Introduction to A Research Agenda for Sustainable Consumption Governance

Abstract

Chapter 1, ‘Introduction to A Research Agenda for Sustainable Consumption Governance’ by Oksana Mont sets the scene for the book by discussing sustainable consumption as a grand challenge. It identifies unsustainable consumption and production patterns and levels as one of the main contributing factors to the grand sustainability challenges. Reasons for failure to address unsustainable consumption and production patterns and levels are briefly explained. The chapter argues for the need to employ governance approach as opposed to government intervention when engaging with such a complex and multi-faceted phenomenon as unsustainable consumption. The state of research in sustainable consumption research field in the past three decades is assessed with the help of bibliometric analysis. It indicates that sustainable consumption is a slowly developing field of research. Weak sustainable consumption research, which the chapter calls system optimization, and strong sustainable consumption research, called system reorientation, are discussed and directions for future research are highlighted for each of them. Finally, the chapter argues that this dichotomy might be problematic and a third perspective - system transformation - is outlined.