Confronting Consumption

Comforting terms such as "sustainable development" and "green production" frame
environmental debate by stressing technology (not green enough), economic growth (not enough in the
right places), and population (too large). Concern about consumption emerges, if at all, in benign
ways;as calls for green purchasing or more recycling, or for small changes in production processes.
Many academics, policymakers, and journalists, in fact, accept the economists' view of consumption
as nothing less than the purpose of the economy. Yet many people have a troubled, intuitive
understanding that tinkering at the margins of production and purchasing will not put society on an
ecologically and socially sustainable path.Confronting Consumption places consumption at the center
of debate by conceptualizing "the consumption problem" and documenting diverse efforts to confront
it. In Part 1, the book frames consumption as a problem of political and ecological economy,
emphasizing core concepts of individualization and commoditization. Part 2 develops the idea of
distancing and examines transnational chains of consumption in the context of economic
globalization. Part 3 describes citizen action through local currencies, home power, voluntary
simplicity, "ad-busting," and product certification. Together, the chapters propose "cautious
consuming" and "better producing" as an activist and policy response to environmental problems. The
book concludes that confronting consumption must become a driving focus of contemporary
environmental scholarship and activism.