Purchase and Use of New Technologies among Young People: Guidelines for Sustainable Consumption Education

Genina Calafell, Neus Banqué and Salvador Viciana
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Genina Calafell: Complex Research Group, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, G5-126 Campus UAB-Bellaterra, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
Neus Banqué: Complex Research Group, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, G5-126 Campus UAB-Bellaterra, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
Salvador Viciana: Rizoma Educació Transferència de Coneixement, spin-off of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Carrer de l’Àngel, 10, 08012 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Traditional consumer education (CE), aimed at providing information and guidance to young people, has become insufficient to take on the challenges posed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG 12. Knowledge of youth’s habits as consumers today and citizens of the future becomes essential for defining the most suitable methodological contents and strategies for effective and sustainable CE. This premise was the inception for our research project on the consumption of young people, focusing on the acquisition, purchase, and use of new technologies. Data were obtained from a sample of 994 young people who participated in activities at the Consumption School of Catalonia and completed a questionnaire. The main results revealed that young people did not include sustainability criteria in their use or purchase of technological devices, especially mobile phones: the replacement rate for mobiles was very high (1, 2, or 3 years) and the most important purchase criteria were price, technical features, and brand. These results highlight the need to propose a new kind of CE that challenges the young to think about and adopt consumption methods adopting a contextual, constructive, and complex perspective.

Keywords: consumption education; sustainability education; new technologies; complexity; youth consumption behaviour; knowledge-generating questions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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