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Wellbeing and Sustainable Consumption

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Global Handbook of Quality of Life

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

This chapter challenges the apparent contradiction between wellbeing and ecological sustainability based on the non-satiation and individualist maximization assumptions in conventional economics. It focusses on sustainable consumption, first because consumption and wellbeing are intimately related and second because consumption in the rich and emerging countries is contributing to a number of serious environmental problems, including climate change. Evidence from wellbeing research suggests that the relationship between consumption and wellbeing is neither lineal nor positive, and that individual’s wellbeing is highly correlated with that of friends, family and the environment. This evidence supports a reconceptualization of the relationship between consumption and wellbeing that draws on an alternative approach that encompasses the social, economic, technological, natural and political contexts that support habitual behavior. Once the importance of habits is acknowledged, sustainability research and policy need to be rethought to investigate societal processes, such as the ones currently at work in transition towns, which have the potential to promote both wellbeing and the environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Monica Guillen-Royo & Harold Langford Wilhite

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  1. Monica Guillen-Royo
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  2. Harold Langford Wilhite
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Correspondence to Monica Guillen-Royo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Goethe-Universitat, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Wolfgang Glatzer

  2. University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, United Kingdom

    Laura Camfield

  3. Rhodes University Inst. Social & Economic Research, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Valerie Møller

  4. FLACSO-Mexico & UPAEP, Mexico City, Mexico

    Mariano Rojas

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Guillen-Royo, M., Wilhite, H.L. (2015). Wellbeing and Sustainable Consumption. In: Glatzer, W., Camfield, L., Møller, V., Rojas, M. (eds) Global Handbook of Quality of Life. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9178-6_13

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