2.4 SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION


reduces efficiency and exerts greater environmental pressures (Luque 2015; Poumanyvong and Kaneko 2010). Per capita emissions in New York City are 30% less than the United States average; Barcelona, London, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paolo all have much lower average emissions per capita than the national averages (WWF 2012; Dodman 2009). Nevertheless, with growing urbanism the efficiency of resource use achieved as a result of urban density is wiped out by the increased consumption of the people who live in cities (Isenhour and Feng 2014). City dwellers are consumers; indeed, in most of the world the fact that cities are centres of consumption drives urban growth much more than their functions as production centres.


The shift to urban living is increasing the incomes of millions of people in the world. In cities it is estimated that a billion people will enter the global “consuming class” by 2025, with incomes high enough for them to become significant consumers of goods and services. The incomes of these new consumers are rising even more rapidly than the number of people in the consuming class. This means many products and services have reached take-off points from which their consumption will rise swiftly and steeply. By 2025 urban consumers are likely to inject around US$20 trillion per year in additional spending into the world economy. “Discretionary income”, which allows luxury consumption, tend to rise even more rapidly than overall incomes in cities; for example, in India discretionary spending increased from 35% of average household consumption in 1985 to 52% in 2005 and is expected to reach 70% by 2025 (McKinsey Global Institute 2012).


It is more difficult to measure gender ratios at the bottom of the wealth scale accurately, in large part because poverty is typically counted at the household level instead of the individual level. However, according to recent assessments women are much more likely than men to live in poverty (UN Women 2015). Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region where analysis of the poorest households by gender composition has been carried out over time: women in that region outnumber men in households below the poverty line, and the proportion of women compared to men in poor households increased from 108.7 women for every 100 men in 1997 to 117.2 in 2012. This upward trend has taken place in the context of declining poverty rates in the region as a whole (UN Women 2015).


The current state of many urban environments, particularly lack of infrastructure and basic services in urban slums and low-income areas, leads to stress and time poverty, for example in regard to access to safe water, sanitation, education and health care. Environmental health challenges in urban contexts increase women’s unpaid care work in terms of meeting family and community nutrition and health needs, especially when health facilities and services are unavailable or unaffordable.


Driving consumer aspiration through advertising


Advertising creates demand for consumer goods, even those for which there was previously limited or no demand. It influences consumer choices, creates an identification with brands, and shapes perceptions about the roles of commodities and consumption in signifying personal identity, success and accomplishments. Linked to globalization trends and the spread of developed world lifestyles, advertising is widely seen as a primary driver in disseminating unsustainable consumption patterns around the world and stimulating excessive consumption in developed countries (Sheehan 2014; Henderson 2012; World Federation of Advertisers 2002).


Through the lens of marketing and advertising, developing countries, especially the young people in these countries (UNEP and UNESCO 2016), represent “emerging markets”. Considerable neurological, psychological and marketing research shows that young people are more susceptible to advertising than adults and are more impulsive consumers (Pechmann et al. 2005). Buoyed by success in developed countries, global advertisers see youth in the developing world as the next marketing and consumption frontier (Atsmon et al. 2012; Mahajan and Banga 2005).


Gendering is used as a tool to increase demand for consumer goods. Advertising encourages adolescents to adopt identities through consuming goods that are presented as being appropriate to particular social and gender roles. Despite increasing recognition of gender fluidity and role shifts, much contemporary marketing of commodities in developed markets is traditionally gender stereotyped: goods destined for the domestic sphere and home life, such as laundry detergents and kitchen equipment, are marketed to women, while sports, electronics and public-sphere products are typically presented as male commodities (Alozie 2013;


111


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242