring about and for themselves, significant others and, not least, the planet. The paper makes three contributions to the nascent management literature in this field. First, it illustrates how scalar logics at urban through to global levels influence seemingly micro‐social routine consumption decisions. Second, it develops an approach that emphasizes the scale‐sensitivity of consumer decision‐making around sustainability and the conflicts inherent in caring. Third, it addresses critiques of current studies preoccupied with processes of production rather than social reproduction and illustrates the critical role that consumption plays in the social construction of scales. Based on these findings, we argue that policy promoting sustainability may be misplaced in that it does not sufficiently acknowledge how people's consumption and caring decisions are nested in relational and spatial contexts.

A theories of practice perspective in understanding barriers to sustainable commuting: The case of United Arab Emirates

“…It works better with lower numbers but for example 2 people, but that does not really do anything for the environment, it's better to remove 5 cars from the road than 1 car from the road” (Sameed, Emirati, married with kids)Sameed's account succinctly captures the complexities of carpooling as a practice and emphasises the interconnectedness of practices in everyday life. Therefore, transition to a more sustainable transport system needs to recognise the other practices that are sequenced with commuting (Cass & Faulconbridge, ; Chatzidakis & Shaw, ).…”

“…These findings also imply that encouraging the reduction of car use or promoting public transportation may not yield the desired results as sustainable options may conflict with socially contextualised symbolic meanings appropriated to the individual, the home, and the larger urban and national society (Chatzidakis & Shaw, 2018;Shaw, McMaster, Longo, & Özçaglar-Toulouse, 2017). It is challenging to encourage people to adopt new commuting behaviours even with improved facilities as it is habitual, repeated, and with little or no conscious consideration of alternatives (Clark, Chatterjee, & Melia, 2016;Gardner, 2009).…”

Education for Sustainable Development: Sustainability-Related Food Labels

“…The labels allow consumers to express their individual value perception of product characteristics, including the credence quality attributes and which characteristics they prefer when comparing different product alternatives. This then transfers into whether and which environmental and social problems should be tackled based on consumers' preferences [8]. To gain a better understanding about consumers' appreciation of sustainability-related food labels, in this paper, consumers' appreciation of food certification labels is analyzed by investigating the dimensions that make up the consumers' image of these labels and how these dimensions relate to consumers' willingness to buy a sustainability-related food product.…”

The Tipping Point in the Status of Socially Responsible Consumer Behavior Research? A Bibliometric Analysis

“…The most productive thematic areas during the last 30 years have been: (a) Research into consumer attitude, (b) research on CSR, and (c) research on social and sustainable consumption behavior. In response to calls for greater theoretical clarification of the SRCB discipline, the authors providing experts and novices with a better understanding of the current state of the art and suggest future research directions.Sustainability 2020, 12, 3141 2 of 23 responsible consumption [5][6][7][8], socially responsible investments [9,10], the impact of sustainable production/products [11][12][13][14][15], and even from the consumerism viewpoint [14][15][16][17][18], to name some examples. Ten years ago, Eckhardt et al [19] stated that, although there was great expectation around the concept of responsible or ethical consumption, real consumer behavior was discouraging.The present study investigates how socially responsible consumer behavior (SRCB) research has advanced, focusing on the key issues it has addressed, given the importance it has as a market driver, in the paradigm of our current consumer society.…”

“…Sustainability 2020, 12, 3141 2 of 23 responsible consumption [5][6][7][8], socially responsible investments [9,10], the impact of sustainable production/products [11][12][13][14][15], and even from the consumerism viewpoint [14][15][16][17][18], to name some examples. Ten years ago, Eckhardt et al [19] stated that, although there was great expectation around the concept of responsible or ethical consumption, real consumer behavior was discouraging.…”