TY - JOUR

T1 - Sustainable Consumption - Mapping the Terrain

T2 - An Exploratory Review of Contested Themes and their Representation in Consumer Education

AU - Fischer, Daniel

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - This article sets out to merge two strands of discussion. The first strand refers to the post- Rio discourse and the growing interest in sustainable consumption both in the academic literature and in policy making. Yet and despite many efforts towards an integration of the field, sustainable consumption remains a controversial concept that lacks a consensual definition and that can best be perceived of as an umbrella term accommodating a wide scope of competing discourses. The second strand refers to the role of education in the context of sustainable consumption. Education features prominently on the agenda of political efforts related to changing unsustainable consumption patterns and the dissemination of more sustainable lifestyles. The current rhetoric of education as a “tool” to achieving sustainable development objectives has been criticized for illegitimately attempting to instrumentalize education for political means. In light of this pedagogical principles have been formulated to commit educational practice to treat controversial issues as controversial and not to overwhelm students with desirable opinions (Beutelsbach Consensus). This article provides a heuristic mapping of key themes in the context of sustainable consumption and discusses their representation in teaching resources. A twofold approach is followed. In a systematic review of both introductory academic literature from different disciplinary contexts and teaching resources, themes addressed in the context of sustainable consumption are identified using a general inductive approach (Thomas 2006). In the next step, the identified sets of themes are related to each other, merged into a heuristic map of sustainable consumption and critically discussed against the background of the propositions of the Beutelsbach consensus. Finally, the findings are summarized and an outlook is given on potential foci of further research in the field of education for sustainable consumption.

AB - This article sets out to merge two strands of discussion. The first strand refers to the post- Rio discourse and the growing interest in sustainable consumption both in the academic literature and in policy making. Yet and despite many efforts towards an integration of the field, sustainable consumption remains a controversial concept that lacks a consensual definition and that can best be perceived of as an umbrella term accommodating a wide scope of competing discourses. The second strand refers to the role of education in the context of sustainable consumption. Education features prominently on the agenda of political efforts related to changing unsustainable consumption patterns and the dissemination of more sustainable lifestyles. The current rhetoric of education as a “tool” to achieving sustainable development objectives has been criticized for illegitimately attempting to instrumentalize education for political means. In light of this pedagogical principles have been formulated to commit educational practice to treat controversial issues as controversial and not to overwhelm students with desirable opinions (Beutelsbach Consensus). This article provides a heuristic mapping of key themes in the context of sustainable consumption and discusses their representation in teaching resources. A twofold approach is followed. In a systematic review of both introductory academic literature from different disciplinary contexts and teaching resources, themes addressed in the context of sustainable consumption are identified using a general inductive approach (Thomas 2006). In the next step, the identified sets of themes are related to each other, merged into a heuristic map of sustainable consumption and critically discussed against the background of the propositions of the Beutelsbach consensus. Finally, the findings are summarized and an outlook is given on potential foci of further research in the field of education for sustainable consumption.

KW - Sustainability education

KW - Sustainable Consumption

KW - Education for sustainable consumption

KW - Consumer education

KW - Transformative Education

KW - Consumer Culture

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://ijs.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.41/prod.680

U2 - 10.18848/1832-2077/CGP/v06i03/54789

DO - 10.18848/1832-2077/CGP/v06i03/54789

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 6

SP - 207

EP - 226

JO - The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability

JF - The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability

SN - 1832-2077

IS - 3

ER -