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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jo SwaffieldORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
This paper advances critical perspectives on the governance of sustainable consumption by exploringthe ways in which ‘the consumer’ is constructed and mobilized by strategic actors and organizations.Existing approaches draw on theories of practice to emphasize the limitations of governing throughbehaviour change. Whilst this provides a welcome corrective to the overemphasis on individualresponsibility in sustainability research and policy, fundamental questions concerning changes overtime, variation across substantive domains, and the mechanisms through which authorities andintermediaries responsibilize ‘the consumer’ are neglected. By way of rejoinder, we suggest thatattention should be paid to the project of sustainable consumption and – following Clive Barnett,Nick Clarke and colleagues’ analysis of ethical consumption campaigning – the ways in which itengages consuming subjects and mobilizes the rhetorical figure of ‘the consumer’. To illustrate, wepresent the findings from an empirical study – drawing on documentary sources as well as 38 keyinformant interviews – of how the challenge of food waste reduction has been framed, interpretedand responded to in the UK. Our analysis suggests that initial responses to the issue made claims onthe responsibilities of individuals as consumers, but that this quickly gave way to an emergent sense ofshared and distributed responsibility. To conclude we argue for the importance of exploring specificinstances of sustainable consumption governance and their underlying political rationalities, as well asperiodizing these accounts.
Author(s): Evans D, Welch D, Swaffield J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environment and Planning A
Year: 2017
Volume: 49
Issue: 6
Pages: 1396-1412
Print publication date: 01/06/2017
Online publication date: 27/02/2017
Acceptance date: 16/01/2017
Date deposited: 24/10/2017
ISSN (print): 0308-518X
ISSN (electronic): 1472-3409
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0308518X17694030
DOI: 10.1177/0308518X17694030
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