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Sustainable Consumption and Worktime Reduction
Author(s) -
Schor Juliet B.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1162/1088198054084581
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , popularity , work (physics) , economics , sustainability , sustainable consumption , argument (complex analysis) , slowdown , work time , scale (ratio) , intervention (counseling) , public economics , production (economics) , microeconomics , economic growth , political science , sociology , engineering , quantum mechanics , mechanical engineering , psychology , ecology , social science , biochemistry , chemistry , psychiatry , law , biology , physics
Summary This article argues that in the global North a successful path to sustainability will entail a stabilization of consumption through reductions in hours of work, a solution that neither ecologists nor economists have addressed seriously. The article presents data on the slowdown of hours reductions in many countries and discusses the need for policy intervention to counter firm‐level disincentives to reducing hours of work. It then discusses the potential popularity of work‐hour reductions with consumers. It ends with an argument that technological changes will be insufficient to achieve sustainable consumption patterns and that averting continued increases in the scale of consumption through trading income for time is imperative.