Rethinking material cultures of sustainability: Commodity consumption, cultural biographies and following the thing

Abstract

This paper advances geographical perspectives on household sustainability by extending the range of insights from consumption scholarship that are brought to bear on the issue. Research that links consumption to the dynamics of variously sustainable practices currently dominate, resulting in a particular and partial reading of material culture. I suggest that geographical approaches to the social life of things may yield new insights into materiality and household sustainability. Specifically, I argue that "following the thing" -which is typically focused on commodity chains -could usefully be extended into people's homes. This is not introduced as a way to acknowledge the connections between points in a network, rather, it is positioned as a set of theoretical and methodological resources that can be utilised to explore the movement and placing of things as they move through a critical juncture -in this case the household. To illustrate, I present material drawn from two empirical studies of households in the UK. The first is an ethnographically-informed study of how food becomes waste; the second is a quantitative survey of laundry habits. Attention is paid to the ways in which the ongoing categorisation and valuation of things shape their trajectories and move them in directions that give rise to (adverse) environmental impacts. To conclude I sketch out an agenda for future studies, consider how a focus on households can yield more comprehensive biographies of things, and address the implications of this analysis both for consumption scholarship and for engagement with sustainability research and policy beyond human geography.

‘Placing’ Sustainable Food Practices by Geographical Knowledge? Insights from the German Dairy Industry

“…From an academic viewpoint, it was the purpose of this paper to empirically test the revised typology of geographical knowledge that has not gained much attention so far (for whatever reason), and thereby to reveal its analytical worth, while exploring and questioning the promotion of sustainability issues by German dairy firms. The paper is also a response to Evans (, p. 119) and his recent call for the development of ‘extensive biographies of commodities, their meanings, and relationships between sites and spaces of production and consumption’ for engaging with broader debates in sustainability research.…”

“…However, such strategies of ‘placing’ sustainable food practices have not yet been studied in detail. Therefore, Evans (, p. 119) suggests ‘that the development of social scientific accounts that develop extensive biographies of commodities, their meanings, and relationships between sites and spaces of production and consumption represent a powerful resource for engaging with broader debates in sustainability research and policy’. In this light, the following analysis aims at better understanding the deployment of geographical knowledge in combination with sustainability narratives by the example of the German dairy industry, whose main characteristics will be outlined in the next section.…”

The water–energy–food nexus at home: New opportunities for policy interventions in household sustainability

“…Disposal of FOG via the kitchen sink recalls recent geographical thinking on the performativity of materials in transformative states (Evans, 2017;Gregson et al, 2010). Fats are troublesome materials.…”

“…Evidence suggests that the burden of consumption and waste work falls disproportionately on women (Wheeler & Glucksmann, 2015). It is therefore vital to be attuned to the unintended consequences of pursuing "good" environmental outcomes (Evans, 2017).…”

The multiple ontologies of freshness in theUKand Portuguese agri‐food sectors

“…Freshness is enacted in ways that stress the lively qualities of fresh food, recalling recent geographical and related work on the vitality of matter (Bennett, ; Evans, ; Gregson et al., ). These qualities, mostly enacted at the point of sale, sometimes border on sentience.…”