Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
URL http://www.google.de/archives/vol10iss1/1210-049.spangenberg.html
Titel (primär) Institutional change for sustainable consumption: sustainable consumption and the degrowth economy
Autor Spangenberg, J.H.
Quelle Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy
Erscheinungsjahr 2014
Department BZF
Band/Volume 10
Heft 1
Seite von 62
Seite bis 77
Sprache englisch
Keywords resource consumption, democracy, financial management, environmental impacts, public policy
UFZ Querschnittsthemen RU1;
Abstract The environmental space concept illustrates that socially unsustainable underconsumption must be overcome and environmentally unsustainable overconsumption must be phased out. The planetary boundaries help to quantify the “ceiling,” while the social protection floor concept operationalizes the linea de dignidad, the minimal conditions for a dignified life. In order for Western societies to respect these limits, significant institutional change is needed with respect to both orientations and mechanisms. For the ceiling, this article suggests a shift to an orientation of “better but less” for affluent groups, and toward “enough and better” for those still living in poverty. The corresponding mechanisms include a redistribution of income and wealth, a cap on income, an unconditional minimum income, and a strengthening of democracy. The choice of instruments has to take into account that consumption is to a large degree not an individual but a social act and to employ informational, financial, and legal measures that overcome the preference of decision makers for market instruments. Implementing these changes would alter the fabric of our societies. Important first steps can be taken here and now.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=15935
Spangenberg, J.H. (2014):
Institutional change for sustainable consumption: sustainable consumption and the degrowth economy
Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy 10 (1), 62 - 77