IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v62y2004i3p323-338.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consuming Values and Contested Cultures: A Critical Analysis of the UK Strategy for Sustainable Consumption and Production

Author

Listed:
  • Gill Seyfang

Abstract

The term “sustainable consumption” is subject to many interpretations, from Agenda 21's hopeful assertion that governments should encourage less materialistic lifestyles based on new definitions of “wealth” and “prosperity”, to the view prevalent in international policy discourse that green and ethical consumerism will be sufficient to transform markets to produce continual and “clean” economic growth. These different perspectives are examined using a conceptual framework derived from Cultural Theory, to illustrate their fundamentally competing beliefs about the nature of the environment and society, and the meanings attached to consumption. Cultural Theory argues that societies should develop pluralistic policies to include all perspectives. Using this framework, the paper examines the UK strategy for sustainable consumption, and identifies a number of failings in current policy. These are that the UK strategy is strongly biased towards individualistic, market-based and neo-liberal policies, so it can only respond to a small part of the problem of unsustainable consumption. Policy recommendations include measures to strengthen the input from competing cultures, to realize the potential for more collective, egalitarian and significantly less materialistic consumption patterns.

Suggested Citation

  • Gill Seyfang, 2004. "Consuming Values and Contested Cultures: A Critical Analysis of the UK Strategy for Sustainable Consumption and Production," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(3), pages 323-338.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:62:y:2004:i:3:p:323-338
    DOI: 10.1080/0034676042000253936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0034676042000253936
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0034676042000253936?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. repec:sae:envval:v:16:y:2007:i:1:p:105-123 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Annukka Berg, 2011. "Not Roadmaps but Toolboxes: Analysing Pioneering National Programmes for Sustainable Consumption and Production," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 9-23, March.
    3. Jérôme Blanc & Marie Fare, 2016. "Turning values concrete: the role and ways of business selection in local currency schemes," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 74(3), pages 298-319, September.
    4. Nick Clarke & Clive Barnett & Paul Cloke & Alice Malpass, 2007. "The Political Rationalities of Fair-Trade Consumption in the United Kingdom," Politics & Society, , vol. 35(4), pages 583-607, December.
    5. Murat Yetkin & Fatma Özlem Güzel, 2020. "The Role of Countries’ Economic Development Level on Green Consumption Attitudes: A Study on Green Hotels," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 62(0), pages 167-183, December.
    6. Chenyi He & Ruifeng Liu & Zhifeng Gao & Xin Zhao & Charles A. Sims & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2021. "Does local label bias consumer taste buds and preference? Evidence of a strawberry sensory experiment," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(3), pages 550-568, July.
    7. Salma Khalil & Ayman Ismail & Seham Ghalwash, 2021. "The Rise of Sustainable Consumerism: Evidence from the Egyptian Generation Z," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-25, December.
    8. Govindasamy, Ramu & Puduri, Venkata & Kelley, Kathleen & Simon, James E., 2012. "Increased Purchases of Locally Grown Ethnic Greens and Herbs due to Concerns about Food Miles," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 43(3), November.
    9. Seyfang, Gill, 2010. "Community action for sustainable housing: Building a low-carbon future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7624-7633, December.
    10. Wilfred Dolfsma & Deborah Figart & Robert McMaster & Martha Starr, 2012. "Promoting Research on Intersections of Economics, Ethics, and Social Values: Editorial," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(2), pages 155-163, June.
    11. repec:sae:envval:v:19:y:2010:i:2:p:147-167 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Manisha Anantharaman, 2018. "Critical sustainable consumption: a research agenda," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(4), pages 553-561, December.
    13. Frame, Bob & Brown, Judy, 2008. "Developing post-normal technologies for sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 225-241, April.
    14. Vasile Gherheș & Gabriel-Mugurel Dragomir & Mariana Cernicova-Buca & Adina Palea, 2024. "Enhancing Sustainability in University Campuses: A Study on Solid Waste Generation and Disposal Practices among Students in Politehnica University Timisoara, Romania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-28, August.
    15. Boncinelli, Fabio & Contino, Caterina & Romano, Caterina & Scozzafava, Gabriele & Casini, Leonardo, 2016. "Territory, environment, and healthiness in traditional food choices: insights into consumer heterogeneity," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 20(1), October.
    16. Anne-Claire Savy, 2022. "Self-organising for a transition towards a circular society: Insight from Follettian thinking," Post-Print hal-04302326, HAL.
    17. Animesh Ghosh & Prabha Bhola & Uthayasankar Sivarajah, 2022. "Emerging Associates of the Circular Economy: Analysing Interactions and Trends by a Mixed Methods Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-41, August.
    18. Murat Yetkin & Fatma Özlem Güzel, 2020. "The Role of Countries’ Economic Development Level on Green Consumption Attitudes: A Study on Green Hotels," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 62(62), pages 167-183, December.

    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:taf:rsocec:v:62:y:2004:i:3:p:323-338. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    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.