Abstract
Consumerism is the consequence basically of two factors. One is limited personal development, which leads to consuming to obtain some satisfaction which reduces the unhappiness produced by personality problems (but this means an incapability of facing these problems). The other factor is the outcome of economic structures which promote ever-increasing consumption. Both factors bring about limited sovereignty, with a broad spectrum which goes from severe limitation (children, frequently older people, people who suffer from psychological problems) to little limitation, in the case of developed people who have significant knowledge about the causes of current unsustainability. We know that once basic needs are satisfied, the path to personal maturity is open, and an ample and growing minority is moving along this path. Kasser identifies it with the progress towards non-materialistic values. Over the last two decades there has been a very important theoretical improvement regarding the concept of sustainable consumption, and regarding the policies to advance towards this objective. There is a broad agreement on the consumption groups which exert the most impacts. However, governments have not put into practice most of these policies. The Oslo Declaration states that the emphasis to date has primarily been on questions of sustainable production. There has been considerably less effort devoted to charting the transitions that will be necessary to facilitate sustainable consumption.
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Bermejo, R. (2014). Sustainable Consumption. In: Handbook for a Sustainable Economy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8981-3_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8981-3_19
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