May 2019
Greetings SCORAI Members! Happy May Day to all-- a time to celebrate nature's renewal and labor and workers' rights movements around the world. We are pleased to announce several new SCORAI Advisory Board members in this edition of the newsletter. We are grateful to these scholars and activists from diverse backgrounds for helping to guide the future of this Initiative. Read on for updates about sustainable consumption in the news, upcoming conferences and events (many of which are happening within the next month!) and publications by our members. Thank you to all who contributed to this newsletter!
-Liz and Halina
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Welcoming New Advisory Board Members
In our April Newsletter we announced new SCORAI Executive Board member Manisha Anantharaman of Saint Mary's College in California, joining fellow SCORAI Executive Board members Halina Szejnwald Brown, Daniel Fischer, Deric Gruen, and Philip J. Vergragt. We also announced the formation of a new Advisory Board. Over the past month, six new Advisory Board Members have joined the four Advisory Board members who were introduced last month: Vanessa Timmer, Juliet Schor, Anders Hayden and Neal Gorenflo have been joined by Marlyne Sahakian, Giorgos Kallis, Ashish Kothari, Erik Assadourian, John De Graaf and Kate Power.
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 Marlyne Sahakian is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Geneva, where she brings a sociological lens to consumption studies and sustainability. She co-founded SCORAI Europe in 2012. Her research interest is in everyday practices in relation to environmental promotion, social equity and social change. She coordinates research projects on household energy and food consumption, and wellbeing, working with interdisciplinary teams. Her books include Keeping Cool in Southeast Asia: energy consumption and urban air-conditioning (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and Food Consumption in the City: Practices and patterns in urban Asia and the Pacific (Routledge Studies in Food, Society & the Environment, 2016).
 Giorgos Kallis is an environmental scientist working on ecological economics and political ecology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Before coming to Barcelona, he was a Marie Curie International Fellow at the Energy and Resources Group of the University of California at Berkeley. Giorgos holds a PhD in Environmental Policy and Planning from the University of the Aegean in Greece, a Masters in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and a Masters in Environmental Engineering and a Bachelors in Chemistry from Imperial College, London.
 Erik Assadourian is a Senior Fellow with the Worldwatch Institute. During his 17 years with Worldwatch, Erik directed two editions of Vital Signs and five editions of State of the World, including EarthEd: Rethinking Education on a Changing Planet in 2017, Is Sustainability Still Possible? in 2013 and Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability in 2010. Erik designed Catan: Oil Springs, an eco-educational scenario for the popular board game The Settlers of Catan. He created Yardfarmers, a reality TV show following six Millennial Americans as they exit the consumer economy to live with their parents and become sufficiency farmers. Erik is an adjunct professor at Goucher College's Environmental Studies Master’s program.
 Ashish Kothari is the founder of Indian environmental group Kalpavriksh. Ashish has taught at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, coordinated India’s National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, served on Greenpeace International and India Boards, helped initiate the global ICCA Consortium, and chaired an IUCN network dealing with protected areas and communities. Ashish has (co)authored or (co)edited over 30 books, and helps coordinate the Vikalp Sangam and Radical Ecological Democracy processes for alternative well-being pathways to globalized development. His latest books are Churning the Earth: Making of Global India (with Aseem Shrivastava) and Alternative Futures: India Unshackled (ed., with KJ Joy).
 John de Graaf is a filmmaker, author, public speaker and activist. He has produced more than 40 films. He co-produced and co-wrote AFFLUENZA and WHAT’S THE ECONOMY FOR, ANYWAY? He co-founded Take Back Your Time, the Happiness Alliance and his current project, And Beauty for All. He has taught at the Evergreen State College and has been an adviser to the government of Bhutan. He serves on the board of Earth Island Institute, is a Fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences of the US and Canada, a member of the Balaton Group and an Outstanding Alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Superior. He is currently working on a film about how Vallejo, CA may become a model for the Green New Deal. He lives in Seattle.
 Kate Power is an expert in sustainable consumption and behaviour change, with a Master´s degree in gender, anthropology and development, and 20 years´ experience in the non-profit sector as a campaigner, researcher and knowledge broker. Kate has held positions at (inter alia) KR Foundation, Copenhagen Resource Institute, Copenhagen Business School and Greenpeace International. As a sustainable consumption consultant, Kate´s clients have included the European Environment Agency, European Commission, and Nordic Council of Ministers. |
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Sustainable Consumption in the News
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Workers of the World Unite (At Last)
Great Transition Initiative
Ronaldo Munck, Head of Civic Engagement at Dublin City University and a Visiting Professor of International Development at the University of Liverpool and the University of Buenos Aires, explores the concept that globalization has brought new opportunities for reinvention, and a sea change in both trade unions and the wider labor movement. Most notably, globalization has forced unions to think and act outside the state to build transnational solidarity across countries and sectors. Emerging transnational unionism, if it perseveres, contains the seeds of a new global movement, a new international that extends beyond labor to embrace all forces working toward a Great Transition.
It's a Flying Shame: The rise of “flying shame” points to a blind spot in conscious consumerism
Quartz
Unnecessary airplane flying is becoming a socially scorned activity in Sweden. Rose Spinks writes about it in Quartz, a publication whose readers are typically business people and other financially secure people.
What Can Extinction Rebellion Teach Us About Behaviour Change?
Forbes
Environmentalist socio-political movement Extinction Rebellion staged large-scale acts of peaceful civil resistance for 10 days in April in London as part of an international rebellion against climate change apathy. Contributor Karen Correia da Silva asks, where to we begin to shake off this complacency, and what should businesses do? As this iteration of the global rebellion comes to an end, the work of figuring out how to turn demands for change into real behavior change continues.
A Guide to Sustainable Eating
New York Times
A NYT Personal Health feature asks, "Have you considered the effects of what you eat on the planet, and made changes that will protect not only the Earth but also your health and the well-being of generations to come?"
The Consumer is Pushing Them: How fast-fashion brands are responding to sustainability
The Glossy
This fashion and beauty website blog addresses the trend of younger consumers shifting their focus to brands that celebrate radical transparency and environmentally friendly practices. While fast-fashion companies are taking some steps to improve, the question remains whether they can truly be sustainable if their business models are built on high-production volume and low costs.
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Calls for Papers
The (in)justice of community-based initiatives
In this issue of Justice spatiale/ Spatial Justice we seek to explore the use of community in pursuing environmental, cultural, and social aims and objectives can be more or less just. Rather than discussing ‘community’ as an idea or concept, still less attempting to define it, we wish to see papers that look to the potential for, or counterproductive uses of, community to achieve justice. Here we see justice in the round – most commonly justice in this area of research is framed as environmental justice, and can also be broadened out to notions of climate justice. The journal is bilingual and papers can be submitted in either French or English. Full papers will be accepted up until the August 31, 2019. Papers will then be peer-reviewed, before an expected publication date of early 2020.
Energy efficient cities of today and tomorrow
A special edition of the journal Energies is proposed, welcoming both conceptual and empirical study papers on energy efficient cities of today and the future. Papers involving energy or greenhouse gas simulation and modeling are likewise welcomed. The following list of topics is in no way exhaustive, but is intended to inspire the authors’ writing: Low-energy/low-carbon city concepts; Energy solutions for low-carbon urban areas; Low-energy/low-carbon urban ecosystems; Energy-efficient urban transitions; Sustainable urban living; Drivers and barriers for low-energy/low-carbon solutions; Energy system changes in urban communities. The guest editors are: Prof. Dr. Jukka Heinonen, Assistant Prof. Dr. Sanna Ala-Mantila, Dr. Ortzi Akizu-Gardoki https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies/special_issues/Energy_Efficient_Cities_2019#info
Economic worlds, activist worlds-- Contentiousness, boundaries, and cooperation
A special issue of the Revue française de sociologie will consider on the one hand that social movements are stakeholders in the functioning of the markets, and on the other that all the markets are sensitive to criticism, whether direct or indirect, from the most mundane (food markets and automobile markets for example) to the most central (financial markets) – or most recent (digital markets). This issue seeks to publish contributions that shed light on the forms and effects of the interactions, and even the hybridizations, between the activist world and the economic world. Papers may consider empirical investigations of activist groups, firms, or markets. They should prioritize research objects that are central to the economy rather than those on the margins, which have been more widely studied. Proposals (min. 1,000 words – max. 1,500 words, bibliography not included) should be submitted, in French or English, to the editorial secretary, Christelle Germain (christelle.germain@cnrs.fr), by May 31, 2019.
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Pien Gerards, a Dutch student living in Zwolle, studies Global Project and Change Management on Windesheim Honours College. She writes here about the WEAll (Wellbeing Economy Alliance) Youth movement and reflects on the New Economics and Social Innovation Forum held recently in Malaga, Spain.
Introducing WEAll Youth and Reflections from the NESI Forum
WEAll is an international network of people and organisations who strive to create a wellbeing economy for all people and the planet. Together with 3 other women we work on different actions to get youth involved. For example, we are organizing a “beach clean-up” to get youth to get their hands dirty, actually see what is happening and where their trash can end up if they do not recycle properly. Next to this we are organizing an event on what a wellbeing economy actually means. Lastly, I am doing a research on how young people can adapt their lifestyle to a more sustainable one. Especially focused on youth (12-30) because from personal experience I know that there are boundaries to actually change and I would like to wipe out those boundaries. Please fill it out the survey here and share it with your network!
Last week was the NESI (New Economics and Social Innovation) Forum. It was a very inspiring forum and I met a lot of interesting people. In these three days we travelled to the year 2030. The big questions were, what does our economy look like in 2030 and what did we do in 2019 to get there?
The days were divided into 6 tracks, the future of finance, the future of work, the future of recourse and energy, sustainable textile, food sovereignty and housing and urban. Within those tracks interactive discussion took place about what was happening in the industry right now (2019), which are positive aspects and which do we want to keep and grow? How will this industry look like in 2030? And the last question was, what do we need to do to get there?
Personally, I was mostly interested in the sustainable textile track. This is because fashion is big influence in my life and it has a much, much bigger impact on our earth!! Next to it being one of the biggest polluting industries, it is a big player in human slavery. We are caught in some sort of cycle were supply and demand are getting out of control.
The nice part of NESI was that they first made us look at the things that are going good right now, the components that are essential to maintain. Such as, employment the industry offers, alliances that are build, the demand for sustainable products, the demand for transparency in the supply chain, the demand for high quality textile, skills (sewing and repairing) and creativity and innovation. After this we talked about things that had to change fast like, volume that is produced, lack of quality, the value consumers put on clothing, working conditions, animal welfare, extreme consumerism and negative externalities which are not integrated in the price.
How will we enable this change? By raising awareness, regulations, technology, influencers and the power of social media, innovations, developments in new textiles, transparency, education, design to recycle and slow fashion. To make this change a success there are still some question to be ask, like, who is responsible? Are consumers willing to change? Are the brands willing to change? Who is going to pay? How do we prioritize? How to ensure equal access? And when is the deadline? These questions are left with us as food for thought…
NESI gave different viewpoints and solutions for the future. We talked about some of the most important topics for our future, which seems very scary but, in the end, it gave me a lot of hope and inspired me to keep working to create a wellbeing economy. It was great to see so many humans together who all are interested in creating a better future.
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WEBINAR: 1.5-Degree Lifestyles: Targets, Options and Transformative Communications
In this SCORAI-sponsored webinar, which was held as a live event on April 12, 2019, speakers Dr. Lewis Akenji, Director for Sustainable Consumption & Production, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, and Dr. Vanessa Timmer, Executive Director or One Earth and Senior Research Fellow at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University discuss the magnitude of potential changes in lifestyles needed in order to achieve the 1.5-degree aspirational target of the Paris Agreement on climate change. This webinar reviews findings of the new report by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Aalto University and D-Mat, financed by the KR Foundation and the Finnish Innovation Fund SITRA.
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Upcoming Conferences
Listed in chronological order, from coming-soon to farthest out on the horizon.
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STS Conference Graz 2019, "Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies"
Graz, Austria
May 6-7, 2019
The STS Conference Graz 2019 is the joint Annual Conference of the Science Technology and Society Unit of the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science of the Technical University of Graz, the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) and the Institute for Advanced Studies of Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS).
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Britain after Brexit: How to redesign the UK's role in sustainable development
Cambridge, United Kingdom
May 9, 2019
After months of negotiation on a Brexit deal, it is still unclear how things will work in the long-term in terms of national and international development. It is impossible to know the future, and to have any perfect solutions. But it is not impossible to use logical deduction and socio-systems level understanding to analyse how we can redesign the UK's role to promote sustainable development in the post-Brexit world.
As a part of the Resilience and Sustainable Development Programm (RSDP) lecture series, we bring in the following experts from academic, political and development background to discuss, debate and deliberate on how to redesign the UK's role in sustainable development.
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EUGEO Congress 2019 in Conjunction with the 51st Conference of Irish Geographers
National University of Ireland Galway
May 15-18, 2019
The theme for the 2019 EUGEO Congress is ‘Re-Imagining Europe’s Future Society and Landscapes’ and we invite sessions on this theme (and beyond) from all areas of the Discipline.
The conference will take place at the National University of Ireland Galway from May 15th – 18th (inclusive) and will include a series of keynotes, networking and social events throughout the four-day period. Some highlights include a Welcome Reception on May 15th and conference dinner on May 17th. Galway is an ideal location for the Congress; a vibrant city, full of rich cultural heritage and a gateway to many sites of geographical significance (e.g. Connemara and the Burren). Further details are available on the conference website: https://www.eugeo2019.eu/
The conference will be chaired by Dr Frances Fahy and Dr Kathy Reilly (Geography, NUI Galway) and the theme reflects on the centrality of the concepts of society and landscape within the Discipline of Geography. EUGEO 2019 in conjunction with the 51st Conference of Irish Geographers will offer participants the opportunity to reflect on and re-imagine futures within the geographical boundary of Europe and beyond.
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Business Opportunities in Advancing Sustainable Lifestyles in Greater Boston
University of Massachusetts, Boston
May 16, 2019
UMass Boston’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise and Regional Competitiveness (SERC) in partnership with SCORAI will host a workshop on sustainable lifestyles. Join progressive organizations, policy makers, nonprofits, and academics as they identify key actions to promoting a greener lifestyle as well as tactics to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Join the conversation Thursday, May 16, 8:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. UMass Boston’s University Hall, 2nd Floor, Room 2330.
For more information or to register visit https://www.umb.edu/serc/upcoming_events
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Hosted by the Centre for the Study of Security and Development and Department of Political Science, Dalhousie University. Co-sponsored by the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), Engage Nova Scotia, Green Analytics, the Canadian International Council.
A decade has passed since the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress called on world governments to find better ways to measure wellbeing and sustainability. Given the continued need for better prosperity measurements, and the growing knowledge base from recent Beyond-GDP initiatives, we believe it is timely to host an event to exchange and share that knowledge, and discuss the next steps forward. The workshop aims to advance academic, public, and policy debate on wellbeing measurement by bringing together Canadian and international academics, policy-makers and government officials, non-governmental organizations, and members of the public.
We have an exciting program with presentations by many leading researchers and practitioners, including a keynote talk by John Helliwell, professor emeritus in economics at the University of British Columbia and lead author of the annual World Happiness Report. Concluding sessions will discuss next steps in Canada and develop recommendations for governments.
More information including a draft workshop program and details on registration are available at: https://www.beyondgdpindicators.com/workshop-1
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Rewriting the Rules: Designing an Economy for the 21st Century
Cleveland, Ohio
May 27-29, 2019
The Biodiversity Funders Group (BFG) will host a New Economy funders meeting to explore how to rewrite the rules in designing an economy for the 21st Century in Cleveland, Ohio, a model city for community wealth building and new economic thinking. The set of ideas and rules that have dominated western political economy for the past 40 years are rapidly losing legitimacy. An emerging confluence of people are concerned about the harm our economic system is causing – political threats to open democratic societies, climate change and environmental degradation, growing inequality, accelerating technology change – and understand that the economy is undergoing a significant transition.
These problems have spawned a growing movement across academia, civil society and business to bring about a new economic paradigm. There is a hunger for new intellectual frameworks to make sense of these intertwined issues and help guide action.
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International Conference on Enhancing Consumer Awareness
Prospects for Advancing Consumer Rights Protection on Traditional and Digital Markets
Katowice, Poland
June 16-18, 2019
On June 6-18, 2019, University of Economics in Katowice, Poland, will host an International Conference on Enhancing Consumer Awareness. Sustainable Consumption is one of the topics in the call for abstracts. The conference organizers are extremely interested in including Sustainable Consumption as a session or a track in the conference program. SCORAI members are strongly encouraged to submit abstracts. Halina Brown, SCORAI co-founder and board member will give a keynote address. The topic of sustainable consumption is rapidly emerging among researchers in Poland, and this conference is an opportunity to give it a stronger foundation.
https://www.ue.katowice.pl/en/events/international-conference-on-enhancing-consumer-awareness.html
Deadline for submission of full papers via conference website: April 15, 2019
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THE 2019 CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION AND ENVIRONMENT IN VANCOUVER
Waterlines: Confluence and Hope through Environmental Communication
The 15th biennial Conference on Communication and Environment (COCE) University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
June 17-21, 2019
We are excited to have you join us in Vancouver, Canada for the 15th biennial Conference on Communication and Environment (COCE 2019). The conference will be held at the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus on the Point Grey headland, surrounded by forest and ocean, with views of the Coast Mountains and just 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver, all of which is part of the traditional unceded territory of the Musqueam people.
We have chosen communicating water - Waterlines - as the theme of the conference. Water connects with many environmental issues in the Pacific Northwest relating to energy production and distribution, land use, climate change, forestry, mining, development, and recreation. We think water is an under-researched area in the field of environmental communication and we are hoping to change that a bit.
The conference will bring together scholars, practitioners, artists, students and concerned citizens from around the world to share research, good practices, experience, and stories in order to help foster more effective, inspiring, ethical, and hopeful environmental and sustainability communication.
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IST 2019: Accelerating Sustainability Transitions
Building visions, unlocking pathways, navigating conflicts
Ottawa, Canada
June 23-26, 2019
The theme of IST 2019 – Accelerating sustainability transitions – seeks to address this challenging context by encouraging researchers and practitioners to examine obstacles to transitions processes and strategies to speed up the transformation of systems of production and consumption. It points to the importance of visions — of improved mobility systems, agricultural and food systems, buildings, cities and rural communities – to coordinate efforts and mobilize change. Raises the challenge of mapping out concrete pathways that can link the present with desirable futures. And emphasises navigation of the inevitable conflicts that accompany any serious efforts at societal change.
This 10th Anniversary event will mark the first time the IST conference has been held outside Europe. It will provide an occasion to highlight the achievements of international transition studies, to introduce researchers who are not yet familiar with transitions literatures to this vibrant community, and to explore complementarities with related research perspectives and approaches.
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Societal ever-expanding requirements have led to global competition for resources, and wealth being concentrated in a few hands. Dramatic societal crises and environmental conflicts emerge both in the South and in the North. The growth narrative builds on a very important belief: the idea that if we consume and possess more, we will be happier. However, from farmers’ protests in Delhi to buy nothing days, people stand against the present growth narrative and demand a different way of life that does not associate consumption with happiness.
As a response, degrowth develops other narratives and ideas. Over the last ten years, they have become more and more recognized. Recently a post-growth petition was signed by 90000 people. Scientific publications and special issues on degrowth are not rare anymore. We now count 10 major international conferences on degrowth, and more to come.
On this basis, this year the summer school will focus on the concrete responses that degrowth can give, and aims to prepare the next policy makers, activists, and academics to discuss degrowth alternatives. We will explore the various sources of degrowth, and their need to be integrated. The summer school will bring visions of degrowth in different sectors such as housing, transport, food, low-tech and energy, building new exciting stories. We also aim to practice horizontally governance and take account of all important perspectives, be it from the grass-roots or from policy makers. We believe that a stable collaboration, trust, and coordination between activists, practitioners and researchers leads to mutual learning towards a new path of socio-ecological transformations and inspiring narratives.
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We welcome Paper, Poster, Workstudio and Session proposals. Deadline: 21 January 2018 https://grf-spc.weebly.com/hong-kong-call-for-contributions.html
This conference actively explores the following four themes for research and practice:
Theme #1: Asian Perspectives and Priorities in SCP
Theme #2: Imagining Sustainable Futures and Transforming Cultures
Theme #3: Sustainable Lifestyles and Livelihoods
Theme #4: Smart, Circular, Sustainable Urbanization
We are also exploring these themes through a number of cross-cutting topics: politics and democracy, civic engagement and knowledge transfer, gender, and social justice. A full description of the conference can be found here: https://grf-spc.weebly.com/hong-kong-2019.html. The GRF conference is also an opportunity to interact with policymakers and practitioners including the SWITCH to Green Initiative. We warmly welcome you to Hong Kong to strengthen the community of researchers and practitioners engaged in research on the worldwide transition to sustainable production and consumption systems.
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COMMUNICATING RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABILITY AND GLOBAL CHANGE
The Potsdam Summer School 2019 is calling for applications now!
Potsdam, Germany
August 20-29, 2019
The 2019 Potsdam Summer School (PSS) will explore the importance of science communication in order to find effective ways of communicating highly relevant topics in the field of sustainability and global change. With its ten-day program, the PSS 2019 will enable participants to create individual as well as organizational communication strategies to various audiences. This includes both the reactive elements of press and media relations as well as the proactive communication via traditional and new media outlets. Since the sharing of interdisciplinary knowledge and expertise is highly relevant, the following questions will also guide the ten-day program:
- How can scientists address audiences from other societal areas?
- Can all sustainability topics be communicated equally?
- Should scientists become advocates rather than taking neutral positions only?
- How to deal with incomplete or wrongly presented scientific information?
- How to reduce complexity, without losing the scientific character?
- How to strengthen the credibility of scientific findings?
With its overarching theme – “Connecting Science & Society – Communicating Research on Sustainability and Global Change – this year’s Potsdam Summer School will continue the transdisciplinary and interactive event series that has been held annually in Potsdam, Germany since 2014. The summer school will provide its participants with a comprehensive look into theories and methods of science communication. They will be engaged in discussions and group works and will be provided with tools to develop effective communication strategies.
The aim is to bring together talented early-career scientists and young professionals operating in the private sector, governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations from many different parts of the world to discuss frontier (research) questions on future sustainable development. We also aim to train science communication ambassadors eager to engage with various sectors of the public back in their home countries. Our goal is to improve science awareness and help to develop informed opinions and enhance the transferable skills of current researchers.
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from Alexander von Humboldt’s KOSMOS to today’s Global Challenges:
Navigating the Sustainability Transformation in the 21st Century
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
August 28-30, 2019
This conference will provide a landmark for today’s great challenges towards sustainability. A critical and constructive debate on the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be the focal point. The IRI THESys and the Geography Department are delighted to announce the opening of the Call for Contributions and kindly invite you to submit your contributions from all disciplines. Please hand in an abstract (max. 250 words) and register for the conference online at https://www.kosmos.hu-berlin.de/de/conference-contributions/registration-abstract-submission/ until 28th February 2019.
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Brazilian Academy of Management Meeting 2019
Track: Marketing and Society
Mackenzie University, Sao Paulo, Brazil
October 2nd- 5th, 2019
The theme of "Marketing and Society" lies in the field of Macromarketing, a field that is part of the non-interactive-non-economic perspective of marketing schools, which emerged from the 1960s onwards. Devotees to this field are dedicated to promoting a marketing systemic approach, to support strategies and policies for social well-being. The main purpose of the topic is to discuss the numerous aspects related to the effects of marketing on society, analyzing both the positive aspects and the dysfunctions and problems inherent to this relationship. This track recommends submissions related, but not limited to, the following issues:
- Marketing and Society
- Macromarketing
- Transformative Consumer Research
- Sustainable Consumption
- Vulnerable consumers
Submission Instructions: http://www.anpad.org.br/~anpad/eventos.php cod_evento=1&cod_evento_edicao=96&cod_edicao_subsecao=1613
May 16th, 2019: Final date for submissions (05:59 PM BRT)
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EcoCity World Summit 2019
Vancouver, Canada
October 7-11, 2019
This is a biennial event that happens on a different continent and represents one of the world’s longest running and most influential conferences on building sustainable cities. The theme of the upcoming Summit is “Socially Just and Ecologically Sustainable Cities” based on the International Ecocity Standards (www.ecocitystandards.org) that address many issues pertinent to sustainable modes of production and consumption. Specifically, the program committee would like to ensure that the conference provides a forum for conversations on sustainable lifestyles and behaviours.
This conference represents an opportunity to bring together a dynamic group of stakeholders, beyond the usual subjects. It links city building professionals (architects, planners, engineering) with ecologists and social scientists who are interested in tracking and managing the urban metabolism of cities to enable people to live within global ecological carrying capacity.
The call for papers and proposals will be open until April, providing groups plenty of time to put together thoughtful papers, workshops, fieldtrips, training activities, posters or presentations. All accepted proposals will be confirmed by June. The Ecocity World Summit appeals to a mix of academics and practitioners.
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The 19th ERSCP-- Circular Europe for Sustainability: Design, Production and Consumption
Barcelona, Spain
October 14-19, 2019
The European Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP) is one of Europe's most remarkable conferences in its field and has taken place periodically since 1994. ERSCPs favour discussions about the key issues in sustainable consumption and production; the exchange of thoughts, knowledge, experiences and SCP proposals; and the creation of a European (also worldwide) community of research and practice in sustainable consumption and production. The main goal of the ERSCPs is to encourage discussion amongst stakeholders involved in sustainable consumption and production: businesses, public institutions, universities, institutes and research centres, NGOs, SMEs, professional associations, decision-makers, etc.
ERSCP 2019 will explore innovative and transformational conference formats. Along with traditional presentation sessions, the conference will offer spaces for discussions and debates, as well as for collaborative workshops and other non-traditional conference sessions. Next to regular paper and poster abstracts, proposals for dialogue sessions are welcomed. Each participant can do a maximum of two paper presentations.
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ENERGISE Final Conference
October 15, 2019
Barcelona, Spain
We are now well into the final year of the ENERGISE project, which concludes in November 2019. Our fieldwork is complete, and we have started to analyse data collected from our Living Labs, with over 300 households participating across 8 European countries. We already see that our results have generated exciting new insights into social and cultural influences on household energy use, as well as advancing the notion of ‘energy sufficiency’. We will continue to update our website and social media accounts with the latest developments from the project.
Thisevent will be held in conjunction with the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production ERSCP 2019 conference, which takes place from 15-18 October 2019. We would be delighted if you could join us in Barcelona for our final event, where we will present and discuss high-level findings from the project. We would be grateful if you could register your interest by clicking on the link below. Click here to register for ENERGISE final conference.
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While the notion of sustainability continues to be associated with the Brundtland Report (1987) and the concept of sustainable development, it is increasingly seeking to emancipate itself in order to provide a representation of the world that is consistent with the aspirations of the moment. Everything must be sustainable; agriculture, food, natural resources, biodiversity, water, energy, cities, territories, tourism... At the risk of falling into overkill and excess, our social model must be part of a strong sustainability and refuse any compromise with possible cover-ups (we can mention here green growth, green washing, decoupling or even the latest creation, sustainable innovation).
The call for papers intends to use these facts and expectations to question the paradigms, models, scenarios and practices that embody this thirst for sustainability. As curious as it may seem, subjects such as renewable energies, participatory democracy, organic farming and eco-cities did not wait to be driven by the wave of sustainability to claim certain practices or propose alternative representations. As a result, one may wonder what meaning should be given to the very idea of sustainability and the representations it conveys.
Proposals for papers in English or French must include a summary of 350 to 500 words, a title, the names of the authors and their institutions, their emails. Deadline of Abstracts: Proposals must be received by June 30, 2019
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This international conference will convene scholars and practitioners to focus on sustainable consumption as it relates to urban issues and social equity.
- 3 day event in the heart of Boston
- High-profile keynote speakers
- Diverse transdisciplinary research presentations
- Practitioner workshops
- Local field trips
- Convenient and affordable on-campus accommodation available
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 Mainstreaming Low-Carbon Lifectyles
Climate Outreach Report
A new report published by Climate Outreach outlines strategies for mainstreaming low-carbon lifestyles. Drawing on key findings from Cardiff University's Low Carbon Lifestyles & Behavioural Spillover (CASPI) programme, it offers a set of recommendations for moving beyond small-scale approaches to behavioural change. Designed for policymakers, local authorities, professional campaigners, and community leaders, it is framed around on the following points: When does one behaviour lead to another? Why values and identity are crucial for lifestyle change; Promoting positive social norms around low-carbon lifestyles & the power of peer-to-peer engagement; Promoting positive social norms around low-carbon lifestyles & the power of peer-to-peer engagement; Telling an authentically positive story about low-carbon lifestyles; Learning from the past - moving from ‘nudge’ to ‘think’ as the strategy for mainstreaming low-carbon lifestyles; Focusing on the behaviours and audiences that really matter.
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 The Geographical Distribution and Correlates of Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors in an Urban Region
Energies
Áróra Árnadóttir, Michał Czepkiewicz and Jukka Heinonen
A lot of emphasis has been put on the densification of urban form to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. However, many recent studies have found that central urban dwellers, even though their carbon footprints of daily transportation may be lower, might be responsible for higher total emissions than those that reside in suburban areas. Similarly, as with the urban form, higher environmental concern is often considered as an indicator of lower emissions, but several studies have found that pro-environmental attitude (PEA) does not always correlate with less energy intensive behavior. This study analyzes how urban zones, PEA, and several sociodemographic variables are associated with annual travel emissions and pro-environmental behaviors (PEB), using a dataset collected with a map-based online survey (softGIS) survey, contributed by 841 participants from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), Finland.
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 Sufficiency and consumer behaviour: From theory to policy
Energy Policy
Joachim H. Spangenberg & Sylvia Lorek
It is increasingly obvious that for safeguarding environmental sustainability, eco-efficiency measures will need to be complemented by sufficiency, in particular by strong sustainable consumption. The Theory of Planned Behaviour TPB and Social Practice Theory SPT offer different views on consumer behaviour, and on ways to change it. This paper briefly describes the challenges, discusses the applicability of both theories and their meaningfulness for policy recommendations. The authors suggest an approach combining results of both bodies of theory, complemented by ideas from political economy, to substantiate the Prism of Sustainable Consumption we introduce as a heuristic sufficiency policy tool. It is useful to identify affordability criteria for change in each dimension, as the basis for deriving suggestions for effective policy interventions. They conclude that (i) effective interventions are possible, (ii) they have to address several dimensions of affordability simultaneously, and (iii) the sufficiency policy space prism can be a useful tool in structuring planned interventions.
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 Greening the poor: the trap of moralization
British Journal Of Sociology
Hadrien Malier
This article uses ethnographic data to engage a critical reflection on the tension between individual responsibility for the environment and inequality. While research has shown that the majority of sustainable consumers are middle and upper class, educated and white individuals, the study explores how the ethical injunction to ecological sustainability is being introduced to lower‐income neighbourhoods in France. It draws on the observation of a national programme which aims at supporting inhabitants of public housing estates in the process of greening their lifestyle in order to fight climate change and fuel poverty. The paper analyses how environmental responsibilization is specific in that it calls upon a responsibility towards others, towards the common good. Using the Foucauldian concept of ‘subjectivation’, it describes and analyses the moral work implied by such behaviour change programmes. It demonstrates that a negative representation of poor households and a moral framing of the responsibility for the environment lead to a moralization of their lifestyle under the heading of ‘eco‐friendly behaviours’. A paradoxical result of such endeavours is that the social group with the least impactful lifestyle on the environment is the one which is moralized in the most intrusive and resolute manner. The article shows, however, that the tenants manage to resist the normalizing discourse on sustainable living, for reasons which are not anti‐environmentalist. This piece thus provides interesting results for sustainability studies as well as for the sociology of the regulation of underprivileged neighbourhoods. Content Sharing Link: https://rdcu.be/buHnK
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 Dynamic Norms Drive Sustainable Consumption: Norm-based Nudging Helps Café Customers to Avoid Disposable To-Go-Cups
Journal of Economic Psychology
Loschelder, D. D., Siepelmeyer, H., Fischer, D., Rubel, J., & Rubel, J. A.
Excess use of disposable to-go-cups constitutes a severe sustainability threat. Behavioral economics and economic psychology suggest various antidotes. In the present paper, we report two studies – a large-scale intervention field study and an experiment – that constitute independent, pre-registered, and open replication attempts of a recently-introduced intervention procedure: dynamic social norms. We tested whether a dynamic norm, along the lines of “more and more customers are switching from to-go-cups to a sustainable alternative. Be part of this movement and choose a reusable mug” – can help café customers to avoid disposable to-go-cups. Data from a fourteen-week intervention experiment with a total of 23,946 hot beverages sold – 18,019 in disposable cups and 5,927 in reusable mugs – suggest that a dynamic-norm intervention for sustainable consumption helps customers avoid disposable cups and increases their use of reusable alternatives by 17.3% (or 4.1 percentage points). A follow-up online experiment corroborates this pattern and shows advantageous effects of a dynamic norm relative to a no-norm control condition, a static norm, an injunctive norm, and a combination of static-and-injunctive norm. In light of inconsistent and, at times, failed or even reversed replication results for seminal social norms studies, the present pre-registered studies indicate that dynamic norms are an effective means to facilitate sustainable behavior. We discuss scientific and applied implications and avenues for future research. For full text, please contact Daniel Fischer at dfische6@asu.edu
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 How Sustainability-Related Challenges Can Fuel Conflict Between Organizations and External Stakeholders: A Social Psychological Perspective to Master Value Differences Time Horizons, and Resource Allocations
Umweltpsychologie
Majer, J. M., Loschelder, D. D., Windolph, L. J., & Fischer, D.
The present conceptual article seeks to contribute to the literature on sustainability-related conflicts between organizations and their external stakeholder groups. We propose that (1) specific characteristics of sustainability issues can dramatically complicate conflict resolution between organizations and their stakeholders and (2) that social psychology has several leverage points to offer to master sustainability-related challenges and to alleviate intergroup conflicts. The conflict-exacerbating characteristics explored in this paper on basis of a real-world business case include: (1) value and identity differences, (2) proximal, distal, and divergent time horizons, and (3) bilateral allocation of resources. From these challenges, we derive leverage points for possible interventions in sustainability-related intergroup conflicts. On the theoretical level, we focus on the Common Ingroup Identity Model, on the Construal Level Theory, and on Framing approaches that are applied to sustainability-related conflicts. We discuss theory-based interventions that aim to mitigate sustainability-related conflicts, the applicability of these interventions for practitioners, as well as avenues of future research. For full text, please contact Daniel Fischer at dfische6@asu.edu
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A warm welcome to 11 new SCORAI affiliates who have joined us during the past month, bringing our total membership to 1127 individuals.
- Carmen Valor
- Andrea Eaves
- Stephanie Lenhart
- Carolina Souza
- Devin Smith
- Hugh Pattinson
- Bob Connor
- Sal Paulos
- Anna Jenkins
- Jane Feeney
- Emma Li
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Updated SCORAI Mission Statement
SCORAI (Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative), founded in 2008, is an international knowledge network of researchers and practitioners committed to advancing sustainability by focusing on societal patterns of consumption. SCORAI recognizes that technological innovation alone is insufficient to achieve sustainability; changes are required in societal institutions, cultures, and economic systems. SCORAI’s mission is to facilitate a transition to a more sustainable society by generating knowledge that impacts discourse and supports change agents.
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