Abstract
Consumption is a multi-faceted topic that relates to an extensive set of socio-economic and cultural aspects - such as identities, class aspirations, industrial production, and the environment - and stakeholders - “business, consumers, policy makers, researchers, retailers, media, and development cooperation agencies”. Following the development of civil society, the nature of consumption has continued to evolve: from being a necessity for survival and storage of value, to a reflection of civility and social position, to its transformation into a means of improving one’s quality of life. Attitudes towards consumption have similarly changed over time. During the 15th and 16th century Renaissance, possessions were viewed with a culture of refinement rather than novelty, while shopping and excess viewed as morally disquieting. Fears of moral corruption and excess continued into the 17th and 18th century, before gradually becoming replaced by attitudes that saw consumption as liberation for women, and the emergence of the home as a space for consumption in the early 20th century. Sustained improvements in economic trade links, transportation networks, production technologies and organised systems of labour on the one hand, as well as a universal rise in wages on the other hand, have led to an environment wherein the consumption of goods and services can, and have taken place with increasing ease. Attendant spaces for consumption have similarly transformed over time, from small peddler and cooperatives, market halls that consolidated large masses of individual stalls, to commercial malls and shopping centres with a high concentration and variety of shops that emerged across various urban centres in the past decades. In recent years, these spaces have been joined by a rapidly expanding sector of online consumption facilitated by virtual platforms complemented by an expanded logistics network. Contemporary consumption patterns are hastened by two developments: one, a pervasive media that permeates both physical and virtual environments, creating and heightening psychological temptation and desire for further consumption. Two, a maturing state of technological tools and attendant infrastructural networks that further improves the ease and speed of consumption. Under these circumstances, consumption levels have continued to grow to levels that have been recognised as environmentally unsustainable. In both growing urban centres as well as rural hinterlands, businesses respond to the growing demand for goods by drawing increasing amounts of raw material for various modes of economic production. Abstract CONSUME TO LIVE 2 In 1972, the Club of Rome, a group of scientists, businessmen and professionals, published its first report, warning that in a world of finite resources there were limits to growth. Today, emerging statistics continue to reflect warning signs about the existing state of consumption and its attendant production systems. Between 2000 and 2015, global clothing production doubled, while the average number of times that a garment was worn before disposal declined by 36 percent. In China, it declined by 70 percent. Coupled with the phenomenon of ‘fast fashion’, where seasonal fashion trends are quickly incorporated into retail lines by businesses, this points to a rising tide of secondhand clothes that ends up either in an already shrinking secondhand market, or in landfills. These trends point to the twin realities of resource depletion and excess waste generation, an impending detriment for the environment, and economy. Existing initiatives have attempted to transform the production-consumption cycle into a more sustainable one, such as the emergence of the circulareconomy model and improvements in recycled manufacturing technology. Others, such as the World Watch Institute, have called for a ‘wholesale transformation’ of cultural patterns due to the severity of the situation. Against a backdrop of rising consumerism in the mid-20th century, Jean Saint-Geours, a founding member of the Club of Rome, recognised the need for growth to be slowed down and managed, and argued it was foolish to think that any progress could be made by forsaking consumption. He imagined a ‘post-industrial society’ where the pleasure and freedom to consume would revolve around new experiences. In this regard, this thesis aims to explore the opportunities to influence the behavioural norms and attitudes towards contemporary consumption, with the hopes of enacting changes that are effective in the longer term.