| Sustainable consumption
(20 Aug 03) |
| Web-based E-Conference, 15-September - 15 October 2003
Organized by the Unit for Social and Environmental Research (USER), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. (www.sea-user.org) and sponsored by the Initiative on Science and Technology for Sustainability (http://sustsci.harvard.edu/) with financial support from the Packard Foundation. The primary objective of this e-conference is to draw attention of researchers to the importance of consumption-related processes for sustainability. We hope to create a stimulating dialogue that will lead to better framing of research, and suggest new important areas of inquiry. The reason for our focus on "consumption" is, we argue, that research on sustainable development has focused its attention more on improving production technologies and paid insufficient attention to consumption-related processes and problems (including both under- and over-consumption). There are of course some notable exceptions, for example work on footprints, life-cycle analysis, industrial transformation and consumer behavior. We will look to these bodies of existing knowledge as a place to start dialogues. A consumption perspective compliments rather than replaces the work on production. Ultimately we see the importance of studying the sustainability of production-distribution-consumption systems in their entirety in much the same way that valuable insights are gained from looking at multiple stresses, and factors in place-based research. The conference will run for one month from the 15-September until the 10th October. Each week of the conference will be devoted to a particular sub-theme and be moderated by different people. The weekly themes are broadly: 1) Sustainable Consumption: What are the key concepts, terms and issues for this conference? Which ones can we mostly agree and what are the major differences in starting points that we should note and acknowledge? 2) Final Consumption: what drives changes in the consumption behaviour of individuals, households, governments and corporations? If consumer sovereignty is a myth then how constrained is choice? 3) Chains and webs: how does the structure and organization of production-distribution-consumption systems as a whole influence sustainability? How does consumption interact with other parts of a commodity chain or web? 4) Leverage Points: how can consumption-production systems be made more sustainable? Are there trade-offs between improving quality of life, justice and environmental sustainable, or is it all win-win's? The overall chairperson for the conference is Louis Lebel. Further details of weekly moderators and links to background papers can be found in the conference programme at: http://www.sea-user.org/e_conference.php This e-conference is aimed primarily at researchers and so will contain significant discussion about methods, concepts and research priorities. As we strongly encourage participants to use clear and simple language in their postings we hope interested laypersons and managers from industry or government may also find the discussions interesting and wish to participate. In order to participate in the conference you must first register by filling-in on-line form with some basic background information about yourself and customize the way you wish to participate, for example, how frequently to be notified by e-mail about posting to the conference. After your registration has been approved you will receive additional instructions by e-mail including a password allowing you access to the full conference material and to discussions once the conference has begun. The e-conference will be followed up by a face-to-face workshop of invited papers to be held in Chiang Mai, tentatively scheduled for the 11-12 December 2003. -------Further information and updates are available via :http://www.sea-user.org/e_conference.php |