Sustainable Consumption: Transitions, Systems and Practices

The intention of this chapter is to explore the role of consumption and consumers in relation to sustainability transition processes and wider systemic transformations. In contrast to the individualistic focus in much research on sustainable consumption, the embeddedness of consumption activities in wider social, economic and technological frameworks is emphasised. In particular, the chapter is inspired by practice theory and transition theory. First, various trends in consumption are outlined to highlight some of the challenges for sustainability transitions. Then, it is discussed how consumption patterns are shaped over time and what should be considered in sustainability strategies. While discussions on consumption often take their point of departure in the perspective of the individual and then zoom to the wider context, the present approach is the opposite. The outline starts with the basic biophysical, distributional and economic conditions for high consumption in rich countries and then zooms in on the coevolution of provision systems and consumption, and how consumption is shaped by practices and projects in everyday life. Furthermore, the paper discusses whether and how transition and practice perspectives can be combined and concludes by summing up the complexity of studying the role of consumption in sustainability transitions.