IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v68y2008i1-2p80-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Luxury or 'lock-in'? An exploration of unsustainable consumption in the UK: 1968 to 2000

Author

Listed:
  • Jackson, Tim
  • Papathanasopoulou, Eleni

Abstract

Sustainable consumption demands the ability to understand the patterns of resource consumption associated with changing lifestyles. This paper explores changes in resource consumption patterns in the UK between 1968 and 2000. Using an environmental input-output model, the paper tracks the fossil resource requirements attributable to 8 high-level functional purposes and finds that overall fossil resource consumption increased 35% over the 32Â year period. The four functional purposes most closely related to the provision of basic material needs showed little change over the period. The bulk of the increase in fossil resource requirements was attributable to two specific functional purposes: 1) recreation and entertainment; 2) commuting and business travel. The authors discuss the relevance of these findings for the continuing debate over the question whether rising consumption is being driven by expanding social aspirations (luxury) or whether it is the result of structural lock-in.

Suggested Citation

  • Jackson, Tim & Papathanasopoulou, Eleni, 2008. "Luxury or 'lock-in'? An exploration of unsustainable consumption in the UK: 1968 to 2000," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 80-95, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:68:y:2008:i:1-2:p:80-95
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921-8009(08)00074-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ropke, Inge, 1999. "The dynamics of willingness to consume," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 399-420, March.
    2. Unruh, Gregory C., 2002. "Escaping carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 317-325, March.
    3. Rothman, Dale S., 1998. "Environmental Kuznets curves--real progress or passing the buck?: A case for consumption-based approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 177-194, May.
    4. Munksgaard, Jesper & Pedersen, Klaus Alsted, 2001. "CO2 accounts for open economies: producer or consumer responsibility?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 327-334, March.
    5. Tim Jackson, 2005. "Live Better by Consuming Less?: Is There a “Double Dividend” in Sustainable Consumption?," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(1‐2), pages 19-36, January.
    6. Reinders, A. H. M. E. & Vringer, K. & Blok, K., 2003. "The direct and indirect energy requirement of households in the European Union," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 139-153, January.
    7. Jackson, Tim & Marks, Nic, 1999. "Consumption, sustainable welfare and human needs--with reference to UK expenditure patterns between 1954 and 1994," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 421-441, March.
    8. Sanne, Christer, 2002. "Willing consumers--or locked-in? Policies for a sustainable consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 273-287, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kemp-Benedict, Eric, 2013. "Material needs and aggregate demand," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 16-26.
    2. Xinkuo Xu & Liyan Han, 2017. "Diverse Effects of Consumer Credit on Household Carbon Emissions at Quantiles: Evidence from Urban China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-25, September.
    3. Dai, Hancheng & Masui, Toshihiko & Matsuoka, Yuzuru & Fujimori, Shinichiro, 2012. "The impacts of China’s household consumption expenditure patterns on energy demand and carbon emissions towards 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 736-750.
    4. Papathanasopoulou, Eleni, 2010. "Household consumption, associated fossil fuel demand and carbon dioxide emissions: The case of Greece between 1990 and 2006," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4152-4162, August.
    5. Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty, 2015. "Carbon and inequality: From Kyoto to Paris Trends in the global inequality of carbon emissions (1998-2013) & prospects for an equitable adaptation fund World Inequality Lab," Working Papers halshs-02655266, HAL.
    6. Druckman, Angela & Buck, Ian & Hayward, Bronwyn & Jackson, Tim, 2012. "Time, gender and carbon: A study of the carbon implications of British adults' use of time," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 153-163.
    7. Manfred Lenzen & Murukesan Krishnapillai & Deveraux Talagi & Jodie Quintal & Denise Quintal & Ron Grant & Simpson Abraham & Cindy Ehmes & Joy Murray, 2014. "Cultural and socio‐economic determinants of energy consumption on small remote islands," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(1), pages 27-46, February.
    8. Lena Kilian & Anne Owen & Andy Newing & Diana Ivanova, 2022. "Exploring Transport Consumption-Based Emissions: Spatial Patterns, Social Factors, Well-Being, and Policy Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-26, September.
    9. Guillen-Royo, Monica, 2010. "Realising the 'wellbeing dividend': An exploratory study using the Human Scale Development approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 384-393, December.
    10. Arman, Michael & Zuo, Jian & Wilson, Lou & Zillante, George & Pullen, Stephen, 2009. "Challenges of responding to sustainability with implications for affordable housing," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 3034-3041, October.
    11. Hongyun Han & Shu Wu, 2019. "Determinants of the Behavioral Lock-in of Rural Residents’ Direct Biomass Energy Consumption in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-25, January.
    12. P. Padma & E. V. Ramasamy & T. V. Muralivallabhan & A. P. Thomas, 2018. "Changing Scenario of Household Consumption Pattern in Kerala: An Emerging Consumer State of India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 797-812, January.
    13. Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2009. "The carbon footprint of UK households 1990-2004: A socio-economically disaggregated, quasi-multi-regional input-output model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2066-2077, May.
    14. Saamah Abdallah & Ian Gough & Victoria Johnson & Josh Ryan-Collins & Cindy Smith, 2011. "The distribution of total greenhouse gas emissions by households in the UK, and some implications for social policy," CASE Papers case152, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    15. Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2010. "The bare necessities: How much household carbon do we really need?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1794-1804, July.
    16. Manfred Lenzen & Robert A. Cummins, 2013. "Happiness versus the Environment—A Case Study of Australian Lifestyles," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Schubert & Andreas Chai, 2012. "Sustainable Consumption and Consumer Sovereignty," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2012-14, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    2. Tim Jackson, 2004. "Negotiating Sustainable Consumption: A Review of the Consumption Debate and its Policy Implications," Energy & Environment, , vol. 15(6), pages 1027-1051, November.
    3. Ramos-Martin, Jesus, 2003. "Empiricism in ecological economics: a perspective from complex systems theory," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 387-398, October.
    4. Alcott, Blake, 2008. "The sufficiency strategy: Would rich-world frugality lower environmental impact," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 770-786, February.
    5. Benjamin Leard, 2011. "Joan Martinez-Alier and Ingo Ropke (eds.): Recent developments in ecological economics (2 vols.)," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 161-178, July.
    6. Papathanasopoulou, Eleni & Jackson, Tim, 2008. "Fossil resource trade balances: Emerging trends for the UK," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 492-505, June.
    7. Mont, Oksana, 2004. "Institutionalisation of sustainable consumption patterns based on shared use," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1-2), pages 135-153, September.
    8. Vita, Gibran & Lundström, Johan R. & Hertwich, Edgar G. & Quist, Jaco & Ivanova, Diana & Stadler, Konstantin & Wood, Richard, 2019. "The Environmental Impact of Green Consumption and Sufficiency Lifestyles Scenarios in Europe: Connecting Local Sustainability Visions to Global Consequences," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Ulrich Witt, 2011. "Sustainability and the Problem of Consumption," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2011-16, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    10. Boya Zhang & Shukuan Bai & Yadong Ning & Tao Ding & Yan Zhang, 2020. "Emission Embodied in International Trade and Its Responsibility from the Perspective of Global Value Chain: Progress, Trends, and Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-26, April.
    11. Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh & Giorgos Kallis, 2009. "Evolutionary Policy," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2009-02, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    12. Courard-Hauri, David, 2004. "The effect of income choice on bias in policy decisions made using cost-benefit analyses," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3-4), pages 191-199, December.
    13. Tim Jackson, 2014. "Sustainable consumption," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 18, pages 279-290, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M. van den & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada, 1999. "Economic theories of sustainable consumption," Serie Research Memoranda 0055, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    15. Thomas Berker & Helen Jøsok Gansmo, 2010. "Paradoxes of design: energy and water consumption and the aestheticization of Norwegian bathrooms 1990-2008," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(3), pages 135-149.
    16. Nazzal, Dima & Batarseh, Ola & Patzner, Joshua & Martin, Darren R., 2013. "Product servicing for lifespan extension and sustainable consumption: An optimization approach," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 105-114.
    17. van den Bergh, Jeroen C. J. M. & Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Munda, Giuseppe, 2000. "Alternative models of individual behaviour and implications for environmental policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 43-61, January.
    18. Ocetkiewicz, Iwona & Tomaszewska, Barbara & Mróz, Anna, 2017. "Renewable energy in education for sustainable development. The Polish experience," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 92-97.
    19. Weber, Christopher L. & Peters, Glen P. & Guan, Dabo & Hubacek, Klaus, 2008. "The contribution of Chinese exports to climate change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 3572-3577, September.
    20. Springmann, Marco, 2013. "Addressing emission transfers: carbon tariffs vs. clean-development financing," Conference papers 332294, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:68:y:2008:i:1-2:p:80-95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.