@article{BengtssonAlfredssonCohenetal.2018,
  author    = {Bengtsson, Magnus and Alfredsson, Eva and Cohen, Maurie and Lorek, Sylvia and Schroeder, Patrick},
  title     = {Transforming systems of consumption and production for achieving the sustainable development goals: moving beyond efficiency},
  series = {Sustainability Science},
  volume    = {13},
  journal   = {Sustainability Science},
  number    = {6},
  doi       = {10.1007/s11625-018-0582-1},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:836-opus-106615},
  pages     = {1533 -- 1547},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {The United Nations formulated the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2015 as a comprehensive global policy framework for addressing the most pressing social and environmental challenges currently facing humanity. In this paper, we analyse SDG 12, which aims to ''ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.'' Despite long-standing political recognition of this objective, and ample scientific evidence both on its importance and on the efficacy of various ways of promoting it, the SDGs do not provide clear goals or effective guidance on how to accomplish this urgently needed transformation. Drawing from the growing body of research on sustainable consumption and production (SCP), the paper identifies two dominant vantage points—one focused on promoting more efficient production methods and products (mainly through technological improvement and informed consumer choice) and the other stressing the need to consider also overall volumes of consumption, distributional issues, and related social and institutional changes. We label these two approaches efficiency and systemic. Research shows that while the efficiency approach contains essential elements of a transition to sustainability, it is by itself highly unlikely to bring about sustainable outcomes. Concomitantly, research also finds that volumes of consumption and production are closely associated with environmental impacts, indicating a need to curtail these volumes in ways that safeguard social sustainability, which is unlikely to be possible without a restructuring of existing socioeconomic arrangements. Analysing how these two perspectives are reflected in the SDGs framework, we find that in its current conception, it mainly relies on the efficiency approach. On the basis of this assessment, we conclude that the SDGs represent a partial and inadequate conceptualisation of SCP which will hamper implementation. Based on this determination, this paper provides some suggestions on how governments and other actors involved in SDGs operationalisation could more effectively pursue SCP from a systemic standpoint and use the transformation of systems of consumption and production as a lever for achieving multiple sustainability objectives.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{MathaiIsenhourStevisetal.2021,
  author    = {Mathai, Manu V. and Isenhour, Cindy and Stevis, Dimitris and Vergragt, Philip and Bengtsson, Magnus and Lorek, Sylvia and Mortensen, Lars Fogh and Coscieme, Luca and Scott, David and Waheed, Ambreen and Alfredsson, Eva},
  title     = {The Political Economy of (Un)Sustainable Production and Consumption: A Multidisciplinary Synthesis for Research and Action},
  series = {Resources, Conservation and Recycling},
  journal   = {Resources, Conservation and Recycling},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105265},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Despite widespread recognition of the need to transition toward more sustainable production and consumption and numerous initiatives to that end, global resource extraction and corresponding socio-ecological degradation continue to grow. Understanding the causes of this persistent failure is a necessary step towards more effective action. This article contributes to that understanding by synthesizing theory and evidence that links unsustainable production-consumption systems to power and inequality. While sustainable consumption and production research and action mostly focuses on technological or behavioral change, the socio-ecological inequalities driving production-consumption systems built into the organization of our global political economy, remain largely overlooked. In response, we propose a structural political economy orientation that seeks explicitly to reduce these inequalities and advance environmental justice and, thus, create the conditions for sustainable production-consumption systems. We then propose three important arenas of research and action towards sustainable production-consumption systems: justice, governance, and co-production of knowledge and action. These arenas, collectively and individually, can serve as entry points to study and act on the dynamics of (un)sustainable production-consumption systems. This can be done at the micro level, with respect to specific commodity chains or systems of provisioning, or at meso and macro levels with respect to national and global production networks. Our proposed orientation helps distinguish research and practice proposals into those emphasizing management and compensation resulting often in persistence of unsustainability, from those proffering structural changes in unsustainable production-consumption systems. We invite critique and collaboration to develop this research and action agenda further.},
  language  = {en}
}