Theorizing Consumer Culture in a Sustainable Society

The advent of the twenty-first century has brought increasing awareness of looming social and environmental catastrophe on a global scale. Even moderate estimations of humanity’s future in terms of climate change, access to clean water, ocean health, food supplies, and resulting geopolitical conflicts describe dire situations and formidable challenges. The physical science behind sustainable consumption and production is relatively clear and well developed, making it possible to envision scientific and technological solutions. Science, however, can be stymied by culture and, unfortunately, the social science of sustainability is significantly under-theorized. This roundtable proposes to map out an agenda for research to theorize the nature and roles of consumer behavior, and especially collective consumer behavior, in a more sustainable global society.

Citation:

John Schouten (2012) ,"Theorizing Consumer Culture in a Sustainable Society", in AP - Asia-Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 10, eds. , , and , Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 455-456.