Consumption and environment: some conceptual issues

Authors
Citation
T. Princen, Consumption and environment: some conceptual issues, ECOL ECON, 31(3), 1999, pp. 347-363
Citations number
63
Categorie Soggetti
Environment/Ecology,Economics
Journal title
ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS
ISSN journal
09218009 → ACNP
Volume
31
Issue
3
Year of publication
1999
Pages
347 - 363
Database
ISI
SICI code
0921-8009(199912)31:3<347:CAESCI>2.0.ZU;2-L
Abstract
Consumption ranks with population and technology as a major driver of envir onmental change and yet researchers and policymakers have paid it scant att ention. When the topic is addressed, its conceptual foundations are either taken as self-evident or are conflated with production, overall economic ac tivity, materialism, maldistribution, population or technology. The risk is to adopt the latest buzzword in the environmental debate, stretch the conc ept to encompass all conceivable concerns, and forfeit any advantage-for an alysis or for behavior change-that may accrue to a new perspective on envir onmental problems. Consumption must be distinguished conceptually from othe r approaches to environmental problems. One approach is to work within the consumption-production dichotomy, examining not just purchasing but product use and non-purchase decisions. A second approach, one that challenges the prevailing dichotomy and its propensity to relegate consumption to a black box, is to treat all resource use as consuming, that is, 'using up', and a sk what risks are entailed. Consumption can then be seen as material provis ioning where risks increase with increasing distance from the resource; as background, misconsumption, or overconsumption depending on the social conc ern raised; or as a chain of decisions that compel the behaviors of restrai nt and resistance among 'producers'. Pursuing the consumption and environme nt topic engenders resistance among a wide range of actors for reasons that are personal, analytic, and policy related. Nevertheless, the topic appear s to have the potential of helping analysts and others transcend convention al approaches to excess throughput. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.