Breadth area(s) that the topic is related to; This section covers the two broad areas relating to the topic which include;
The science/description breadth area
How can you use the perspectives of these particular breadth areas to examine the topic of your research within its global context?
I will analyze the global patterns of consumerism
THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The section outlines the reasons for conducting the study.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This section captures five questions to be answered through the study.
WORKING THESIS
This section provides my anticipation as to what the answer to the research shall be.
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section, I have provided a review of what other researchers have said about the topic.
INFORMATION COLLECTION METHODS
Professional literature
Interviews
Inequality in Global Consumerism
Breadth area(s) that the topic is related to and how the topic is related to these breadth areas
The science/description breadth area
The subject of ‘Inequality in global consumerism' is related to two breadth areas: the social/civic breadth area and the science/description breadth area. Consumerism refers to the ideology that promotes the acquisition of goods and services and the view of increased consumption as beneficial to the economy (Robbins, 1999). This topic is related to the social/civic breadth area in the sense that it elaborates human behavior as conducted by groups or individuals. Human behavior, in this case, is the consumption behavior of individuals in high-income countries as compared to those in low-income countries. The topic analyzes the actions of people and nations that spend vast sums of money on goods and services and the impact of such expenditures on the environment and the poor countries (Ottawa University, 2016). There are inequalities in the global consumption patterns with the developed nations accounting for the largest share of the world’s consumption, this exerts increased pressure on the available resources and contributes to environmental degradation (Ottawa University, 2016).
The study topic also touches on the science/description breadth area since it discusses the purpose and nature of science as a means of interacting with the world. It explains how inequality in global consumerism leads to environmental degradation and the connection between consumerism and hunger, poverty and other social and ecological problems. High levels of consumerism in developed nations increase the demand for natural resources and agricultural raw materials from developing countries which impacts on the latter through depletion of resources and the externalization of the former’s costs of consumption to developing nations (Dauvergne, 2010). Also, increased consumption levels result into intensive production methods aimed at meeting the demand. These processes emit greenhouse gasses that lead to global warming (Huang & Rust, 2010). This causes a situation where the developing nations do not have enough resources for local consumption while they are at the same time adversely affected by climatic changes thus exacerbating poverty and hunger in these countries. Whereas the common belief is that overpopulation in itself burdens the environment, it has been established that wealthy nations which are less populated often use far more resources as compared to the most populated areas in the world (Shah, 2005).
How can you use the perspectives of these particular breadth areas to examine the topic of your research within its global context?
The social/ civic breadth area deals with the understanding of human behavior. In that context, I will analyze the global patterns of consumerism. According to Shah (2005), there is high inequality in global consumption. From 2005 statistics, the top 20 percent richest people in the world were responsible for 76.6 percent of the total consumption by individuals whereas the a fifth poorest of people in the world accounted for 1.5 percent. The consumption patterns today are adversely affecting the environmental resource base as they increase the demand for raw materials to meet the levels of consumption. Most of the top fifth wealthiest people in the world are concentrated in the developed countries. According to Robbins (1999), consumption patterns is influenced by culture, the capitalist culture adopted in most developed countries where progress and success of society is determined by the amount of goods and services produced and consumed. This culture is largely to blame for consumerism in these countries.
The science/description breadth area deals with an analysis of the nature of science as a way of interacting with the world. To that end, I will analyze the topic in terms of the impact of global consumerism on the people and the environment. The production of goods for consumption involves the use and depletion natural resources such as fossil fuels, wood, ore and water. Moreover, the processing of these raw materials in factories releases toxic by-products and the use of the final products such as automobiles releases wastes. However, environmentalists focus less on consumption pattern as a cause of environmental pollution because these patterns are entrenched in people’s way of living and are often hard to change.
Robbins (1999), states that a drop in demand for items often causes an economic recession with a resultant drop in employment levels. Furthermore, an increase in consumption leads to an expansion of the resource base to other lands so as to meet the growing the demand. However, the owners of the lands do not necessarily benefit from the resources. The pronounced effects of inequality in global consumerism include the misuse of resources, obesity, exportation of wastes and pollution from developed to the developing countries and a cycle of waste, disparities and poverty (Shah, 2005).
The purpose of the study
This study aims to raise awareness of effects of inequality in global consumerism in and to highlight the role that consumers, businesses and nations play in influencing global consumption and their contribution to inequality. The study also seeks to influence the various players’ ways of thinking and to urge them to take appropriate actions aimed at achieving the goal of sustainability. Besides, the study will identify the optimal decisions on consumption, charitable aid, and the environment that would impact positively in the world and drive the world towards sustainability. Developed nations usually consume more resources so as to improve the standards of living of their people. This increased consumption is often driven by consumers who want to maximize their consumption by spending as much as possible. Similarly, businesses in these nations want to maximize profits by meeting the demand. It is this capitalistic mentality that drives an increase in consumerism. However, it should be noted that global resources are scarce, and the utilization of these resources is not uniform globally; the consumption by developed nations is always at the expense of developing countries and often leads to inequalities that cause conflicts and ecological problems. Creating awareness on the effects of inequality in world consumption levels is essential to facilitate change among various interested parties. According to Jorgenson (2009), consumers may be willing to alter the spending patterns to reduce the levels of inequality in consumption worldwide.
Some of the decisions that developed nations can make include using green technologies to reduce pollution and imposing pollution taxes to regulate pollution by businesses (Huang & Rust, 2010).
Research questions
What are the impacts of the inequality in global consumerism on the low-income nations?
What measures can be taken to reduce the effects of the pressure on resources?
What steps have been put in place by high-income countries to curb the effects of climate change due to unequal consumption levels?
What role do consumers and businesses have to play in reducing inequality in consumption levels?
What measures can be put in place to reduce the depletion of resources and meet the desired sustainability levels?
Working thesis
Inequality in global consumerism has adverse effects on the global wellbeing. The developed nations are usually composed of high-income individuals who demand more goods and services to maximize their utility. Therefore, developed countries strive to enhance the living standards of these people by increasing their production activities and at the same time searching for new resource bases usually in low-income countries. These events ultimately lead to increased pollution through the emissions of greenhouse gasses and other wastes and the depletion of resources in low-income countries.
Literature Review
Professional pieces of literature that have been selected for review of the topic were obtained from the Ottawa Library database. These help to shed light on the subject area and increase the understanding of inequality in global consumerism and its impact on the global environmental health. The reviewed literature is indicated as follows:
According to Jorgenson (2009), the level of resources consumption is directly linked to the quality of life of persons involved. Whereas higher income countries have high consumption patterns above the globally sustainable levels, the low-income countries with lower consumption levels experience high environmental degradation levels. Jorgenson explains this phenomenon in the theory of Ecologically Unequal Exchange in which he postulates that developed nations transfer the environmental costs of their consumption to lower income nations which increases environmental degradation and limits resource consumption in low-income countries (Jorgenson, 1999). This scenario is boosted by the fact that lower income countries are largely dependent on agricultural exports meant for consumption in developed nations. This depletes soil fertility in lower income countries and at the same time, the consumption by populations in these countries is reduced.
Similarly, higher income countries have access to natural resources in developing countries due to their advantageous positioning in the modern world economy which allows them to benefit from favorable terms of trade. Due to this access, developed countries can externalize the environmental effects of extracting resources which increases resource depletion while environmentally degrading the low-income countries (Jorgenson, 2009)
According to Dauvergne (2010), the real costs of consumption are incurred in the indirect spillovers caused when supplying and replacing consumer goods. These indirect effects are usually hidden due to the globalization of world trade and financing. For instance, old computers that have been used by developed countries and have low environmental standards are dumped in developing countries. According to Dauvergne (2010), powerful corporations and states are externalizing the social and ecological costs of their consumption to the world's vulnerable and poor societies. He points to a case in which organic pollutants from manufacturing processes in Europe and garbage incineration in Asia is causing pollution to the Inuit communities living in the Arctic. Dauvergne (2010) further points out that most communities affected by the costs of consumption from developed countries are mostly unaware, and, therefore, the states and corporations responsible do not account for these costs. Moreover, the increased consumption of timber products by high-income countries often causes deforestation which then leads to environmental degradation.
According to Dauvergne (2010), the increasing global population, rising incomes per capita and the consumerism culture curtail efforts to control consumption to attain environmental sustainability. Moreover, the consumer culture is mainly influenced by advertisements.
Ehrlich and Goulder (2007), explore the implications of the size of society's consumption as well as the composition of consumption on environmental degradation through the use of computer models and macro studies. While focusing on the US economy, they assert whereas there are ambiguities regarding the question as to whether consumption in the United States is ambiguous, it is clear that the patterns of consumption are distorted. The distorted patterns lead to production methods that rapidly deplete natural resource endowments. Ehlirich and Goulder (2007) advocate for increased conservation efforts aimed at catering for future generations while ensuring optimal standards of living for the present generation. Moreover, policy makers have a role to play in influencing consumption and production methods to conserve resource endowments and attain the target of sustainability. A country’s consumption levels will be sustainable if they do not threaten the ability of oncoming generations to benefit from the levels of welfare experienced by the present generations.
An article by Brown and McGranaham (2005) attempts to illustrate the relationship between the environmental burden per capita and the income per capita in low and high-income societies. He posits that cities with low average incomes tend to have severe local environmental health problems due to indoor air pollution and poor sanitation while their global environmental burdens from waste generation and resource use are very low. On the other hand, cities with high average incomes experience low environmental health problems while their consumption is high resulting in high levels of waste generation and resource use, both directly and indirectly. Moreover, the high levels of consumption in affluent societies tend to be separated from the polluting production processes with such processes being moved to lower-income settlements. This is evidenced by the increased concentration of industries in low-income countries.
Huang and Rust (2010) cite some of the efforts made by the international community in combating climate change such as the Copenhagen Conference held in 2009 that aimed at reaching an agreement on acceptable levels of emissions by industrialized nations. It emerged from the conference that resource consumption by countries is uneven, that countries need to bear the costs of pollution and that conflicts and wars are some of the consequences of inequity in use. Some of the solutions raised included charitable and environmental aids and the adoption of technologies to cut the pollution levels.
According to Huang and Rust (2010), the perception among industrialized nations is that consumers and firms always aim at safeguarding their self-interests and are seeking to maximize their satisfaction. Consumers maximize their satisfaction by consuming while firms maximize profits by meeting the increased demand. However, this belief fails to consider the fact that the resources for consumption are limited and that level of consumption of resources is not equal globally. Consumers in high-income countries take up 80 percent of the natural resources (Lowe, 1998). This inequality in global consumerism has caused global conflicts and given rise to the push for sustainable consumption. Notably, consumers are becoming aware of the social, global and environmental challenges that arise due to their consumption behavior and are thus factoring the effects of consumption in their consumption decisions (Huang and Rust, 2010). The authors postulate that consumers may not maximize their utility with the knowledge that their high living standards are attained at the expense of resource utilization by poor nations. Therefore, they may be willing to sacrifice excessive consumption to reduce global inequalities in consumption and promote sustainability.
Information collection
Interviews
In addition to the professional literature, my research will be enhanced by interviewing experts in the field of global economics and environmentalists. I am coordinating with a number of personalities who will give credible feedback on the issues raised in the research questions.
References
Brown, D., & McGranahan, G. (2016). The urban informal economy, local inclusion and achieving a global green transformation. Habitat International, 53, 97-105. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.11.00
Dauvergne, P. (2010). The Problem of Consumption. Global Environmental Politics, 10(2), 1-10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/glep.2010.10.2.1
Ehrlich, P., & Goulder, L. (2007). Is Current Consumption Excessive? A General Framework and Some Indications for the United States. Conservation Biology, 21(5), 1145-1154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00779.x
Huang, M., & Rust, R. (2010). Sustainability and consumption. Journal Of The Academy Marketing Science, 39(1), 40-54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11747-010-0193-6
Jorgenson, A. (2009). The Sociology of Unequal Exchange in Ecological Context: A Panel Study of Lower-Income Countries, 1975-2000. Sociological Forum, 24(1), 22-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2008.01085.x
Lowe, I. (1998). Producing a better world: Theory, education, and consulting. The American Behavioral Scientist, 42(3), 531–538.
Ottawa University - Breadth Area Requirement at the Adult Campuses and Online. (2016).Ottawa.smartcatalogiq.com. Retrieved 30 March 2016, from http://ottawa.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2015-2016/Catalog/Ottawa-University-Academics/Liberal-Arts-Studies/Breadth-Area-Requirement-at-the-Adult-Campuses-and-Online
Robbins, R. (1999). Global problems and the culture of capitalism. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
