Organized by the Working Group on the Political Economy of Sustainable Consumption and Production (Future Earth Knowledge and Action Network on Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production)

How to talk about sustainable consumption in the Global South? The question is often a non-starter. Mainstream sustainability discourse usually holds that the Global South is poor, and therefore, this question is irrelevant. Unsustainable consumption is purportedly only a “rich world” problem.

Yes, it most certainly is a rich world problem and the rich world needs to take primary responsibility, but sustainable consumption is also a problem for the “poor world”. And the Global South is also confronted by this question in unique ways.

In the Global South, the development discourse in its uncritical and conventional sense dominates policy discussions on sustainability. Embedded in this developmentalism is a simplistic notion of reproducing the economic institutions and material conditions of the Global North, the “high mass-consumption societies” imagined by American political theorist W. W. Rostow in the last century.

Given the crushing poverty that is still the reality of a large section of the Global South, an uncritical embrace of development is perhaps understandable. But is it justifiable?

The question we focus on is not about “development vs environment”. Instead, it is how to engage with “sustainable development” or “sustainability” in a complex context where significant development needs remain unmet, even as inequality and injustice are striking, overconsumption by some is prevalent, and the new reality of “limits” presented by the Anthropocene must necessarily shape the development discourse, unlike in previous centuries.

This webinar series seeks to unpack this challenge. The conversations held in these three events will explore and advance an appropriate vocabulary and knowledge-action agenda from the perspective of the unique context of Global South.

Download the flyer and concept note of the webinar series.

WEBINAR 1:
15 September
From UnSustainable Consumption to Sustainable Production-Consumption Systems

WEBINAR 2:
22 September
Delineating Notions of the “Good Life” Beyond Consumerism in the Global South

WEBINAR 3:
28 September
Building Knowledge-Action Solidarities