Anna R. Davies (editor) - Challenging Consumption: Pathways to a More Sustainable Future

Challenging Consumption

Sustainable consumption is a central research topic in academic discourses of sustainable development and global environmental change. Informed by a number of disciplinary perspectives, this book is structured around four key themes in sustainable consumption research: Living, Moving, Dwelling and Futures. The collection successfully balances theoretical insights with grounded case studies, on mobility, heating, washing and eating practices, and concludes by exploring future sustainable consumption research pathways and policy recommendations. Theoretical frameworks are advanced throughout the volume, especially in relation to social practice theory, theories of behavioural change and innovative visioning and backcasting methodologies.

This groundbreaking book draws on some conceptual approaches which move beyond the responsibility of the individual consumer to take into account wider social, economic and political structures and processes in order to highlight both possibilities for and challenges to sustainable consumption. This approach enables students and policy-makers alike to easily recognise the applicability of social science theories.

Anna R. Davies is a professor of Geography at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

Frances Fahy is a lecturer in Environmental Geography at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Henrike Rau is a lecturer in Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

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Challenging Consumption

Pathways to a more sustainable future

Edited by Anna R. Davies, Frances Fahy and Henrike Rau

First published 2014

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2014 Anna R. Davies, Frances Fahy and Henrike Rau for selection and editorial material; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Anna R. Davies, Frances Fahy and Henrike Rau to be identified as authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Challenging consumption : pathways to a more sustainable future / edited by Anna Davies, Frances Fahy, Henrike Rau.

pages cm -- (Routledge studies in sustainability)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Consumption (Economics) 2. Sustainability Economic aspects. 3. Sustainable development Economic aspects. I. Davies, Anna. II.

Fahy, Frances. III. Rau, Henrike.

HB801.C394 2014

339.47dc23

2013043470

ISBN13: 978-0-415-82074-5 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-38602-6 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by HWA Text and Data Management, London

Contents

ANNA R. DAVIES, FRANCES FAHY AND HENRIKE RAU

FRANCES FAHY, RUTH DOYLE, HENRIKE RAU, ANNA R. DAVIES AND JESSICA PAPE

MARY JO LAVELLE AND FRANCES FAHY

HENRIKE RAU

BARBARA HEISSERER

MIKE HYNES

HENRIKE RAU

ANNA R. DAVIES

RUTH DOYLE

RUTH DOYLE

ANNA R. DAVIES, LAURA DEVANEY AND JESSICA PAPE

ANNA R. DAVIES

HENRIKE RAU, ANNA R. DAVIES AND FRANCES FAHY

Figures

Tables

Box

Anna R. Davies has worked in the area of environmental governance since 1994. She has lectured in Kings College London and Trinity College Dublin, has published more than 50 peer-reviewed books and articles and is past Chair of the Planning and Environment Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society. Her research is policy-focused and she is currently an independent member of the National Economic and Social Council and advises the Irish Government on matters of sustainability and environmental governance. In addition, she has informed national and international policy debates working with organisations such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Environment and the OECD.

Laura Devaney is a postdoctoral researcher working within the Geography Department of Trinity College Dublin. Laura completed her PhD Governing food risk: Regulation, communication and biosecurity in 2012 and has worked on wider issues of food consumption within the CONSENSUS project. Her research has primarily focused on issues of food-related biosecurity that continue to preoccupy regulators, producers and consumers despite the formation of food safety authorities around the globe. Laura has published her research in the Geographical Journal and Irish Geography.

Ruth Doyle is a postdoctoral researcher with the CONSENSUS project based in the Geography Department of Trinity College Dublin. Her career has included research and consultancy experience in the field of environmental governance, stakeholder engagement and environmental communications. She was recently a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and is pursuing research interests in the areas of environmental governance; social dimensions of sustainable technologies and transitions; social practices; sustainable behaviour change and science-art collaboration. Ruth has published on sustainability transitions and creative research processes for the development of innovations and societal learning.

Frances Fahy is a lecturer in Environmental Geography at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Francess primary research interests are in the field of environmental planning and sustainability, specifically the social and cultural consequences of environmental change. Frances has published widely in the field of sustainability and has led a number of research projects exploring governance for sustainable consumption, innovative methods for public participation in planning and developing sustainable planning tools (in particular, quality of life indicators and community mapping). She is the current President of the Geographical Society of Ireland (201214) and she is also a recipient of the 201314 Fulbright Scholar Award.

Barbara Heisserer completed her PhD as part of the CONSENSUS project, applying a practice theory approach to the study of modal shift and related changes in the consumption of distance (http://hdl.handle.net/10379/3449). Barbara taught at the National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Konstanz, Germany. Her primary research interests are in the field of environmental sociology, mobility research, governance, comparative politics and research methodology.