Reducing Consumption: Social Connections and the Problem of Gift Giving

• In Event: 046 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 11. Consumption, Consumer Behavior, and Access to Technology

Abstract

The main research question in the study of consumers and consumption is: why do people buy more than they need? The body of literature that attempts to answer this question is characterized by theories of differentiation/emulation, indulgence, identity/self-expression, and social connections (or the ability of consumer goods to support social relationships and express emotional commitments). Environmental scholars have capitalized on these insights and assert that the first three of these theories (differentiation, indulgence, and identity) represent barriers to reducing consumption. I explore this concern empirically by drawing on 45 interviews and participant observation with three groups who reduce their consumption in various ways: voluntary simplifiers, religious environmentalists, and green home owners. In contrast to environmental scholars my interviewees were relatively successful in creating green social status comparison groups, ignoring marketing and the new “must have” product, and defining their identities based on what they did not buy. Instead, I find that of these theories, disrupting social connections creates the most interpersonal conflict in everyday life and represents an unrecognized challenge to reducing consumption. For example, conflict over gift giving (i.e., one way consumerism supports social connections) was pervasive. Attempting to withdraw from the gift economy strained social ties and was rarely successful, instead most interviewees compromised by using green/ethical gift giving as a strategy for recruiting others to live a green lifestyle. In the discussion I consider how the social connections perspective may be furthered using social network theory.

Author

• Janet A. Lorenzen, State University of New Jersey-Rutgers