Human Ecology Research (2000-2013) on Sustainable Consumption of Natural Resources

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand what we have learnt thus far on the sustainable consumption of natural resources by household in Korea. We propose a two-wing model designating households as the main agent of sustainable living where both the production of human resources and the consumption of natural resources take place. In the current study, we focused on the sustainability of natural resource consumption. Undertaking an empirical study, we selected 10 major journals that represent each area of human ecological research and then, identified 120 relevant studies regarding sustainability published since 2000. First, we classified 381 keywords into three categories: production, consumption, and social environment, and the identified studies were then classified in one of the seven categories created by combinations of the abovementioned three categories: production (P), consumption (C), social environment (S), production-consumption (PC), production-social environment (PS), consumption-social environment (CS), and production-consumption-social environment (PCS). The results showed that the sustainability of natural resources has been mainly investigated in the fields of clothing & textiles and food & nutrition. Further, consumer science research has been conducted in the area of consumption-social environment and consumption-production. The current study indicates that the field of human ecology has created and accumulated knowledge to support sustainable living. In the future, we need to conduct more integrated research across disciplines and methods and promote research interest in the underdeveloped area of sustainability research in human ecology.