Book Notes - Economics and Social Sciences

摘要

Frank-Martin Belz, Georg Karg, and Dieter Witt (Eds.): Nachhaltiger Konsum und Verbraucherpolitik im 21. Jahrhundert. Series "Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Nachhaltigkeits-forschung." Marburg: Metropolis, 2007. ISBN 978-3-89518-601-1. 320 pp., EUR 34.80.rnGiven the limits of natural resources and the coming climate change, industrial societies of the 21st century are confronted with important questions: What is sustainable consumption? Who is responsible for it? What is the role of consumer policy? The authors of the contributions of this reader entitled "Sustainable consumption and consumer policy in the 21st century" try to give answers to these questions. They distinguish between sustainable consumption in the narrow and the broad sense and apply these concepts to the analysis of sustainable consumption in housing and mobility. The empirical results of the qualitative and quantitative studies reported show that consumers alone cannot be made responsible for sustainable consumption. On the basis of these findings, the concept of a "polycentric consumer policy" is developed. In this concept, the actors of consumer policy are not only the various governmental institutions but also consumers, companies, associations, and the media.