Challenge

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This project aspires to provide well-being for all people. The economic model most countries pursue seeks to create well-being by maximising incomes and consumer choice. Consumption is central to the prevailing economic model and to individuals' identities.

Yet consumption has significant negative side-effects - including pollution, loss of green spaces, inequalities and impacts on self-worth.

The current paradigm requires high levels of consumption and involves active promotion of the consumer identity - "my self-worth comes from what I own and display".

In most countries it also encourages aspirations rooted in economic inequalities which are reinforced by marketing, advertising, and the media. In many societies, both developed and developing, aspiration-driven people have a lot of influence on societal norms. They also express strong consumer identities.

Unless alternative forms or models of identity can be found to motivate aspiration-driven people, it's likely that material consumption will continue to be a major driver in societies. This will lead to massive increases in consumption as global populations grow and become wealthier, and will result in the breaching of environmental limits.

Research questions

• What drives consumption as the foundation for identity? 
• What can replace consumer identity while increasing well-being, particularly for aspiration-driven people?
• How can we promote a healthier concept of identity?
• How can we weaken the consumer identity - and what would it mean for the economy?

Use of the research

This topic is an emerging area of interest for non-governmental organisations and academics. Many academics and others accept that consumption needs to get more efficient. They also accept that economic models and role models based on increasing consumption are not tenable in the long-term. Yet there is little research to date on how to address this.

Our research will influence campaigns by Friends of the Earth and others, and open up a debate among opinion-formers. It will be of interest to policy-makers charged with considering sustainability issues.