Advanced Environmental Economics and Policy
ENP 32306
Script – Policy Part
Anneli Janzer
, Theme 1 - Decision making, risk, and consumer behaviour Monday
Introduction – Social practices, consumption, and ecolabels
Policy=“a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in particular situations that have been agreed to officially
by a group of people, a business organization, a government, or a political party” (CED)/ “a set of
principles and plans to guide activities toward some goal”
Policy vs. law:
• Achieving certain goals vs. bringing justice
• Based on particular logics. based on decree
• Implemented vs. enforced/enacted
• Policy is much broader: a way of doing things based on a particular underlying logic, possibly
involving laws but also going beyond them
Environmental policy “instruments”
• Command and control (mostly through legal regulation)
• Permits (selective permissions)
• Procedural (environmental impact assessment)
• Raising awareness (information campaigns)
• Increasing transparency (ecolabels, certification)
• Market-based mechanisms (cap and trade)
Social theories of consumption The Policy Cycle
Social theory=provides conceptual basis for policy intervention; an
analytical framework which seeks to explain situations or processes
• Consumption does not occur for its own sake, but in the accomplishment of socially
recognizable practices (e.g. being a good employee/mother/…)
Models explaining consumer behaviour:
• Attitudes-behaviour
o Root cause of environmental degradation lies in values and beliefs of people
o Change attitudes to change behaviour
o Example: environmental awareness campaigns
o Critique:
• 1. attitudes do not actually determine behaviors (“attitude-behavior gap”)
• 2. difficult to change attitudes; its not just a question of spreading knowledge (“post-truth”
society)
• Rational choice
o People are economic actors who optimize personal benefit (homo economicus)
o Set structural conditions that favor environmentally-friendly behaviour
o Example: well-defined property rights to avoid tragedy of commons
o Critique:
• 1. people are not always utility maximizers (voters often don’t vote in their economic interests)
• 2. it is the economic structures themselves that cause environmental problems (capitalism)
• Social practices
o Routine practices rooted in societal structures shape individual action
o Change everyday routines
o Example: lifestyle changes (e.g. use public transportation instead of car)
o Critique:
• 1. just as with attitudes, routine behaviors are difficult to change
• 2. does little to change overarching economic structures (capitalism)
Ecolabels
• Policy cycle model
1
, o distinguishes the following, consecutive phases: agenda setting, policy formulation, policy
adoption, and policy implementation
Risk, consumer choice, and labels
The social practices approach to consumer behaviour
• consumption is a moment in practices: not a choice of an individual mind, but a component of a
social practice
• attitude do not necessarily lead to a desired behaviour=Intention Action gap
• social norms guide our consumption (cultural capital: we want to distinguish ourselves socially)
(Bourdieu)
• being in a risk society leads to institutionalization of doubt (=Reflexivity)
o e.g. consumers have little trust in ecolabels
• Giddens: structuration theory (strongly influenced social practice theory)
o How make individuals choices in the context of wider structural conditions?
o People do act reflexively, but this reflexivity is shaped by social norms
• E.g. act of food consumption is shaped by system of food provision and by reflexivity of
individual
• Practice=routinized type of behaviour; consists of both doings and sayings (e.g. car-driving)
• Tacit knowledge is not a quality of the individual but qualities of the practice itself
• the principal implication of a theory of practice is that the sources of changed behaviour lie in
the development of practices themselves (not attitudes or values)
• integrative practices=involve different kinds of practices (e.g. cooking: reading recipe, grocery
shopping, wtc.)
• →we can only understand how consumers deal with risks and labels if we examine this
behaviour as a part of social practices
Ecolabels: features, potentials, and problems
• Strength of ecolabels in changing consumer behaviour? →uncertain
• Types of ecolabels
o Type I: third-party certified (voluntary vs mandatory)
o Type II: based on self-declaration
o Type III: quantitative life-cycle data in extensive report format
• extended producer responsibilty, option of banning products... approaching environmental
consumption as a perennial social issue
Risk in reflexive modernity
• Risks become systemic, radical, and global
• Individualization of society
• Personal and institutional reflexivity in coping with risks
• New domains of policy making away from the national state:
o cosmopolitism (above the state, e.g. international NGOs)
o subpolitics (beneath the state, e.g. transition towns, consumer agency)
Strategies of consumer change
• Information is fitted in existing routines
• Shocking information leads to de-/reroutinization
2
ENP 32306
Script – Policy Part
Anneli Janzer
, Theme 1 - Decision making, risk, and consumer behaviour Monday
Introduction – Social practices, consumption, and ecolabels
Policy=“a set of ideas or a plan of what to do in particular situations that have been agreed to officially
by a group of people, a business organization, a government, or a political party” (CED)/ “a set of
principles and plans to guide activities toward some goal”
Policy vs. law:
• Achieving certain goals vs. bringing justice
• Based on particular logics. based on decree
• Implemented vs. enforced/enacted
• Policy is much broader: a way of doing things based on a particular underlying logic, possibly
involving laws but also going beyond them
Environmental policy “instruments”
• Command and control (mostly through legal regulation)
• Permits (selective permissions)
• Procedural (environmental impact assessment)
• Raising awareness (information campaigns)
• Increasing transparency (ecolabels, certification)
• Market-based mechanisms (cap and trade)
Social theories of consumption The Policy Cycle
Social theory=provides conceptual basis for policy intervention; an
analytical framework which seeks to explain situations or processes
• Consumption does not occur for its own sake, but in the accomplishment of socially
recognizable practices (e.g. being a good employee/mother/…)
Models explaining consumer behaviour:
• Attitudes-behaviour
o Root cause of environmental degradation lies in values and beliefs of people
o Change attitudes to change behaviour
o Example: environmental awareness campaigns
o Critique:
• 1. attitudes do not actually determine behaviors (“attitude-behavior gap”)
• 2. difficult to change attitudes; its not just a question of spreading knowledge (“post-truth”
society)
• Rational choice
o People are economic actors who optimize personal benefit (homo economicus)
o Set structural conditions that favor environmentally-friendly behaviour
o Example: well-defined property rights to avoid tragedy of commons
o Critique:
• 1. people are not always utility maximizers (voters often don’t vote in their economic interests)
• 2. it is the economic structures themselves that cause environmental problems (capitalism)
• Social practices
o Routine practices rooted in societal structures shape individual action
o Change everyday routines
o Example: lifestyle changes (e.g. use public transportation instead of car)
o Critique:
• 1. just as with attitudes, routine behaviors are difficult to change
• 2. does little to change overarching economic structures (capitalism)
Ecolabels
• Policy cycle model
1
, o distinguishes the following, consecutive phases: agenda setting, policy formulation, policy
adoption, and policy implementation
Risk, consumer choice, and labels
The social practices approach to consumer behaviour
• consumption is a moment in practices: not a choice of an individual mind, but a component of a
social practice
• attitude do not necessarily lead to a desired behaviour=Intention Action gap
• social norms guide our consumption (cultural capital: we want to distinguish ourselves socially)
(Bourdieu)
• being in a risk society leads to institutionalization of doubt (=Reflexivity)
o e.g. consumers have little trust in ecolabels
• Giddens: structuration theory (strongly influenced social practice theory)
o How make individuals choices in the context of wider structural conditions?
o People do act reflexively, but this reflexivity is shaped by social norms
• E.g. act of food consumption is shaped by system of food provision and by reflexivity of
individual
• Practice=routinized type of behaviour; consists of both doings and sayings (e.g. car-driving)
• Tacit knowledge is not a quality of the individual but qualities of the practice itself
• the principal implication of a theory of practice is that the sources of changed behaviour lie in
the development of practices themselves (not attitudes or values)
• integrative practices=involve different kinds of practices (e.g. cooking: reading recipe, grocery
shopping, wtc.)
• →we can only understand how consumers deal with risks and labels if we examine this
behaviour as a part of social practices
Ecolabels: features, potentials, and problems
• Strength of ecolabels in changing consumer behaviour? →uncertain
• Types of ecolabels
o Type I: third-party certified (voluntary vs mandatory)
o Type II: based on self-declaration
o Type III: quantitative life-cycle data in extensive report format
• extended producer responsibilty, option of banning products... approaching environmental
consumption as a perennial social issue
Risk in reflexive modernity
• Risks become systemic, radical, and global
• Individualization of society
• Personal and institutional reflexivity in coping with risks
• New domains of policy making away from the national state:
o cosmopolitism (above the state, e.g. international NGOs)
o subpolitics (beneath the state, e.g. transition towns, consumer agency)
Strategies of consumer change
• Information is fitted in existing routines
• Shocking information leads to de-/reroutinization
2
