What if time was not money? Towards a pluriversal understanding of time for sustainable consumption

Abstract

Facing the growing emergency of changing consumption patterns to address the environmental crisis, many scholars have been studying individual behavioural change. Acknowledging that consumption is not just an individual choice but a social practice – embedded in socioeconomic, material, affective and cultural configurations – recent work has broadened the understanding of how to address sustainable consumption. Even though sustainability issues are fundamentally time-bound, time is seldom conceptualised as a substantive element. This article aims to contribute to this debate by raising the importance of time understandings to address (un)sustainable consumption. In the first part of this article the idea that the dominant economic system has pervaded our imaginaries, our behaviours and interactions, including how we see and experience time, is discussed, drawing mainly on degrowth scholars. The main understandings of time that stem from the assumption that ‘time is money’ are highlighted through the metaphors of the clock, the arrow and the target. Drawing on a qualitative fieldwork carried out in Ireland in spring 2021 among people engaged in sustainable practices, three alternative understandings of time – the cycle, the flow and the link – are then brought forward and discussed. It is argued that these different time understandings are performative in that they open up opportunities for more sustainable consumption and that we should aim at a pluriversal understanding of time that could foster the evolution of social organisation and institutions, towards non-capitalist goals such as wellbeing and environmental preservation.

(Un)sustainable consumption: a contested, compelling and critical field

“…Aurianne Stroude (2022) explores understandings of time experienced in and through sustainable consumption practices, drawing on qualitative empirical research. Stroude argues that these alternative time understandings, represented by the metaphors of time as cycle, flow and link, challenge the dominant temporal framings of capitalist societies.…”

Marketing durable : accélérons les transformations !

“…Au vu de l’urgence, une transformation en profondeur des modèles de production et de consommation s’impose, mais également de notre rapport au temps (Stroude, 2022). Etant donné sa position privilégiée, à l’interface entre l’offre et la demande, le marketing a un rôle crucial à jouer en matière d’évolution des marchés.…”

Sustainable marketing: Let’s accelerate transformations!

“…In view of the urgency, a profound transformation is required not only of production and consumption models, but also of our relationship to time (Stroude, 2022). Given its pivotal position, at the interface between supply and demand, marketing has a crucial role to play in the way markets evolve.…”