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Home / GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, Volume 23, Supplement 1

Open Access Sustainable Consumption Corridors: Concept, Objections, and Responses

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In this paper, we explore whether the idea of “sustainable consumption corridors”, derived from concepts of a good life, can be a good starting point to define criteria of sustainable consumption. Such corridors would be defined by minimum standards, allowing every individual to live a good life, and maximum standards, ensuring a limit on every individual's use of natural and social resources in order to guarantee access to a sufficient level of resources (in terms of quantity and quality) for others in the present and in the future. We first present the idea, as it resulted from the process of integration within the focal topic From Knowledge to Action – New Paths towards Sustainable Consumption. We then outline potential objections to the idea. Such objections are the pluralists' objection, the liberalists' argument or the argument of lacking acceptance. We show that there is no argument strong enough to utterly turn down the idea. We end by drawing conclusions with regard to future research and to possible strategies of implementation.

Keywords: CONSUMPTION CORRIDORS; GOOD LIFE; HUMAN NEEDS; SUFFICIENCY; SUSTAIN ABILITY ETHICS; SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 01 July 2014

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