Schedule 9th International Degrowth Conference

Minimalists, i.e., individuals who live with fewer material items than other people and, are emerging as an essential area of both academic and non-academic study (Rebouças and Soares, 2021; Hook et al., 2021). It is interesting to note that links between minimalism and other concepts such as well-being, the dark side of marketing, and its connection to sustainability. However, despite some existing research looking at minimalism and emotions (Lloyd and Pennington, 2020), the role of minimalist emotions has not been explored much in developing countries and cross-cultural contexts. The current study aims to identify "what dominant emotions minimalists experience when they generally talk about their chosen lifestyle".

Rather than trying to explain why the attitude-behaviour gap related to sustainable consumption could never be bridged (Carrington, Zwick and Neville, 2015), by better understanding minimalist emotions, we might be able to shed light on ways to create a “plausible and comprehensible narrative to prevent overconsumption”, which aligns with the “Communicating Degrowth within a Consumerist Common Sense” theme of the conference. In doing so, we contribute to academic knowledge in minimalist emotions. By offering the insights from two countries, Thailand and the United Kingdom, it also contributes to the area of minimalism in cross-cultural studies. The beneficiaries and users of this study will be policymakers, sustainable and social marketers, and researchers, who can use this insight to promote sustainability. Also, this could provide strategies for households and individuals to survive the financial crisis through the embrace of minimalism.

Info

Day: 2023-09-01
Start time: 12:00
Duration: 00:15
Room: ZV-8-5
Type: Paper Presentation
Theme: Communicating degrowth within a consumerist common sense

Links:

• iCalendar

Files

• "Exploring Minimalist Emotions: A Cross-Cultural Study in the United Kingdom and Thailand”