Sustainable consumption: an intractable problem?

This book assesses the consumption problem both from a sociological and philosophical perspective by linking with some recent thinking in these disciplines, while adding to this by exploring consumption’s interactions with production and, crucially, the supply chains (or ‘webs’) that link consumption and production. Consumption is at the heart of contemporary capitalism, meaning that any viable alternative to capitalism will need to focus on developing a convincing argument as to how we reform and/or manage people’s relationship to their ‘stuff’. The capitalist system contains cracks and openings that, according to Gibson-Graham (2006), have the potential to lead to different kinds of being, which may provide us with the opportunity to glimpse and stimulate more progressive ways of relating to the products that we use. This would represent an attenuated or ‘tempered capitalism’.