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(Miles
1998
; Lyon
1999
), but it emphasizes the symbolic power of consumption
such as “The accumulation of an increasing array of goods and services defines
people socially and culturally, with a recognition that consumption is more significant
for its sign-value or symbolic qualities than for its use-value” (Miles
1998
: 23).
The frenzied hyper-consumption (Ritzer
1999
) demanded by consumerism
today threatens the environment through a wide variety of production, distribution,
and consumption activities. Fundamental changes in values, attitudes, and beliefs
have occurred following perceived negative impacts on the environment by science
and technology, which are the major instruments of improving affluence and con-
venience (Giddens
1991
; Beck
1992
; Lash et al.
1996
). Technological disasters,
such as oil spills and nuclear accidents, identify a society at risk, and people's
growing fears about these risks lead them to question the promise that science and
technology will continue to bring widespread benefits.
While the perceived negative impacts of consumerism on the environment have
increased,environmentalismhasemergedasanotherculturalethos.Environmentalism
is the cultural imperative that demands we act in an environmentally sustainable
way and, most particularly, do this by cutting back on consumption.
Environmentalism has been theorized and conceptualized in two main ways:
Inglehart's work on materialist and postmaterialist values (Abramson and Inglehart
1995
) and the New Environmental Paradigm (Dunlap and Van Liere
1978, 1984
).
Inglehart and his colleagues maintained that a fundamental cultural shift occurred in
the more developed world over the last part of the twentieth century. People are now
less concerned with material issues, such as housing and food, because these are
now readily satisfied. Instead, they focus on quality-of-life issues, such as environ-
mental sustainability. Inglehart uses the term materialist values to refer to the former
and postmaterialist values to refer to the latter. The shift from materialist to postma-
terialist values began in about 1950 but gained momentum in the 1970s. This socio-
cultural transformation occurred after material needs were more easily satisfied in
the more developed world during the economic booms from 1945 to 1973.
The New Environmental Paradigm covers the environmental component of
Inglehart's postmaterialist values thesis. Formulated in the 1970s by Dunlap and Van
Liere (see also Dunlap et al.
2000
), it contrasts with the Dominant Social Paradigm,
which states that humans have the right to freely exploit the environment.
In the West, environmentalism is most strongly held by young adults, women, the
politically active, urban residents, the new middle class, professionals, the more edu-
cated, and those with higher incomes. In contrast, older people, the less educated, the
welfare dependent, and religious fundamentalists are least supportive of this cultural
imperative, and working-class males are more likely to hold anti-environmentalist
views (Buttel
1978
; Cotgrove and Duff
1980
; Eckersley
1989
; Papadakis
1993
; Scott
and Willits
1994
; Kanji and Nevitte
1997
; Skogen
1999
; Tranter
1999
). Similar
findings were recorded for Australia and Korea in a comparison of environmental
views in a developed and a developing country (Mullins et al.
2004
).
Those espousing environmentalism do not necessarily act in environmentally sen-
sitive ways, however (Scott and Willits
1994
). Young adults and women, for example,
may hold environmentalist values most strongly; but it is older people, a generation
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