Consumption dynamics and technological change - exemplified by the mobile phone and related technologies.

The point of departure of this paper is the belief that the lifestyles and constantly growing consumption of the rich countries carry a large responbility for environmental problems and make it difficult to provide the necessary scope for increasing consumption for the poor. There is an urgent need for developing strategies dealing explicitly with the growth and composition of consumption in the rich countries, as few improvements seem to come about automatically. As a precondition for developing strategies, a better understanding of the background for consumption growth is necessary. This paper is meant to be a contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of consumption on the micro level. The paper intends to report on some of the findings from a research project regarding households's acquirement of new consumer goods that they have not had before. The purpose is first to reveal some of the consumption dynamics that operate on the micro level and compel most consumers in the rich countries to be willing contributors to the growing consumption. The second purpose is to investigate how the families use the new technologies, and how these technologies eventually become integrated in gradual changes of everyday life. In the long run, the changes of everyday life can be decisive for the development of the consumption dynamics and for the related environmental effects.