ESF Research Conferences

ESF-LiU Conference

Eco-Chic: Connecting Ethical, Sustainable and Elite Consumption

10 - 14 October 2011

Preliminary Programme

© Rivke Jaffe

This conference analyses the recent emergence, in Europe and beyond, of new forms of ethical, sustainable and elite consumption and the associated social movements, identity politics and processes of commodification. It approaches these shifts as an emerging cultural complex termed ‘eco-chic’. Eco-chic is both the product of and a move against globalization processes. It is a set of practices, an ideological frame and a marketing strategy, that have emerged in a wide range of socio-geographical loci. This conference addresses the following questions:

  • What forms does eco-chic assume in Western and non-Western contexts, and to what extent does form rely on the specific local context?
  • Why is it now, at this particular moment in advanced capitalism, that eco-chic become so popular in the formulation of new identities?
  • Can eco-chic, with its mix of consumption and idealism, make a genuine contribution to solving the main problems of our time?

In other words, does it contribute to sustainable development or will it remain limited to consumerist identity politics?

Conference format:

  • lectures by invited high level speakers
  • short talks by young & early stage researchers
  • poster sessions, round table and open discussion periods
  • forward look panel discussion about future developments

Invited speakers and talks will include:

Prof. dr. Robert Foster - University of Rochester, US
Shaking the global commodity chain? Coca-Cola® and the politics of consumer citizenship

Prof. dr. Michele Micheletti - Stockholm University, SE
The Eco-chicness of sustainable citizenship

Prof. dr. ir. Gert Spaargaren - Wageningen University, NL
The chic and the ordinary: On the cultural dimension of sustainable consumption

Dr. Martin Mowforth - Plymouth  University, UK
Fair trade and other fashion-conscious labels in tourism

Dr. Mike Goodman - King’s College London, UK
iSustainability: Defining politics in a 'post-greenwash' era

Dr. Ivonne Vizcarra Bordi - Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, MX
Nostalgia welfare consumption in Mexico: The return of native maize in a globalized world