The Sustainability of “Sustainable Consumption”

This article examines the limitations of the concept of sustainable consumption in terms of the inadequate attention given to the social, cultural, and historical contextualization of consumption. The author argues that macromarketing should adopt modes of inquiry that fully engage with this contextualization. The implicit assumptions of sustainable consumption center on the rational individual and his or her needs and wants, and neglect the significance of consumption practices as embodying the relations between individuals. Acts of consumption are not in opposition to, and prior to, macro structures and processes; they are macro processes at work. Consumer practices are cultural and social practices that have historically developed and are manifestations of local and global linkages of social interdependencies. To continually look at the consumer as the cause of the ecological problem effectively decontextualizes consumption from such interdependencies. It posits a macro problem onto a micro situation and seeks the solution there.