Abstract
This paper proposes and critiques the idea of a post-capitalism sustainable consumption utopia to improve the ecological and human wellbeing of the planet. Such a notion can stimulate new imaginative thinking on a future sustainable world not dominated by neoliberalism. It can also strengthen SDG-12: responsible consumption and production. To do so, it examines the influence of pro-environmental self-identity, market-based barriers, and knowledge barriers on sustainable consumption buying, product lifetime extension, and environmental activism. Survey data was collected via online panels in Sweden (n=504) and the USA (n=1,017). Richly varied and complex findings emerge supporting the merit of this utopian idea. In particular, the importance of pro-environmental self-identity. This study illustrates how the post-capitalism notions of radical incrementalism and people power can initiate change using the civic, political, and environmental activism in sustainable consumption behaviours. Emerging implications for the viability of SDG-12 are also considered. This work offers rich opportunities for further research.
Highlights
This paper proposes and critiques the idea of a post-capitalism sustainable consumption utopia to improve the ecological and human wellbeing of the planet
The results showed a positive and significant effect of pro-environmental self-identity on sustainable consumption buying (b111⁄4.889, p.001), product lifetime extension (b121⁄4.752, p.001), and environmental activism
H2 predicted that the materialism barrier has a negative direct and indirect effect, via pro-environmental self-identity, on buying, product lifetimes extension, and environmental activism
Summary
This paper proposes and critiques the idea of a post-capitalism sustainable consumption utopia to improve the ecological and human wellbeing of the planet Such a notion can stimulate new imaginative thinking on a future sustainable world not dominated by neoliberalism. This paper invites macromarketers to consider an alternative far-reaching notion of sustainable consumption beyond neoliberal market ideology This big idea is the transformative potential of post-capitalism on sustainable consumption to improve the human and ecological wellbeing of the planet. Post-capitalism can facilitate a shift towards an interwoven human and ecological utopia of a more liberated, just, equal, democratic, and social world embedded within social justice (Bauwens and Mammos 2018; Swilling 2020; Walsh 2020) It can stimulate new imagination of a future sustainable world. We identify and critically appraise what enables and inhibits types of sustainable consumption behaviours within the existing marketplace and the implications for our proposed big idea of a post-capitalism sustainable consumption utopia
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