Anti-consumption research focuses on the reasons against consumption (Chatzidakis and Lee 2013) and includes subject matter relating to social marketing, boycotting, social equality, consumer resistance, activism, culture-jamming, dissatisfaction, complaining behavior, undesired self, organizational disidentification, voluntary simplification, and brand avoidance. For this special issue, all submissions linking anti-consumption research to public policy and marketing are welcomed, although we have a particular interest in papers exploring a much neglected aspect of the consumption continuum, the end-stage of consumption, and areas concerning waste, disposal, unmaking waste, sharing, collaborative consumption, reuse, repurposing, maintenance, and circulation. Questions we, other marketing scholars, and public policy makers should find pressing include: What happens once we are finished with consumption? What can anti-consumption research contribute to our understanding of the end-stage of consumption? And what are the implications of such insights for both marketing and public policy?
We are generally aware of the waste that accompanies the consumption-based lifestyle and society we have created, maintain, and struggle to sustain. We each contribute to the global waste problem in one way or another and generally lament about how wasteful we, and the rest of our society, are. Yet, very few marketing scholars actually conduct research on waste, or look creatively at how the end-stage of the consumption cycle may be explored to yield useful knowledge about how we may improve markets and/or marketing, and how we may reject, reduce, or reclaim “waste” (Lee, Cherrier, Roux, and Cova 2011).
The motivation for anti-consumption does not need to be limited to the rejection of material possessions at the initial stages of consumption. There is already evidence of consumers who use material ownership as a way of countering mainstream consumption ideology. For these consumers, the reasons driving their anti-consumption is, paradoxically, their attachment to old possessions and their practices of keeping, restoring, maintaining, and extending the life of objects (Cherrier 2010). Whereas numerous instances and phenomenon of anti-waste practices are increasingly incorporated into consumers’ lifestyle and identities, as is the case for inorganic collectors (Brosius, Fernandez, and Cherrier 2013), the ramifications of such anti-waste practices for public policy and mainstream marketing remain relatively unclear. Consequently, this special issue welcomes all anti-consumption research that has public policy implications with a particular interest pertaining to the end-stage of consumption.
Authors are encouraged to visit the International Centre for Anti-Consumption Research (ICAR) website, www.icar.auckland.ac.nz, for more information about anti-consumption, as well as refer to Stewart (2014) for guidance about highlighting the policy relevance of their submission.
Submission Requirements and Information
Full submission guidelines can be found at the JPP&M website: https://www.ama.org/publications/JournalOfPublicPolicyAndMarketing/Pages/JPPMGuidelines.aspx
All manuscripts should be submitted through the JPP&M online submission system at:
https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ama_jppm
Deadline for Submissions: March 1, 2017.
Expressions of interest and inquiries can be directed to special issue editors, Mike Lee (msw.lee@auckland.ac.nz), Helene Cherrier (helene.cherrier@rmit.edu.au), or Timothy Dewhirst (dewhirst@uoguelph.ca).
References
Brosius, Nina, Karen V. Fernandez, and Hélène Cherrier (2013), “Re-Acquiring Consumer Waste: Treasure in our Trash?” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 32(2), 286-301.
Chatzidakis, Andreas, and Michael S.W. Lee (2013), “Anti-Consumption as the Study of Reasons Against,” Journal of Macromarketing, 33(3), 190-203.
Cherrier, Hélène (2010), “Custodian Behavior: A Material Expression of Anti-Consumerism,” Consumption Markets & Culture, 13(3), 259-272.
Lee, Mike, Dominique Roux, Hélène Cherrier, and Bernard Cova (2011), “Anti-Consumption and Consumer Resistance: Concepts, Concerns, Conflicts and Convergence,” European Journal of Marketing, 45(11/12), 1680-1687.
Stewart, David W. (2014), “What Is Policy? and Why It Matters,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 33(1), 1-3.