Take the Opportunity Afforded by the COVID-19 Experiences: Progressive Non-growth Policies for Sustainable Lifestyles

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant restrictions on lifestyles and consumption everywhere. Many consumer practices have been disrupted due to the shutting down of economic and social activities, limiting of mobility in public places, closing of shopping centers and non-essential stores, and closing of borders. These restrictions have had a significant impact on climate emissions. Much public and scholarly attention has been given to the question of whether the pandemic also offers a window of opportunity for long-term sustainability transformation. The article elaborates on this issue by specifically discussing progressive non-growth policies for sustainable lifestyles and reduced consumption. What potential for long-term transformative change results from lifestyle changes like these? How can societies be restructured to take advantage of the experiences from the pandemic? Bottom-up drivers and possibilities for top-down enforcement are both important to consider. The article limits its focus to top-down policy measures with transformative potential related to sustainable lifestyles (reduced consumption) by summarizing and discussing some key policy lessons identified in recent COVID-19 literature. It considers the need to address likely rebound effects and the vested interests in bouncing practices back toward the previous unsustainable “normality.” The argument is generally inspired by post-growth and degrowth perspectives, as the dominant pro-growth, neo-liberal doctrines are seen as unable to transform societies and guide them onto sustainable paths.

Could practices of reduced consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitate transformative change for sustainability? Experiences from Sweden and Ireland

“…Because the pandemic has lasted a long time, new practices get sufficient time to bolster, and once you have changed practices there is a resistance to change back again (de Haas et al, 2020). Other practices, fueled by the pre-existing and very forceful macro-institutional structures of mass consumption, have already "bounced back to normal" (see Boström, 2021b), since the restrictions were removed. Clearly in these cases there would be a need for several systemlevel changes in order to sustain temporary changes of habits.…”

“…At the end of the day, while some changed practices at the time of the pandemic will likely remain (like blurring of home and work), there are other temporary changes during the pandemic that will need much external encouragement if changed practices are to continue, including material/technological/infrastructural support by governments and other collective actors (Echegaray et al, 2021;Forno et al, 2022;Hoolohan et al, 2022), including measures such as workweek reduction and the role of workplace as timeordering institutions (Boström, 2021b;Greene et al, 2022). For instance, one of the conditions for long term adaptation to transformed lifestyles and smaller ecological footprints is to create infrastructures (for energy, transportation, food provision, housing, workhours) that enable people to live sustainable while also enjoying quality of life.…”

Ethical consumption: why should we understand it as a social practice within a multilevel framework?

“…Therefore, a synergetic mode between macro factors and micro initiatives facilitates the deconstruction of the nested regimes and the construction of new ones. For instance, a landscape change as the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted many conventional practices, has been seen to provide a window of opportunity for more “mindful consumption”, in which issues of health and environmental protection are considered more among broad segments of consumers and less demand for transportation due to the possibilities of a more homebound life ( Boström, 2021 ; Echegaray et al ., 2021 ). However, landscape-level factors can appear as obstacles as well.…”

Lifestyle transformation and reduced consumption: a transformative learning process

“…On macro issues, seeBoström 2021b. 8 There are some interesting experiences relating to, for example, digitalisation and home office work, time saving, localisation, mindful consumption, domestic recreation and vacationing, DIY practices related to gardening, cooking, repairing and more; see e.g Boström 2021bBoström , 2021cEchegaray, Brachya, Vergraft, and Zhang 2021.. …”