The Sustainability of “Sustainable Consumption”

By P. Dolan. 2002

304 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article examines the limitations of the concept of sustainable consumption in terms of the inadequate attention given to the social, cultural, and historical contextualization of consumption. The author argues that macromarketing should adopt modes of inquiry that fully engage with this contextualization. The implicit assumptions of sustainable consumption center on the rational individual and his or her needs and wants, and neglect the significance of consumption practices as embodying the relations between individuals. Acts of consumption are not in opposition to, and prior to, macro structures and processes; they are macro processes at work. Consumer practices are cultural and social practices that have historically developed and are manifestations of local and global linkages of social interdependencies. To continually look at the consumer as the cause of the ecological problem effectively decontextualizes consumption from such interdependencies. It posits a macro problem onto a micro situation and seeks the solution there.

Subfields: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2399f2e5ac2270c6e39d4e01a4b7000bd400eaf8

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In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

How Techniques of Neutralization Legitimize Norm- and Attitude-Inconsistent Consumer Behavior (2013, background): “By putting our investigation in the context of this theory, we aim at demonstrating how important the embodiment of relations and connections between individuals is when understanding consumption patterns (Dolan 2002).”
Inside the sustainable consumption theoretical toolbox: Critical concepts for sustainability, consumption, and marketing (2017, background): “The assumption is that when people consume beyond these needs, they are being irrational, greedy, immoral, and manipulated (Dolan, 2002).”
Compassion without action: Examining the young consumers consumption and attitude to sustainable consumption (2010, background): “Almost considered a „fad‟, company‟s practices to achieve sustainability are often reactive, with strategies developed for short-term success or targeted towards a niche segment of the marketplace (Dolan, 2002).”
Addressing Sustainability and Consumption (2005, background): “In this article, we therefore continue in the critical vein of Dolan (2002) but go beyond his important work in critiquing sustainable consumption to arrive at some preliminary propositions that seek to explain why the debates and literature linking the environment with consumption have developed…”
Mainstreaming fair trade: adoption, assimilation, appropriation (2006, background): “Thus, it is no surprise that Fair Trade has not been central to the discourse around the unsustainability of present consumption practices (Dolan, 2002; Kilbourne et al., 1997).”
The coherence of inconsistencies: Attitude–behaviour gaps and new consumption communities (2012, background): “They have also been criticised for their focus on individual consumers and agency, and for addressing consumers as rational decision makers somewhat disconnected from wider sociocultural processes (Dolan, 2002).”
A Review of Sustainable Consumption (2000 to 2020): What We Know and What We Need to Know (2020, unknown): “On the basis of our review, it is apparent that a frequently used theory is the theory of planned behavior (Chekima et al., 2016; Geng et al., 2017; Rezvani et al., 2018; Yarimoglu & Binboga, 2019), followed by cultural theory (Dolan, 2002; Seyfang, 2004).”
Advancing sustainable consumption in the UK and China: the mediating effect of pro-environmental self-identity (2015, unknown): “Thus solutions to encourage the adoption of sustainable consumption behaviours must be premised on understanding that consumption is symbolically important to consumers’ identity construction and preservation, and thus their sense of individual and social self (Dolan, 2002; Soron, 2010).”
From commodity fetishism to commodity narcissism (2012, background): “…these important questions are increasingly prevalent within marketing and consumer research debates (e.g. Bauman, 2007; Bauman, 2008; Crane, 2000; Dolan, 2002; Kilbourne et al., 1997; Miller, 2001; Salzer-Mörling and Strannegård, 2007; Schwarzkopf, 2011; Wilk, 2001; Schor et al., 2010) and the…”
Green Consumption (2008, background): “Indeed, Dolan (2002) suggests that: [the] irony is that eco-politics through consumer boycotts strengthens the significance of consumption practices – not only does it become the symbolic mediator of social and cultural relationships, but also political ones.”