Lifestyles, consumption and the environment: The ecological modernization of domestic consumption

Abstract

Ecological modernisation theory has been developed so far mainly with respect to the production sphere. In order to apply the theory to the sphere of consumption, it needs to be enriched with some of the central concepts from the sociology of consumption. What results is a contextual model of (domestic) consumption which combines an actor‐oriented approach with a system‐of‐provision perspective of consumer behaviour. In conclusion, the relevance of the proposed model for research on the ecological modernisation of domestic consumption is discussed.