Abstract
This chapter introduces the theme of the book and proposes important reflections for the readers to consider, including more generally how youth build their identity as consumers, how science and media influences this process, and what role education plays in encouraging more ethically-oriented rather than hyper-consumeristic habits.
You know that we are living in a material world.
And I am a material girl.
(“Material Girl” by Madonna)
What did we bring into the world? Nothing!
What can we take out of the world? Nothing
(1Timothy 6:7)
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adler, B., & Adler, B., Jr. (Eds.). (2002). The quotable Giuliani: The mayor of America in his own words. New York: Pocket Books.
Barber, B. (2007). Consumed: How markets corrupt children, infantilize adults, and swallow citizens whole. New York: WW Norton.
Bauman, Z. (2007). Consuming life. Cambridge: Polity.
Bencze, L., Carter, L., & Krstovic, M. (2014). Science & technology education for personal, social & environmental wellbeing: Challenging capitalists’ consumerist strategies. Brazilian Journal of Research in Science Education, 14(2), 39–56.
Benett, A., & O’Reilly, A. (2010). Consumed: Rethinking business in the era of mindful spending. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Benn, J. (2004). Consumer education between ‘consumerism and citizenship: Experiences from studies of young people. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 28, 108–116.
Best, A. (2006). Young people and consumption. In A. Furlong (Ed.), Handbook of young adulthood: New perspectives and agendas (pp. 255–263). New York: Routledge.
Bowers, C. (2001). Education for social justice and community. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Bowers, C. (2002). Toward an eco-justice pedagogy. Environmental Education Research, 8(1), 21–34. doi:10.1080/13504620120109628.
Clayton, S., & Opotow, S. (Eds.). (2003). Identity and the natural environment. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cohen, M., & Murphy, J. (Eds.). (2001). Exploring sustainable consumption: Environmental policy and the social sciences. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Cross, R. (1998). Teacher’s views about what to do about sustainable development. Environmental Education Research, 4(1), 1350–4622.
dbarry1917. (2011, May 6). Riley on marketing [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CU040Hqbas
Devine-Wright, P., & Clayton, S. (2010). Introduction to the special issue: Place, identity and environmental behaviour. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30(3), 267–270.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CU040Hqbas
DeGrazia, D. (2004). Biology, consciousness, and the definition of death. In T. Shannon (Ed.), Death and dying: A reader (pp. 1–7). Toronto: Sheed & Ward.
Desmond, J. (1999). Staging tourism: Bodies on display from Waikiki to Sea World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Deutsch, N., & Theodorou, E. (2010). Aspiring, consuming, becoming: Youth identity in a culture of consumption. Youth & Society, 42, 229–254. doi:10.1177/0044118X09351279.
Fraser, C., Gocayne, J., White, O., Adams, M., Clayton, R., Fleischmann, R., Bult, C., Kerlavage, A., Sutton, G., Kelley, J., Fritchman, J., Weidman, J., Small, K., Sandusky, M., Fuhrmann, J., Nguyen, D., Utterback, T., Saudek, D., Phillipps, C., Merrick, J. M., Tomb, J., Dougherty, B., Bott, K., Hu, P., Lucier, T., Peterson, S., Smith, H., Hutchison, C., & Venter, J. (1995). The minimal gene complement of Mycoplasma genitalium. Science, 270, 397–404.
Frid, C., & Paramor, O. (2012). Feeding the world: What role for fisheries? ICES Journal of Marine Sciences, 69(2), 145–150. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsr207.
Gilbert, J. (2011). Against the commodification of everything: Anti-consumerist cultural studies in the age of ecological crisis. In S. Binkley & J. Litter (Eds.), Cultural studies and anti-consumerism: A critical encounter (pp. 33–48). New York: Routledge.
Glasser, W. (1998). Choice theory: A new psychology of personal freedom. New York: HarperCollins.
Globo. (2014). Adolescentes roubam roupas e carros de marca para ficar na moda. Available at http://g1.globo.com/bom-dia-brasil/noticia/2014/04/adolescentes-roubam-roupas-e-carros-de-marca-para-ficar-na-moda.html
Goodman, D., & Cohen, M. (2004). Consumer culture: A reference handbook. Denver: ABC-CLIO.
Goralnik, L., & Nelson, M. P. (2011). Framing a philosophy of environmental action: Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and the importance of community. The Journal of Environmental Education, 42(3), 181–192. doi:10.1080/00958964.2010.526152.
Graboviy, A. (2011). Consumerism and its dangers to children: A call for regulation in advertising. Gatton Student Research Publication, (3)1. Available at http://gatton.uky.edu/gsrp/downloads/issues/spring2011/consumerism%20and%20its%20dangers%20to%20children%20a%20call%20for%20regulation%20in%20advertising.pdf
Gruenewald, D. (2004). A Foucauldian analysis of environmental education: Toward the socioecological challenge of the earth charter. Curriculum Inquiry, 34(1), 71–107. doi:10.1111/j.1467-873x.2004.00281.x.
Gupta, S. (2013). The psychological effects of perceived scarcity on consumers’ buying behavior (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Lincoln: University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Hawthorne, M., & Alabaster, T. (1999). Citizen 2000: Development of a model of environmental citizenship. Global Environmental Change, 9(1), 25–43.
Harper, P. (2012, October 8). Kiwis complain about “First World problems”. New Zealand Herald. Available at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10839171
Inesi, M., Botti, S., Dubois, D., Rucker, D., & Galinsky, A. (2011). Power and choice: Their dynamic interplay in quenching the thirst for personal control. Psychological Science, 22(8), 1042–1048. doi:10.1177/0956797611413936.
Jakubiak, C., & Mueller, M. P. (2014). Critical civic literacy and the limits of consumer-based citizenship. In M. Mueller, D. Tippins, & A. Stewart (Eds.), Assessing schools for generation R (responsibility): A guide to legislation and school policy in science education (pp. 35–51). Dordrecht: Springer.
James, A. (2007). Giving voice to children’s voices: Practices and problems, pitfalls and potentials. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 261–272.
Kerckhoff, A., & Reis, G. (2014). Responsible stewards of the earth: Narratives of youth activism in high school (science). In S. Alsop & L. Bencze (Eds.), Activist science & technology education (pp. 465–476). New York: Springer.
Kingston, A. (2013). What happens when shopping’s sense of plenty turns out to be fake? Lessons from Bed, Bath & Beyond’s ‘towel-gate’. Available at http://www.macleans.ca/culture/lessons-from-towel-gate/
Lavezo, M. (2014, April 4). Desempregado tatua anúncios pelo corpo e procura cliente para a testa. Available at http://g1.globo.com/sao-paulo/sao-jose-do-rio-preto-aracatuba/noticia/2014/04/desempregado-tatua-anuncios-pelo-corpo-e-procura-cliente-para-testa.html
Lee, F., Heimer, H., Giedd, J., Lein, E., Šestan, N., Weinberger, D., & Casey, B. (2014). Adolescent mental health: Opportunity and obligation. Science, 346(6209), 547–549. doi:10.1126/science.1260497.
Lury, C. (2011). Consumer culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Manitoba Education. (2011). Ecological literacy. Retrieved from https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/global_issues/ecological_literacy.pdf
McNeal, J. (1992). Kids as consumers: A handbook of marketing to children. New York: Lexington Books.
Miles, S. (2000). Youth lifestyles in a changing world. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Millard, A. (2000). How reliable is exodus? Biblical Archaeology Review, 26, 50–57.
Molnar, A. (2005). School commercialization: From democratic ideal to market commodity. New York: Routledge.
Mueller, M. (2009). Educational reflections on the “ecological crisis”: EcoJustice, environmentalism, and sustainability. Science & Education, 18, 1031–1055. doi:10.1007/s11191-008-9179-x.
Mueller, M., & Bentley, M. (2009). Environmental and science education in developing nations: A Ghanaian approach to renewing and revitalizing the local community and ecosystems. Journal of Environmental Education, 40(4), 53–64. doi:10.3200/joee.40.4.53-64.
Mueller, M., Pattillo, K., Mitchell, D., & Luther, R. (2011). Lessons from the tree that owns itself: Implications for education. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 6, 293–314.
Mulligan, M. (2015). An introduction to sustainability: Environmental, social, and personal perspectives. New York: Routledge.
Page, W. (2015, September 11). The psychology behind why people buy luxury goods. Available at http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/091115/psychology-behind-why-people-buy-luxury-goods.asp
Paterson, M. (2006). Consumption and everyday life. New York: Routledge.
Pecora, N. (1998). The business of children’s entertainment. New York: The Guilford Press.
Reis, G. (2017, February). Homo imperium: The interplay between our instinct to dominate and the science curriculum. Paper presented at the 8th biennial provoking curriculum conference. Montreal: McGill University.
Reis, G., & Ng-A-Fook, N. (2010). TEK talk: so what? Language and the decolonization of narrative gatekeepers of science education curriculum. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 5(4), 1009–1026.
Reis, G. & Oliveira, A. (Eds.) (2014). Environmental discourse in science education and its contribution to citizenship, democracy and social justice. Brazilian Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 14. Available at http://revistas.if.usp.br/rbpec/issue/view/47
Roth, W.-M. (2005). Making classifications (at) work: Ordering practices in science. Social Studies of Science, 35(4), 581–621. doi:10.1177/0306312705052102.
Saad, G. (2007). The evolutionary bases of consumption. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Smith M-D. (2014, August 21). Porn star’s breast-implant fundraiser criticized. The Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved from http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/porn-stars-breast-implant-fundraiser-criticized
Stevenson, R. B. (2007). Schooling and environmental education: contradictions in purpose and practice. Environmental Education Research, 13(2), 139–153.
Sutton, P., Anderson, S., Tuttle, A., & Morse, L. (2012). The real wealth of nations: Mapping and monetizing the human ecological footprint. Ecological Indicators, 16, 11–22. doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.03.008.
Ucko, P., & Dimbleby, G. (Eds.). (1969). The domestication and exploitation of plants and animals. London: Duckworth.
United Nations Development Programme. (2015). Human development report 2015: Work for human development. Available at http://hdr.undp.org/en/2015-report/download
Urry, J. (2010). Consuming the planet to excess. Theory, Culture and Society, 27(2–3), 191–212. doi:10.1177/0263276409355999.
Vanier, J. (2008). Becoming human. Mahwah: Paulist Press.
Wells, G., & Claxton, G. (Eds.). (2002). Learning for life in the 21st century: Sociocultural perspectives on the future of education. Oxford: Blackwell.
Wooten, D., & Mourey, J. (2013). Adolescent consumption and the pursuit of “cool.”. In A. Ruvio & R. Belk (Eds.), The Routledge companion to identity and consumption (pp. 169–176). New York: Routledge.
Zelizer, V. (1985). Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. New York: Basic Books.
Zeyer, A., & Roth, W.-M. (2009). A mirror of society: A discourse analytic study of 15- to 16-year-old Swiss students’ talk about environment and environmental protection. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 4(4), 961–998. doi:10.1007/s11422-009-9217-2.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reis, G., Mueller, M., Gisewhite, R. (2018). Sociocultural Perspectives on Youth Ethical Consumerism: An Introduction. In: Reis, G., Mueller, M., Gisewhite, R., Siveres, L., Brito, R. (eds) Sociocultural Perspectives on Youth Ethical Consumerism. Cultural Studies of Science Education, vol 16. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65608-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65608-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65607-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65608-3
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)