What Triggers and Barriers to Practicing Consumption Ideals Must Be Addressed By Sustainable Consumption Solutions?

Abstract

Despite a wealth of knowledge on the psycho-social and ideological functions of personal consumption, we have yet to successfully address unsustainable consumption practices in developed urban spaces. This study develops a contemporary understanding of how people from Sydney engage in their personal consumption practices. Using both focus groups and personal consumption journals, I identified the common consumption considerations of all participants regardless of whether their goal was to minimise or maximise their resource consumption. This data was collected into eight categories of psycho-social and ideological issues that are argued to consistently contribute to the renegotiation of consumption ideals into practices. These results show that personal consumption is a fluid act that occurs anew with each decision. As such, these eight categories offer points of entry to affect sustainable consumption practices.