Content with keyword: sustainable consumption

What Do We Really Need? Questioning Consumption Through Sufficiency

Hélène Gorge, Maud Herbert, Nil Özçglar-Toulouse and Isabelle Robert. Paper published in Journal of Macromarketing 1-12 (2014).

illustration-sufficiencyThis article introduces the concept of sufficiency, its specific dual nature (voluntary and obliged), and its collective implications to the literature on sustainability. Sufficiency implies a reorganization of consumption priorities and is introduced by a discussion of consumerism and the dominant social paradigm. Long interviews with sufficient people show the complexity of the construct, which creates semantic oppositions around the notion of having (everything vs.… >> continue reading

Institutionalization of sustainable development and emergence of sustainable marketing

Amina Béji-Bécheur and Nil Özçaglar-Toulouse. Editorial in Recherche et Applications Marketing, 2014, 29(3) 3-9.

Sustainable development is now introduced into discourses as an alternative and legitimate model to address one of the problems of our modern times: it is high time we combined both economic development and the preservation of natural resources, social rights and equity in the distribution of created wealth (…)

Read full text on: http://rme.sagepub.com/content/29/3/3.full.pdf+html

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Barriers to downward carbon emission: Exploring sustainable consumption in the face of the glass floor

Hélène Cherrier, Mathilde Szuba & Nil Özçağlar-Toulouse (2012). Paper published in Journal of Marketing Management, 28:3-4, 397-419.

illustration-co2-footprintThe present study explores the constraining forces to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG) via alternative and/or reduced consumption. The analysis of introspection, netnography, ethnographic work, and 18 interviews demonstrates that needs are not innate human requirements and that consumers are not free and autonomous agents able to incorporate reduced or alternative consumption within their lifestyles.… >> continue reading

SOBRIETES project on energy sufficiency

This research project is supported by Conseil régional Nord-Pas-Calais and ADEME (the French Agency for Environment and Energy Conservation). It involves 3 regional research centers: Ceraps (Lille 2), Clersé (Lille 1) and LSMRC (Lille 2). A network of institutional and civil society partners is associated to the project.

Beyong energy efficiency and renewables, ‘energy sufficiency’ can play an important role in achieving a ‘Factor 4’ reduction in fossil fuel consumption. This project aims at better understanding and collecting practices related to energy sufficiency in the French Nord Pas de Calais region.… >> continue reading

What Meaning do Responsible Consumers Give to their Consumption? An Approach by Narratives

Nil Özçağlar-Toulouse. Paper published in Recherche et Applications en Marketing, Volume : 24, Numero :3/2009, Pages : 3-23.

illustration-caddieCurrent ethical, social and environmental concerns are reviving the topic of meaning in consumption practices. In order to improve our understanding of responsible consumers, this article studies the meaning of responsible consumption using the method of narratives and a structural analysis. The results show a set of common features among narrators: escaping ill-being, searching for the authentic self, avoiding isolation and controlling one’s own life.… >> continue reading