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Improving without transforming? The foregrounding of (un)sustainable values in sustainable consumption policy discourse
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Sustainable development, Environmental science and Engineering, Water and Environmental Engineering.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5897-5746
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Urban Planning and Environment, Urban and Regional Studies.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8208-820x
2025 (English)In: Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy, E-ISSN 1548-7733, Vol. 21, no 1, article id 2497136Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In this article, we explore the transition discourses and values expressed and foregrounded in Swedish national policy documents on sustainable consumption. Values, as material-discursive practices, shape the pace and direction of transitions, and for deep, system-wide sustainability transformations, it is critical to strengthen intrinsic, sustainability-aligned values. Public policy is especially well-positioned in this regard since policy shapes the discourse as well as the space for action. Our findings, however, reveal how market connotations frame Swedish sustainable consumption policy within a growth logic, where the public is to facilitate the market by removing barriers for the consumer while encouraging business innovation. As such, the Swedish policy discourse essentially reproduces a so-called improve discourse on sustainable consumption and reinforces extrinsic values of power and achievement. The scope of sustainable consumption is occasionally expanded, particularly in alignment with a shift discourse that emphasizes the move toward a circular economy. However, despite elements of benevolence and universalism in the overarching framing of the Generational Goal, these efforts remain overshadowed and co-opted by the extrinsically focused dominant market framing. Thus, we find limited potential for the policy discourse to help foreground more diverse values essential for deep transformations. Acknowledging the challenges of disentangling values in written policy documents, we call for future research to explore value tensions in practical policy-implementation contexts.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Informa UK Limited , 2025. Vol. 21, no 1, article id 2497136
Keywords [en]
policy, Sustainable consumption, transitions, values
National Category
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-363407DOI: 10.1080/15487733.2025.2497136ISI: 001479812000001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105004361407OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-363407DiVA, id: diva2:1958502
Note

QC 20250519

Available from: 2025-05-15 Created: 2025-05-15 Last updated: 2025-07-07Bibliographically approved

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Eggestrand Vaughan, HannaHagbert, Pernilla

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