RECLAIMING CONSUMPTION Quantity, quality, sustainability

It is surely beyond doubt that current consumption trends are socially unjust and environmentally unsustainable. Scientists and practitioners who argue for sustainable consumption need not continue to theorize the environmental consequences of overconsumption; rather, emphasis should now be directed towards creating the changes in culture, policy, and regulation required to foster sustainable consumption. In this respect, current approaches that build an argument for reducing material consumption on normative principles likely have the effect of “preaching to the choir ” rather than encouraging widespread reform. Attempts to change individual and aggregate behaviour should be constructed upon narratives of satisfaction in lieu of sacrifice. Drawing on extant literature on sustainable consumption in its various guises, as well as 26 interviews conducted with families who seek to reduce their material consumption, I advance the notion of “reclaiming consumption”. Reclaiming consumption involves shifting from quantity to quality in consuming and requires reflexivity with regards to the impacts of consumption on oneself, others, and the environment. In this way, reducing consumption can add to quality of life and thus offers a narrative framework built upon pleasure rather than sacrifice. In elaborating on theoretical and practical literature, I develop an analysis of how reflexive consumption practices include an emphasis on high quality products