消费政策如何能赋予消费者可持续性的生活方式外文翻译可编辑.docx

1、消费政策如何能赋予消费者可持续性的生活方式外文翻译可编辑消费政策如何能赋予消费者可持续性的生活方式？外文翻译外文翻译How can Consumer policy empower consumers for changing lifestyles ?material Source: Journal of Consumer Policy Author: John ThogersenConsumer policy can empower consumers for changing lifestyles byreducing personal constraints and limitations

2、, but it should also attempt to loosen some of the external constraints that make changes towards a more sustainable lifestyle dif?cult In terms of reducing consumers, subjectively felt restrictions on their ability to change lifestyle, the two approaches are equivalent Policies that increase a feel

3、ing of empowerment may also have a positive effect on consumers motivation tomake an effort, thus amplifying its effects In this paper both types of constraints on lifestyle changes in a sustainable direction are discussed as well as policies for reducing constraints Possible motivational effects of

4、 the proposed policies are also outlinedAt least judged by its outcome, it seems that consumers in the rich parts of the world make less of an effort at changing their lifestyle in a sustainable direction than is desired by society and than is in their own collective long-term interest 4 Sustainable

5、1 here refers to a level and pattern of consumption which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs World commission on Environment and Development, 1987 It is generally agreed by the international community that current lifestyles

6、by a?uent consumers in both rich and poor countries are not sustainable Sitarz, 1994; United Nations, 2002 The issue was given top priority at the World Summit in Rio in 1992, but progress towards sustainable consumption has been disappointingly slow. For instance, in a report issued by United Natio

7、ns Secretary-General Ko? Annan in preparation for the Johannesburg Summit, it was concluded that uProgress towards the goals established at Rio has been slower than anticipated and in some respects conditions are worse than they were 10 years ago. 1 This in spite of consumers having an obvious long

8、term interest in sustainability, an interest often expressed by consumer organizations e.g,Consumers International, 2002 and in surveys measuring the general population s environmental concern e.g,the European Opinion Research Group, 2003 What can be done about the slow progress towards sustainabili

9、ty depends on the reasons why so little is happeningThree main groups of actors in?uence the sustainability of private consumption: consumers, governments, and business For each of them, the apparent lack of effective action for sustainability may be attributed to motivational as well as ability-:re

10、lated factors In this paper, the focus is on understanding and in?uencing consumer actions However, in order to understand the constraints that consumers must live by, references to the two other groups of actors are unavoidableIt is often argued that consumers themselves can make a difference with

11、regard to ? and should therefore carry their fair share of the responsibility for ? the sustainability of their consumption pat terne g, Norwegian Minis try of Environment, 1994; Sitarz, 1994 This is based on the observations that private consumption accounts for a large share of resource use and of

12、 the emission of pollutants to the environment, and that consumers do have some discretionary power with regard to the size of their individual contribution to resource use and pollution e. g, Olander & Th?gersen, 1995 In line with this reasoning, Hansen and Schrader 1997 argue that consumer policy,

13、 and the consumer model on which it is based, should be revised to re?ect that consumers have an, at least partial, ethical responsibility for the consequences of their actionsAlthough the case for consumer responsibility is strong, it is important that it is not used to justify blaming the victinf

14、strategies, that is, blaming consumers for unsustainable lifestyles when 4 macro conditions exist which can be blamed for contributing to the problem or constraining the effectiveness of individual efforts e.g, companies that do not provide ecologically friendly products, government inactivity1 Robe

15、rts & Bacon, 1997, p. 89. In fact, hardly anyone will deny that there are external conditions affecting the effectiveness of an individual consumer s actions, if and when he or she strives for sustainability The relevant external conditions are an extremely diverse set of factors, perhaps their only

16、 commonality being that on their own, individual consumers can do nothing about them.Some relevant external conditions, such as the climate, even governments and industry can do little about and others, such as culture, city layout, and infrastructure, they can only in?uence in the long run. However

17、, there are other important external conditions which governments and/or industry control to a much higher degree, such as the quality of public transport, the supply and relative prices of environment-friendly products, and the availability and use of eco-labelling schemes Hence, governments and bu

18、sinesses are responsible for much of the external conditions limiting an individual consumers freedom to choose and act, and therefore they also carry part of the responsibility for sustainable consumption and production e. g,Stern, Dietz, Ruttan, Socolow, & Sweeney, 1997. Most governments, 2at leas

19、t in the industrialized countries, also acknowledge their responsibility However, analyses of their praxis reveal that although some governments do better than others, in general governments verbal commitment as expressed, for instance, at international conferences and summits is only reluctantly an

20、d to a limited extend transformed into action e. g,Lafferty & Meadowcroft, 2000.The effort also depends on the consumer? s motivation, and not all consumers are equally motivated to change their lifestyle in a sustainable direction, of course Some are so engulfed by their own private life projects t

21、hat they have no room for concern for the environment or other societal problems and many would hate to give up speci?c environmentally harmful practices, such as driving a gas guzzling SUV or visiting far-away vacation spots by airplane Both European Th?gersen, forthcoming and North American Dunlap

22、, 2002 opinion polls strongly suggest that the level of environmental concern is currently not the most important limiting factor for changing the consumption pattern in a sustainable direction, however As I will argue 1st er, a feeling of helplessness or at least lack of self-effcacy with regard to

23、 solving the problems seems to be of greater importance for the level of individual motivation. Therefore, the main focus here is on constraints that might limit consumers? ability to adopt a sustainable lifestyle and on ways to reduce important constraintsA consumer empowerment approach to consumer

24、 policy is characterized by a strong focus on reducing constraints at the individual leve 1 3A1 though this makes a lot of sense also when the goal is to change lifestyles in a sustainable direction, the options are wider In particular, consumer policy should also attempt to loosen externalconstrain

25、ts and to removeperverse incentives Myers & Kent, 1998 that make changes towards a more sustainable lifestyle diffcult In terms of reducing consumerssubjectively felt restrictions on their ability to change lifestyle and their perceived self-effcacy, the two approaches individually and externally fo

26、cused, respectively are equivalent If part of what is lacking is motivation, it also seems reasonable to speak about making the consumer empowered to ful?l his or her responsibilities In this perspective, empowerment is not only a question of capabilities, but also of motivation. Basically, a person

27、T s feeling of empowerment has implications for how hard he or she will strive to solve environmental and ethical problems through his or her own behavioural effort e. g,Ajzen, 1988; Geller, 1995; Guagnano, Stern, & Dietz, 1995; Olander & Th?gersen,1995 Hence, policythat increases a feeling of empow

28、erment orself-effcacy may alsohave a positive effect on consumers motivationto make an effort e. g,Pelletier, Dion, Tuson, & Green-Demers, 1999, thusproducing activationthat goes beyond that directly attributable toloosened constraints.In this paperI have reviewed evidence regarding the need forcons

29、umer empowerment,and how consumer policy can assist in empoweringconsumers for a more sustainable lifestyle The evidence suggests that although individual consumers ? especially in the industrialized world ?have some discretionary power over their consumption pattern and although current lifestyles

30、contribute to resource depletion and environmental degradation, limited abilities and restricted opportunities, in combination with norms and incentives supporting non-sustainable practices, make it diffcult even for highly motivated individuals to do anything radical to improve the sustainability o

31、f their lifestyles And when it comes to the implementation of laws and regulations making structural conditions more conducive to sustainable consumption e. g, introducing environmental taxes the scale of change has fallen well short of the rhetoric * Lafferty & Meadowcroft, 2000, p. 381, as it was

32、put in one thorough analysis of government policies in nine of the richest countries in the world Hence, appeals to individual consumer responsibility in this area easily get a ?avour of blaming the victim.Still, in a joint effort where governments and businesses also do their part, empowering consumers to overcome their personal limitations as well as to be more motivated and initiating, is undoubtedly a valuable, probably even indispensable, part of an overall strategy for achieving a more sustainable consumption pattern. The evidence pre