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Nobody was Dirty: disrupting inconspicuous consumption in laundry routines

Jack, Tullia LU orcid (2013) In Journal of Consumer Culture 13(3). p.406-421
Abstract
Collective conventions play a significant role in resource consumption, in particular habitual, inconspicuous consumption ingrained in daily practices. To embed pro-environmental default practices in everyday life, an understanding of materiality, habits and cultural context is useful. Household rituals consume environmentally critical resources; laundry provides an example of this phenomenon, cleanliness collective conventions leading to inconspicuous routinised consumption of laundry resources (water, energy).

Intervening into cleanliness conventions, 31 people in Melbourne were engaged to wear the same pair of jeans for three months without washing them. Transcripts from interviews about their experience were used to draw... (More)
Collective conventions play a significant role in resource consumption, in particular habitual, inconspicuous consumption ingrained in daily practices. To embed pro-environmental default practices in everyday life, an understanding of materiality, habits and cultural context is useful. Household rituals consume environmentally critical resources; laundry provides an example of this phenomenon, cleanliness collective conventions leading to inconspicuous routinised consumption of laundry resources (water, energy).

Intervening into cleanliness conventions, 31 people in Melbourne were engaged to wear the same pair of jeans for three months without washing them. Transcripts from interviews about their experience were used to draw insights on how individual courses of actions are shaped by collective conventions. Participants’ experience of materiality, habits and cultural context indicate that to save environmental resources shifting collective conventions may be more effectual than challenging individual routines. This paper explores some of the opportunities in intervening into the inconspicuous consumption of laundry routines and shifting collective conventions towards low wash acceptance, with implications for other mundane resource-consuming lifestyle practices. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
collective conventions, routine, inconspicuous consumption, interventions, cleanliness
in
Journal of Consumer Culture
volume
13
issue
3
pages
406 - 421
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • scopus:84887115605
ISSN
1741-2900
DOI
10.1177/1469540513485272
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
ab4fc56d-7dbc-483a-940e-3406e3ecc280 (old id 4195407)
alternative location
http://joc.sagepub.com/content/13/3/406.refs
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:16:43
date last changed
2022-04-20 00:36:46
@article{ab4fc56d-7dbc-483a-940e-3406e3ecc280,
  abstract     = {{Collective conventions play a significant role in resource consumption, in particular habitual, inconspicuous consumption ingrained in daily practices. To embed pro-environmental default practices in everyday life, an understanding of materiality, habits and cultural context is useful. Household rituals consume environmentally critical resources; laundry provides an example of this phenomenon, cleanliness collective conventions leading to inconspicuous routinised consumption of laundry resources (water, energy).<br/><br>
Intervening into cleanliness conventions, 31 people in Melbourne were engaged to wear the same pair of jeans for three months without washing them. Transcripts from interviews about their experience were used to draw insights on how individual courses of actions are shaped by collective conventions. Participants’ experience of materiality, habits and cultural context indicate that to save environmental resources shifting collective conventions may be more effectual than challenging individual routines. This paper explores some of the opportunities in intervening into the inconspicuous consumption of laundry routines and shifting collective conventions towards low wash acceptance, with implications for other mundane resource-consuming lifestyle practices.}},
  author       = {{Jack, Tullia}},
  issn         = {{1741-2900}},
  keywords     = {{collective conventions; routine; inconspicuous consumption; interventions; cleanliness}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{406--421}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{Journal of Consumer Culture}},
  title        = {{Nobody was Dirty: disrupting inconspicuous consumption in laundry routines}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/44118258/Jack_2013_Nobody_was_Dirty.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/1469540513485272}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}