Consumption and Sustainability

Catalog description

Social scientists often study the relationships between individual consumption (particularly in affluent societies) and sustainability?or the carrying capacity of the planet as it is shaped by human behavior. Sociologists are particularly concerned with how social behavior?tourism, energy use, transportation, dining, and ?stuff? (material objects purchased for individual use)?may contribute to unsustainable patterns of resource expenditure?whether those resources are time, money, tolerable environments, livable cities, drinkable water, arable land, etc. This course uses sociological concepts and categories to better understand processes and experiences of social consumption that center around ideas of short and long-term sustainability.