Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T16:22:27.434Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Status, Consumption, and Intersectionality in Sustainability Research

from Part III - Continuity and Discontinuity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

Paul Roscoe
Affiliation:
University of Maine
Cindy Isenhour
Affiliation:
University of Maine
Get access

Summary

Drawing on ethnographic material from Bangkok, I suggest that finding solutions for status-driven overconsumption is more complex than encouraging individuals to simply “consume less” and requires understanding how structural factors lead to heterogenous forms of consumption behavior. This leads to the question of what role inequality plays in overconsumption, and how these inequalities can be addressed in order to move closer toward our sustainability goals.

Type
Chapter
Information
Consumption, Status, and Sustainability
Ecological and Anthropological Perspectives
, pp. 222 - 246
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abaza, Mona 2001 Shopping Malls, Consumer Culture, and the Reshaping of Public Space in Egypt. Theory, Culture, and Society 18(5):97122.Google Scholar
Ayata, Sencer 2002 The New Wait from IT Middle Class and the Joys of Suburbia. In Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey. Kandiyoti, Deniz and Saktanber, Ayse, eds. Pp. 2573. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Basham, Richard 2001 Ethnicity and Worldview in Bangkok. In Alternate Identities: The Chinese of Contemporary Thailand. Tong, Chee-Kiong and Chan, Kwok-bun, eds. Pp. 107136. Singapore: Times Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boontharm, Davisi 2013 Bangkok Spontaneous Urbanism: Threat or Treat? CONTESTI: Cities, Territories and Projects 1/2012:7582.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre 1984 Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Carrier, James G., and Luetchford, Peter G., eds. 2012 Ethical Consumption: Social Value and Economic Practice. New York: Berghahn Books.Google Scholar
Chandran, Rina 2019 Feature-Mall or Park? In Crowded Bangkok, ‘Last’ Open Space Stirs Debate. Reuters, February 11. https://de.reuters.com/article/thailand-landrights-planning/feature-mall-or-park-in-crowded-bangkok-last-open-space-stirs-debate-idUKL5N1ZS0FP, accessed August 26, 2020.Google Scholar
Dhiravegin, Likhit 1990 The Emergence of a New Politically Conscious Middle Class: A Challenge to the Bureaucratic Polity? In Development, Modernisation, and Tradition in Southeast Asia: Lessons from Thailand. Ratanakul, Pinit and Than, U. Kyaw, eds. Pp. 190198. Bangkok: Mahidol University.Google Scholar
Earl, Catherine 2014 Vietnam’s New Middle Classes: Gender, Career, City. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.Google Scholar
Etzioni, Amitai 2006 Voluntary Simplicity: Characterization, Select Psychological Implications and Societal Consequences. In The Earthscan Reader in Sustainable Consumption. Jackson, Tim, ed. Pp. 160177. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
Fernquest, Jon 2013 Bye Bye Big Stores, Hello Small Stores. The Bangkok Post, April 9. www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-news/344666/bye-bye-big-stores-hello-small-stores, accessed July 29, 2019.Google Scholar
Fuller, Thomas 2011 In the Flooded Thai Capital, Residents Are Now Refugees. The New York Times, November 8. www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/world/asia/bangkok-residents-become-refugees-in-their-own-flooded-city.html, accessed August 26, 2020.Google Scholar
Goffman, Irving 1959 The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Gopaldas, Ahir, and Fischer, Eileen 2012 Beyond Gender: Intersectionality, Culture, and Consumer Behaviour. In Gender, Culture, and Consumer Behaviour. Otnes, Cele C. and Zayer, Linda Tuncay, eds. Pp. 393410. Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Griswold, A. B., and Nagara, Prasert Na 1969 A Law Promulgated by the King of Ayudhya in 1397 A.D. Epigraphic and Historical Studies 4. Journal of the Siam Society 57(1):109148.Google Scholar
Hewison, Kevin 1989 Power and Politics in Thailand: Essays in Political Economy. Manila: Journal of Contemporary Asia.Google Scholar
Kaijser, Anna, and Kronsell, Annica 2014 Climate Change through the Lens of Intersectionality. Environmental Politics 23(3):417433.Google Scholar
Klausner, William 1993 Reflections on Thai Culture: Collected Writings of William J. Klausner. Bangkok: Siam Society.Google Scholar
Kondo, Marie 2014 The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.Google Scholar
Lange, Hellmuth, and Meier, Lars, eds. 2009 The New Middle Classes: Globalising Lifestyles, Consumerism, and Environmental Concern. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Lee, Lynette 2010 Thailand Fights Addiction to Plastic Bags. The Guardian, June 28. www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jun/28/thailand-plastic-bags, accessed March 20, 2017.Google Scholar
Loos, Tamara 2006 Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathur, Nita 2010 Shopping Malls, Credit Cards, and Global Brands: Consumer Culture and the Lifestyle of India’s New Middle Class. South Asia Research 30(3):211231.Google Scholar
Millburn, Joshua, and Nicodemus, Ryan 2011 Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life. Missoula, MT: Asymmetrical Press.Google Scholar
Mills, Mary Beth 1999 Thai Women in the Global Labor Force: Consuming Desire, Contested Selves. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Mulder, Niels 1997 Thai Images: The Culture of the Public World. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
Nagel, Joane 2012 Intersecting Identities and Global Climate Change. Identities 19(4):467476.Google Scholar
Phillips, Herbert 1965 Thai Peasant Personality. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Phumisak, Jit 1994 The Real Face of Thai Saktina Today. In Thai Radical Discourse: The Real Face of Thai Feudalism Today. Reynolds, Craig J., ed. Pp. 43148. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program.Google Scholar
Pinches, Michael, ed. 1999 Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Polakit, Kasama, and Boontharm, Davisi 2008 Mobile Vendors: Persistence of Local Culture in the Changing Global Economy of Bangkok. In Local Sustainable Urban Development in a Globalised World. Herberle, Lauren and Opp, Susan, eds. Pp. 175202. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Rabibhadana, Akin 1979 The Organisation of Thai Society in the Early Bangkok Period, 1782–1873. In Modern Thai Politics: From Village to Nation. Neher, Clark D., ed. Pp. 2741. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.Google Scholar
Roengjit, Supita 2019 The Pollution Paralysis: Thailand’s Structural Inability to Clean Up Its Air. The Bangkok Post, November 17. www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/1796019/the-pollution-paralysis-thailands-structural-inability-to-clean-up-its-air, accessed August 26, 2020.Google Scholar
Rosa, Eugene, and Dietz, Thomas 2012 Human Drivers of National Greenhouse-Gas Emissions. Nature Climate Change 2:581586.Google Scholar
Satrusayang, Cod 2015 Drivers, Environment Paying Bill for Bangkok’s Many Malls. The Bangkok Post, June 29. www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/607460/drivers-environment-paying-bill-for-bangkok-many-malls, accessed October 31, 2019.Google Scholar
Seyfang, Gill 2005 Shopping for Sustainability: Can Sustainable Consumption Promote Ecological Citizenship? Environmental Politics 14(2):290306.Google Scholar
Shaw, Deirdre, Chatzidakis, Andreas, and Carrington, Michal, eds. 2016 Ethics and Morality in Consumption: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Simmel, Georg 1957 Fashion. The American Journal of Sociology 62:541558.Google Scholar
Thaitrakulpanich, Asaree 2019 The ‘Sabai Sabai’ Way to Go Zero Waste in Thailand. Khaosod, July 25. www.khaosodenglish.com/life/2019/07/25/the-sabai-sabai-way-to-go-zero-waste-in-thailand, accessed August 3, 2019.Google Scholar
Thibault, Marion 2016 Flooding Threat as Plastic Bags Clog Bangkok’s Bowels. Phys.Org, September 6. https://phys.org/news/2016-09-threat-plastic-bags-clog-bangkok.html, accessed March 20, 2017.Google Scholar
Üstüner, Tuba, and Holt, Douglas B. 2009 Toward a Theory of Status Consumption in Less Industrialized Countries. Journal of Consumer Research 37(1):3756.Google Scholar
Vannini, Phillip, and Taggart, Jonathan 2013 Voluntary Simplicity, Involuntary Complexities, and the Pull of Remove: The Radical Ruralities of off-Grid Lifestyles. Environment and Planning A 45:295311.Google Scholar
Veblen, Thorstein 2007 The Theory of the Leisure Class. Banta, Martha, ed. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van der Veer, Peter, and Jaffrelot, Christophe, eds. 2008 Patterns of Middle-Class Consumption in India and China. New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Vorng, Sophorntavy 2017 A Meeting of Masks: Status, Power and Hierarchy in Bangkok. Copenhagen: NIAS Press.Google Scholar
Warner, W. Lloyd 1963 Yankee City. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Wilk, Richard 2009 Consuming Ourselves to Death: The Anthropology of Consumer Culture and Climate Change. In Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions. Crate, Susan and Nuttall, Mark, eds. Pp. 265276. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×