'Somebody else's problem': consumer culture, waste and behaviour change - the case of walking
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(Published version)
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2012
Authors
Crocker, R.
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Lehmann, S.
Crocker, R.
Crocker, R.
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Book chapter
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Source details - Title: Designing for zero waste: consumption, technologies and the built environment, 2012 / Lehmann, S., Crocker, R. (ed./s), vol.9780203146057, Ch.1, pp.11-34
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Abstract
Most efforts at improving the sustainability of our products, systems and environments are currently focused on their role in consumption and use. This ‘consumption’ focus, broadly defined here to include the consumption and use of raw materials and services, necessarily distances us from the natural environment or ‘commons’ from which various desired materials are extracted and into which - once processed and used - these are later discarded as ‘waste’. it also tends to silence our pre-existing relationship to, and dependence on, each other and our local environments, as these too are reduced to producing some economic value conceived of in relation to consumption. What remains outside this ‘consumption frame’ becomes ‘somebody else’s problem’, but increasingly our environmental crisis is forcing us to question the effects of this narrow focus.
Using the sporadic but ongoing example of government attempts to get more people out of their cars and walking, this chapter argues that progress towards greater sustain - ability in this and many other instances can only occur when a ‘socialization’ of behaviour change can occur, that is when the social normalization of a desired behavior becomes habitual, and any barriers, either structural or behavioural, to this desired change are minimized or removed. in the case of walking, this requires a substantial revision of the traditional methods and concerns of the traffic engineer, and a return to the local scale of ‘walkable’ environments and short journeys envisaged by the urban designer. Recalling ten years’ personal involvement in pedestrian safety advocacy, this chapter reflects upon the experiences of local communities confronted with the dominant system’s barriers to walkable local environments and considers the successful ‘social - ized’ strategies that have been developed to get people out of their cars and into these environments as walkers.
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Copyright 2012 Robert Crocker
Access Condition Notes: Postprint available on open access