IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/agfoec/v11y2023i1d10.1186_s40100-023-00259-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Narratives to revert overconsumption: human-nature interdependence and Circular Economy

Author

Listed:
  • M. Borrello

    (University of Naples Federico II - Via Università 100)

  • L. Cembalo

    (University of Naples Federico II - Via Università 100)

  • V. D’Amico

    (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna)

Abstract

Policy and practitioners’ initiatives to stimulate sustainable consumption have so far failed to have notable impact on individuals’ behaviors. The current commentary is a plea to social and sustainability scientists, particularly to economists dealing with sustainable agri-food systems, to dig deeper into the notion of narratives to trigger societal dynamics that stir consumers toward more sufficient lifestyles. As dominant cultural narratives have a critical role in shaping shared meanings and acceptable behaviors, in the future they could guide dramatic changes in individuals’ conduct, triggering drastic modifications of current consumption patterns. Based on the power that concepts as the Circular Economy and the Anthropocene have had in the recent past, a future step to develop an ecological worldview across society, and nourish individual identities deeply committed with the preservation of natural ecosystems, is working on narratives based on the notion of human-nature interdependence.

Suggested Citation

  • M. Borrello & L. Cembalo & V. D’Amico, 2023. "Narratives to revert overconsumption: human-nature interdependence and Circular Economy," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:agfoec:v:11:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1186_s40100-023-00259-6
    DOI: 10.1186/s40100-023-00259-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s40100-023-00259-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s40100-023-00259-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Wiedmann & Manfred Lenzen & Lorenz T. Keyßer & Julia K. Steinberger, 2020. "Scientists’ warning on affluence," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Spangenberg, Joachim H. & Lorek, Sylvia, 2019. "Sufficiency and consumer behaviour: From theory to policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1070-1079.
    3. Brunso, Karen & Scholderer, Joachim & Grunert, Klaus G., 2004. "Closing the gap between values and behavior--a means-end theory of lifestyle," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 665-670, June.
    4. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    5. Ilan Chabay & Larissa Koch & Grit Martinez & Geeske Scholz, 2019. "Influence of Narratives of Vision and Identity on Collective Behavior Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Paschen, Jana-Axinja & Ison, Ray, 2014. "Narrative research in climate change adaptation—Exploring a complementary paradigm for research and governance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 1083-1092.
    7. Berkhout, Peter H. G. & Muskens, Jos C. & W. Velthuijsen, Jan, 2000. "Defining the rebound effect," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(6-7), pages 425-432, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goggins, Gary & Rau, Henrike & Moran, Paul & Fahy, Frances & Goggins, Jamie, 2022. "The role of culture in advancing sustainable energy policy and practice," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Figge, Frank & Thorpe, Andrea Stevenson, 2023. "Circular economy, operational eco-efficiency, and sufficiency. An integrated view," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PB).
    3. Jouni Korhonen & Birk Granberg, 2020. "Sweden Backcasting, Now?—Strategic Planning for Covid-19 Mitigation in a Liberal Democracy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-15, May.
    4. Steve Kennedy & Martina K. Linnenluecke, 2022. "Circular economy and resilience: A research agenda," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(6), pages 2754-2765, September.
    5. Steven R. McGreevy & Christoph D. D. Rupprecht & Daniel Niles & Arnim Wiek & Michael Carolan & Giorgos Kallis & Kanang Kantamaturapoj & Astrid Mangnus & Petr Jehlička & Oliver Taherzadeh & Marlyne Sah, 2022. "Sustainable agrifood systems for a post-growth world," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(12), pages 1011-1017, December.
    6. Lillemo, Shuling Chen, 2014. "Measuring the effect of procrastination and environmental awareness on households' energy-saving behaviours: An empirical approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 249-256.
    7. MacCarty, Nordica A. & Bryden, Kenneth Mark, 2016. "An integrated systems model for energy services in rural developing communities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 536-557.
    8. Boudet, Hilary S. & Flora, June A. & Armel, K. Carrie, 2016. "Clustering household energy-saving behaviours by behavioural attribute," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 444-454.
    9. Davide Bruno & Marinella Ferrara & Felice D’Alessandro & Alberto Mandelli, 2022. "The Role of Design in the CE Transition of the Furniture Industry—The Case of the Italian Company Cassina," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-20, July.
    10. Francesca Gennari, 2023. "The transition towards a circular economy. A framework for SMEs," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(4), pages 1423-1457, December.
    11. Jaroslaw Golebiewski & Josu Takala & Oskar Juszczyk & Nina Drejerska, 2019. "Local contribution to circular economy. A case study of a Polish rural municipality," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 21(3), pages 771-791.
    12. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    13. Castro, Damaris & Bleys, Brent, 2023. "Do people think they have enough? A subjective income sufficiency assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    14. Lowe, Robert, 2003. "A theoretical analysis of price elasticity of energy demand in multi-stage energy conversion systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(15), pages 1699-1704, December.
    15. Alcott, Blake, 2008. "The sufficiency strategy: Would rich-world frugality lower environmental impact," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 770-786, February.
    16. Karen Turner, 2013. ""Rebound" Effects from Increased Energy Efficiency: A Time to Pause and Reflect," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    17. Ouyang, Jinlong & Long, Enshen & Hokao, Kazunori, 2010. "Rebound effect in Chinese household energy efficiency and solution for mitigating it," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 5269-5276.
    18. Hong, Junjie & Shi, Fangyuan & Zheng, Yuhan, 2023. "Does network infrastructure construction reduce energy intensity? Based on the “Broadband China” strategy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    19. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    20. Zell-Ziegler, Carina & Thema, Johannes & Best, Benjamin & Wiese, Frauke & Lage, Jonas & Schmidt, Annika & Toulouse, Edouard & Stagl, Sigrid, 2021. "Enough? The role of sufficiency in European energy and climate plans," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:agfoec:v:11:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1186_s40100-023-00259-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.