SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND SOCIETY
An International Working Conference for Social Scientists


Michael Bell, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Maurie Cohen, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Michele Micheletti, Karlstads Universitet, Sweden
Eva Heiskanen, National Consumer Research Center, Finland
Gert Spaargaren, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Conference organizing committee

Overview

Every age has its contested aspirations, central to economic, political, and even moral debates over how we should organize our lives.  Sustainable consumption is surely one such aspiration.  Some economists call it a contradiction in terms.  Some postmodernists call it the latest middle class moralism.  Some Neo-Marxists call it a bourgeois green herring that diverts attention from where the real conflict lies: in production. Yet many others view sustainable consumption as essential for solving the dilemma of balancing economic prosperity with ecologic vitality and social justice.  Sustainable consumption initiatives—recycling programs, energy efficient living, local food systems, fair trade, and more—increasingly gather adherents, pass laws, establish “beyond compliance” regulatory schemes, and reconfigure environmental relations, the economy, and democracy in countries rich and poor.  Thus, whether or not one grants any validity to sustainable consumption as a central aspiration, it is already changing the organization of daily life.  

Assessing these efforts in terms of what they represent, what they may lead to, where they came from, and whether they are or can be successful is the subject of “Sustainable Consumption and Society,” a small working conference sponsored by Research Committee 24 on Environment and Society (RC-24) of the International Sociological Association.  RC-24 is organizing this conference in testament to the growing interest in sustainable consumption among social scientists. Perhaps paralleling the growth in sustainable consumption initiatives, a number of important scholarly volumes have recently appeared on the topic:  Cohen and Murphy’s Exploring Sustainable Consumption (Elsevier, 2001); Princen, Maniates, and Conca’s Confronting Consumption (MIT Press, 2002); Shove’s Comfort, Cleanliness, and Convenience (Berg, 2003); Micheletti’s Political Virtue and Shopping (Palgrave, 2003), and the Nordic Council’s Political Consumerism (Nordisk Ministerråd, 2005).  We aim to contribute to this literature through the intimacy and interactiveness of a small working conference, so as to better promote engagement, innovativeness, and scholarly development. 

The conference will be held June 2-3, 2006, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the United States.  All members of RC-24 are invited to participate, as well as any other interested social scientists.  The conference is also specifically timed to provide an alternative RC-24 event in 2006 for RC-24 members who will not be attending the 2006 meeting in Durban, South Africa; Durban attendees are most certainly also welcome.




The Four Conference Themes 

The conference organizing committee invites papers in four themes: domestic consumption, democracy,  policy, and theory.   

Domestic consumption: This theme will trace two perspectives on domestic consumption. First, it will consider how domestic consumption involves the reproduction of infrastructures for energy, water, and waste handling.  These infrastructures are under pressures of fragmentation due to privatization and globalization, and new configurations of supply and demand are emerging. These new configurations can be studied from a number of perspectives, such as the sociology of environmental flows. Second, it will consider how domestic consumption is conceived of by many experts and policy-makers as a technical, infrastructural affair best left to the providers to organize.  But if sustainable infrastructures are to emerge, there need to be clear links to the consumption practices citizen-consumers employ in their daily lives, such as cooking, cleaning, bathing, gardening, and commuting. The committee welcomes papers that speak to either perspective, but especially welcomes ones that connect infrastructural change with the dynamics of change in domestic consumption.

Democracy and Sustainable Consumption: For this theme, we seek papers that focus on the democratic considerations of sustainable development. Suitable topics include how this dimension can be harmonized with the economic growth and ecological dimensions of sustainable development; the role of the political consumerist movement in sustainable development; and the impact of production and consumption on human rights, workers’ rights, and other local and global social justice issues. Of interest are also papers that address the dilemmas or tensions between sustainable development’s ecological and democratic dimensions, that evaluate “beyond compliance” regulatory schemes designed to change consumption patterns, and that examine consumer- and group-initiated attempts to reframe how we view our personal responsibility in sustainable development processes. 

Sustainable consumption and policy: A growing number of countries have begun to develop “national sustainable consumption plans” and new forms of political activism have coalesced around consumption and consumerism. This stream solicits papers on how social scientific knowledge informs policy programs and activist campaigns to foster sustainable consumption (especially in terms of food provisioning and mobility practices). We are also interested in contributions that shed light on the formation of new discursive communities involving public officials and policy entrepreneurs, as well as efforts to reframe more familiar social and ecological issues as “consumption problems.” There is evidence of increasing dissatisfaction with incremental strategies for moving toward less energy- and materials-intensive modes of consumption and this stream will also consider the efficacy of more ambitious transitional approaches.

The theory of sustainable consumption:  For this theme, we encourage a potpourri of approaches and perspectives that engage theoretical debates on what sustainable consumption is, could be, and should not be—or even whether it should be at all. We invite papers that find their point of entry in actor network theory, critical realism, ecological dialogue, ecological modernization, inconspicuous consumption, risk society, social constructionism, the sociology of flows, the treadmill of production, and yet other perspectives heard from or not yet heard from—and perhaps especially the latter. We are especially interested in papers that offer means for moving debates past current conceptual impasses.

A Working Conference

Although the conference extends an open invitation to all social scientists, this will be a small event, aimed at providing concrete feedback and, we hope, publishing opportunities to the attendees.  It will be a working conference, rather than the usual stand up, give a 15 minute paper, and sit back down kind of event.  To that end, it is limited to 25 participants.  An extended abstract in the range of 1000 words must be submitted by February 15th, via email to michaelbell@wisc.edu.  Each accepted participant will submit a finished paper two weeks before the conference begins.  Conference papers will be posted on the web, and participants agree to reading them all before the conference.  As well, participants will agree to provide a written review, via email to michaelbell@wisc.edu, of two of the conference papers 48 hours before the conference begins.  These reviews will be made available at the conference in booklet form, with the reviewer’s name removed.  Rather than the usual presentation model, there will be a half hour discussion of each paper and the two reviews it received.  Paper authors will be strictly limited to a 5-minute opening statement where they present their reactions to the reviews.  No PowerPoint. 

The Conference Venue and Activities

Madison, Wisconsin is a delightful American city, noted for its four large urban lakes, many parks, pedestrianized downtown, glorious state capital building, and the lovely lakeside campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Madison is also a progressive city (at least by US standards) with regard to sustainable consumption. It is known for its car-sharing and free bike programs, extensive bike paths, five farmers markets (two of which are year-round), restaurants that source ingredients locally, fair trade organizations, and its wide variety of green businesses.  The conference will include opportunities for participants to interact with those involved in several of these local initiatives. 

For interested participants, the day before the conference (June 1st), there will be a “sustainability bike tour” of Madison’s sustainable consumption initiatives, using Madison’s free “red bikes.”  The conference dinner will be held on Friday night, and will make extensive use of locally-sourced and fair traded ingredients; we are also planning to invite some of the growers and traders to the dinner.  On Saturday, the conference lunch will be held outdoors at the Dane County Farmer’s Market in Madison, reputedly the largest farmers market in the US.  

Costs

Registration: $150
Lodging: $77/night for a single; $43.50/night for a double; no tax
Covered Meals: Lodging and registration includes breakfast each day and Friday lunch and dinner

Deadlines

February 15st: abstracts due
February 28th:  notification of acceptances emailed to participants
April 15th: registration fee due
May 15th: completed papers due
May 30th: reviews of two conference papers due

For Further Information:  www.michaelmbell.net/suscon.htm or  michaelbell@wisc.edu .



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