Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) is hosting this year's midterm conference in Research Network 5 of the European Sociological Association.
The call for the RN05 midterm 2020 conference, launched in late Autumn 2019, began with the phrase “May you live in interesting times!” Certainly the disruption that followed only a few months after was beyond the expectations of most citizens. For those not working on the front-lines of the pandemic, life was confined to the home, and with a projectivity towards immediate futures.
Over the months following local lockdown measures, the global pandemic made visible how consumption, at least for a very short while, could diminish: consumers could make do with less, work less and consume less, while at the same time save more, engaging in more local and perhaps even more sustainable forms of consumption.
Now, at the delicate threshold of “normalcy”, we wonder, what different futures are being imagined, how do alternative futures shape current practices, and who has control over what futures are enacted? Will a Great Resignation of consumption take place (as hypothesized in the realm of work and employment) and lead us towards more sustainable and just futures?
At the upcoming midterm conference, we hope to stimulate reflections on a series of questions of relevance for considering consumption transitions and futures, including, but not limited to:
- How might consumption dynamics today hold opportunities for social change in the future?
- How do future imaginaries shape present day dynamics?
- How can the study of consumption futures be approached methodologically?
- How can we grapple with the normative and political dimensions of imagining futures, including the aims of sufficiency, prosperity, democracy, inclusion and participation (to name a few)?
Full info at the conference website (uni.oslomet.no).
