In this edited volume, the leading scholars in the field engage with
consumers, marketers, corporations and policymakers as well as space
dynamics and network formation to provide an in-depth examination of
anti-consumption: a voluntary behavioural inclination to minimise rather
than grow, to decelerate and simplify and to reduce the unnecessary
exploitation of resources fuelled by consumer culture. This book does
not place anti-consumption on the high moral ground but rather
demonstrates its complexity to spur innovative and critical thinking on
how people, organisations, businesses and governments can treat
consumption more as a necessity for survival than as a tool for
self-expression, pleasure and economic growth.
The first part of this book looks at anti-consumption from a diversity
of perspectives. It analyses voluntary simplicity, a self-motivated
engagement in consumption reduction, and boycotting, a
politically-motivated reaction against unacceptable corporate practices,
as distinct manifestations of anti-consumption that nonetheless remain
rooted in the logic of the market. Paving the way to critical
perspectives on the interface between anti-consumption, people and the
environment, the second part of the book projects anti-consumption to
issues of waste production and provides possible answers to global
challenges of resources depletion, social inequalities and global
warming. In this section, anti-consumption is critically assessed as an
actor of change, both in terms of social change and paradigm change. To
move the field forward, the third part of this book presents several
theoretical frameworks that help set a roadmap for future research.
Anti-Consumption will be of direct interest to scholars and
researchers within the fields of marketing, consumer research, business
studies, environmental studies and sustainability. It will also be of
value to those researching the economics and/or sociology of markets.
