Researchers study likely future impact of consumer habits
How we will live and consume in 2050 is far from our own minds, but in their book ‘Challenging Consumption’, Galway researchers Dr Frances Fahy and Dr Henrike Rau question our rate of consumption and how this might change in the future.
‘Challenging Consumption’ is a ground-breaking book that draws on some conceptual approaches which move beyond the responsibility of the individual consumer, taking into account wider social, economic and political structures and processes, and highlighting possibilities for and challenges to sustainable consumption.
The book is structured around four main themes in sustainable consumption research. These are living, moving, dwelling and futures.
“This is a highly relevant research area as everybody consumes. It is part of everyday life. This was clearly shown in our Consensus Survey which engaged 1,500 people across Ireland,” explained Dr Fahy, who is the Head of Geography in NUI Galway.
“The response rate to our survey was so high, primarily because people were just asked to reflect on their everyday energy, water, food and transport practices. We asked people about activities such as washing, heating, eating, cooking, cycling and driving.”
In this book, Dr Fahy and Dr Rau balance theoretical insights with grounded case studies on mobility, heating, washing and eating practices and conclude by exploring future sustainable research pathways. Over the past decade, the ways in which we consume energy, water, food and transport have changed dramatically with the economy.
“During the Celtic Tiger period, consumption increased dramatically across key sectors, resulting in significant environmental impacts. However, there was a big dip in consumption rates during the recession,” said Dr Rau, Lecturer in Sociology and Political Science.
“While these rapid changes suggest that economic activity and consumption are interlinked, consumption is so much more complex than that.
“These economic changes were complemented by huge social and cultural changes which impacted the quality of consumption (for example, people changed their tastes – coffee instead of tea, etc), but also effected overall consumption levels; energy use in the home shot up and perhaps most importantly, the purchase of houses which were located many miles from where people work, resulting in wide-spread commuting.”
Since its publication, Challenging Consumption has been used as a teaching text in a number of countries, including New Zealand, Germany and Ireland.
Recently in NUI Galway, Dr Rau and some of her colleagues undertook an audit of courses related to sustainability in NUI Galway.
“There are almost 200 courses in NUI Galway that deal with environmental and sustainability issues – some of them, primarily in the Disciplines of Geography, and Sociology and Political Science, focus explicitly on the causes and consequences of consumption for society and the environment,” Dr Rau explained.
In addition to teaching, Dr Rau and Dr Fahy are engaged in a research project entitled ‘CONSENSUS’ – Consumption, Environment and Sustainability.
“It is a seven-year project funded by STRIVE (Science, Technology, Research and Innovation for the Environment Programme) and is administered by the Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” said Dr Fahy.
“CONENSUS uses innovative social science and collaborative research methods to explore trends and solutions for sustainable household consumption on the island of Ireland.
“So far, we have directly engaged over 2,000 members of public in our research along with 100 government, private sector and civil society stakeholders from across Ireland.”
More information on this research can be found on the CONSENSUS website, where Dr Fahy and Dr Rau have a number of animated cartoons of their key results and findings.
The two NUI Galway researchers are also holding an International Conference on sustainable consumption in Galway this coming May. Registration for this is now closed, but there will be a public lecture for members of the public to attend.
The event will take place on Friday, May 22 in Lecture Hall ENG-G018 and will feature Professor Gert Spaargaren from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who is a professor on ‘Environmental Policy for Sustainable Lifestyles and Patterns of Consumption’.
■ For more information on CONSENSUS, visit consensus.ie.