Unstable identities: stable unsustainability

Lars Strannegård and Peter Dobers
Additional contact information
Lars Strannegård: Department of Management and Organization, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden, Postal: Department of Management and Organization, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden
Peter Dobers: School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden, Postal: School of Sustainable Development of Society and Technology, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden

Sustainable Development, 2010, vol. 18, issue 3, 119-122

Abstract: The identity concept has emerged as a key analytical concept in the social sciences in the past decades. In both scientific accounts and everyday use, the identity concept has traditionally been seen as something that individuals possess. This view has however been heavily criticized by a social identity strand of social science, where identity is a matter of a negotiation where different social roles are learned in relations with others. The relational view of identities creates some serious problems for the sustainability challenge. In a world of relational identities, individuals are engaged in identity-creating interactions every day. Key problems are that the interactions, in urban environments, are highly commercialized; consumption cues are emotionally based and speak to our senses, and outnumber the competing cues several times over. Sustainable lifestyles are thus very fragile. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1002/sd.459 Link to full text; subscription required (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:18:y:2010:i:3:p:119-122

DOI: 10.1002/sd.459

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainable Development is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Sustainable Development from John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().