Shove, Elizabeth

Changing human behaviour and lifestyle.

A challenge for sustainable consumption?

54775

Reisch, Lucia A.

Røpke, Inge

The ecological economics of consumption.

Cheltenham

2004

111-131

Over the last decade or so, there has been a wealth of social and natural scientific debate about the environmental consequences of contemporary consumption and there is, by now, something of a consensus. It is clear that lifestyles, especially in the West, will have to change if there is to be any chance of averting the long-term consequences of resource depletion, global warming, the loss of biodiversity, the production of waste or the pollution and destruction of valued 'natural' environments. To put Brundtland's famous definition another way round, future generations will encounter a much degraded world if present trends continue. Apparent agreement on this point disguises important theoretical divisions regarding the conceptualisation of behaviour, lifestyle and consumption. Are 'lifestyles' in some sense 'chosen' or are they better seen as 'ways of life', that is, as part of the social fabric (Harrison and Davies 1998).

↑ http://www.psi.org.uk/ehb/docs/shove-changinghumanbehaviourandlifestyle-200308.pdf