Sustainability in alternative consumer networks: understandings and expectations

Sustainability needs a comprehensive and complex understanding. Some community-based approaches to collaborative consumption provide embeddedness in a social network, in addition to the sharing or swapping of goods and services. However, it is unclear if such consumer networks can contribute to sustainable development. We were interested in how people within these networks understand the concept of sustainability and what they expect from such networks. We conducted semi-structured focus groups with 17 consumers from consumer networks and interviews with six producers and six experts in the field of sustainability. We then analyzed the transcripts using reflexive thematic analysis. The results show that the participants display a comprehensive and complex understanding of sustainability. Consumer networks can be strongly active in the field of knowledge transfer, but mainly on a regional level. To have an impact and go beyond regional effectiveness, good socioeconomic embedding and cooperation with other institutions is needed.