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Publications
Griffith University and the Department of the Environment, Sport & Territories, 1997
Brian Hoepper
Queensland University of Technology
Australia
Consuming preoccupies most people in most parts of the world. The ways in which we consume have a profound impact on the well-being of people and of the planet. If we are to act to bring about a more sustainable future, all of us will need to think critically about our consuming practices, and act in ways that are more ecologically defensible.
This workshop acknowledges a substantial tradition of consumer education - one that has undergone important changes in emphases over past decades. Conventionally, consumer education has aimed to help people buy the 'best' product or service at the 'best' price. The major criteria have been quality of performance of the product or service, and price. Under the impact of a growing environmental consciousness, consumer education has undergone a 'greening'. Criteria related to environmental impact have been added to the conventional criteria of quality and price. However, both 'green consumerism' and 'green consumer education' can be seen as insufficient by those advocating a sustainable future.
In going beyond 'green consumer education', this workshop challenges participants to consider a more comprehensive and radical concept of sustainability - grounded in the interdependent values of peace, justice and environmental sustainability. This concept is labelled 'ecological', in the sense that it embodies a profound sense of the complex connectedness of social and natural phenomena. In this sense, a sustainable world is one in which all dimensions of connectedness flourish in peaceful, just and environmentally sound ways.
Such a concept takes consumer education well beyond the pursuit of 'the bargain', and beyond the aim of environmental conservation, to a curriculum aiming at the well-being of individuals, communities and the natural environment at all levels from the local to the global.
The process fundamental to this approach is critical thinking - a process that identifies hidden assumptions, evaluates alternatives and leads to ethical choice.
The workshop exemplifies an approach that could be applied to any form of consumption of product or service.
This workshop aims to raise for consideration an expanded and critical idea of sustainability, and to highlight ways in which people's practices as consumers could be guided by that idea of sustainability. The principles and procedures developed in the workshop could provide a framework for consumer education in the social education curriculum. In particular, the workshop aims to develop:
After a warm-up activity, there are seven related phases in this workshop:
Participants analyse some 'green advertisements'.
More advertisements are analysed to help participants appreciate the limits of green consumerism and understand the principles of ecological consumerism.
A mini-lecture which explores the basis of critical thinking in critical theory and the need for a critical pedagogy.
Participants develop, and then review, a set a critical questions in order to develop an ecological analysis of consumerism.
Participants use critical questions from the previous activity to conduct an ecological analysis of an advertisement for the P-CAR, and then draw a concept web to explore the broader implications of owning and driving a P-CAR.
Participants draw another concept web to analyse the social and environmental implications for a chosen product or service.
The workshop concludes with a review of the value and practicality of approaching the issue of consumerism in the ways presented in the workshop.
Overhead Transparency Masters
OHT 1: Is SUPERMARKET Really Green if ...?
OHT 2: Some 'Cons' in Green Consumerism.
OHT 3: Is it Really Sustainable if ..?
OHT 4: Principles of Ecological Consumerism
OHT 5: Critical Theory, Critical Thinking and Critical Pedagogy
OHT 6: Advertisement for the P-CAR
OHT 7: Questions for the P-CAR driver'?
OHT 8: P-CAR and Critical Perspectives (Uncompleted web)
OHT 9: P-CAR and Critical Perspectives (Completed web)
OHT 10: Proposed Activities
Resources
Resource 1: Consumer Bingo
Resource 2: SUPERMARKET
Resource 3: Set of items for Activity 2:
Resource 3A. Two Advertisements
Resource 3B. Matatu Drivers are Criticised
Resource 3C. Child Workers in India
Resource 3D. The Journey of Tea Leaves
Resource 3E. Anatomy of a Hamburger
Resource 4: An Ecological Analysis of Consumerism (blank proforma - Parts 1 and 2)
Resource 5: An Ecological Analysis of Consumerism (completed proforma - Parts 1 and 2)
Resource 6: Proposed Activities (Print copy of OHT 10)
Activity 4: Resources 4 and 5 are each provided on two A4 sheets (Parts 1 and 2). These two parts need to be pasted side by side on A3 sheets prior to photocopying.
Activity 5: Chart paper, felt pens
The following readings may be used as background sources for preparing the mini-lecture on critical thinking, critical theory and critical pedagogy in Activity 3.
Bigelow, W. (1990) Inside the Classroom: Social Vision and Critical Pedagogy, Teachers College Record, 91(3), 437-448.
Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
Freire, P. (1974) The Politics of Education: Culture, Power and Liberation, Bergin and Garvey, South Hadley, Mass.
Freire, P. and Shor, I. (1987) A Pedagogy for Liberation: Dialogues on Transforming Education, Bergin and Garvey, South Hadley, Mass.
Gibson, R. (1986) Critical Theory and Education, Hodden Stoughton, London.
Giroux, H (1988) Schooling and Democracy: Critical Pedagogy in the Modern Age, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Giroux, H. and Purpel, D. (1982) The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education, McCutcheon, Berkely.
Kretovics, J.R. (1985) Critical Literacy: Challenging the Assumptions of Mainstream Educational Theory, Journal of Education, 167(2), 50-62.
Livingstone, D.W. et al. (1987) Cultural Pedagogy and Cultural Power, Macmillan, New York.
Richardson, R. (1990) Daring to be a Teacher, Trentham Books, Stoke-on-Trent.
Shor, I. (1980) Critical Teaching and Everyday Life, South End Press, Boston.
Simon, R.I. (1987) Empowerment as a Pedagogy of Possibility, Language Arts, 64(4), 16-28.
Simon, R.I. (1988) For a Pedagogy of Possibility, Critical Pedagogy Networker, 1(1), 1-4.
Smyth, W.J. (1987) A Rationale for Teachers' Critical Pedagogy: A Handbook, Deakin University Press, Geelong.
Warm-up and focussing activity:
Begin with the activity in Resource 1 which focuses on people's consuming activities. The activity serves to promote interaction amongst participants. It should also touch on the problematic nature of consuming, and the complex challenges to consumer education.
Use OHT 5 on critical thinking as the basis of a mini-lecture to link the factors 'uncovered' in the previous phase to the ideas of critical theory, critical thinking and critical pedagogy. Use the questions 'Whose interests are being served?' and 'What fundamental assumptions underpin this phenomena?' to provide a simple but valid reference point for these complex ideas. The Additional Readings provide valuable background on the nature of critical theory and critical pedagogy. Especially note Chapter 1 of Rex Gibson's 1986 book, Critical Theory and Education, as most valuable in this regard.
Richard North's book, The True Cost, contains case studies of the social and environmental implications of over 30 goods and services ranging from jeans to hamburgers to computers and is a valuable resource for this activity.
Review the workshop, focusing on the value and practicality of approaching the issue of consuming in the ways proposed in the workshop. Consider particularly whether such an approach might be too challenging for young people, themselves embedded deeply in consumerist materialism.
1. The energy required to chill and freeze foodstuffs is enormous, and necessitates burning of much coal or the use of nuclear power?
2. The transportation of the goods to the warehouse, and later distribution from there, uses so much energy, contributes to air pollution and causes road accidents?
3. Many of the foodstuffs could be provided in an unprocessed and unrefrigerated condition to consumers, with savings in energy use and pollution?
1. Deliberate Lies
One US-based hamburger chain claimed that all its beef was 'US beef' thus countering charges about rainforest being cleared in Central and South America for beef cattle grazing. This claim apparently exploited a legal technicality, whereby beef imported into the USA and then processed can be classified as 'US beef'.
2. Ignorant Untruths
In 1989, in the UK, the Rover Car Company claimed in newspaper advertisements that this car was 'capable of running on unleaded petrol. This means that it's as ozone-friendly as it is economical'. When it was pointed out that lead causes brain damage, not ozone depletion, Rover admitted that they (or their advertising copy writers) were 'green with ignorance'.
3. Irrelevant Claims
Some washing up liquids have been labelled 'phosphate-free' in an attempt to woo customers, even though those products had never contained phosphates.
4. Partial Green Credentials
Manufacturers of disposable nappies have claimed that their products are environmentally-friendly because they have begun to use pulp made using a chlorine-free, dioxin-free process. This claim overlooked other factors: the chlorine-free, dioxin-free process, in toxicity tests, killed more fish, through the release of waste water from factories, than the other process. As well, the potential problems of enormous quantities of human faeces being buried in landfill dumps was overlooked.
1. The retailing practice involves great danger to human life?
2. The product is advertised in a way that portrays men or women in unrealistic and challengeable stereotypes?
3. The product is made by exploited workers, including children, in other countries?
4. The production involves significant cruelty to animals?
1. Environmental Sustainability
This principle involves a belief that human impact on the non-human environment should be at the least level compatible with meeting reasonable human wants. Rather than an anthropocentric belief that people should exploit nature to the extent that we can 'get away with it', there would be a belief in maintaining the elements of the ecosystem as a 'good thing' intrinsically, and not just in terms of human benefit.
2. Individual Sustainability
a) Individual physical health/wellbeing
b) Individual mental wellbeing:
c) Acknowledgement of the relationships between (a) and (b).
3. Social Sustainability
The maintenance of social cohesion, cooperation, a sense of community, social peace and justice at all scales from the local to the global.
CRITICAL THINKING involves these processes:
In this sense, critical thinking has links with CRITICAL THEORY, which attempts to 'unmask' the interests that are served by the way social relations are structured and social life organised. The aim of critical theory is emancipatory. Through critical thinking people can recognise where their interests lie, and begin to act to effect social change in the direction of more just, peaceful and ecologically sustainable ways.
There is an analogy between psychiatry and critical social science. Just as psychiatry seeks through psychoanalysis to expose the deepest causes underlying personal psychosis, so critical social science seeks to expose the deepest causes of such social disfigurements as injustice, violence and ecological devastation. As psychiatry seeks personal emancipation, so critical social science seeks social emancipation.
CRITICAL PEDAGOGY promotes critical thinking amongst students. There are other characteristics usually associated with critical pedagogy, including making space for 'student voice' in negotiation of the curriculum and in the life of the classroom.
This text is adapted from an advertisement for a prestigious and powerful European sports car that is sold in many parts of the world.
Adrenalin
Is your lifestyle really sustainable if ...
Select one of the concepts or issues from the 'P-CAR and Critical Perspectives' web. Think about possible classroom activities for developing students' understanding of that concept or issue. In the appropriate space below, make some initial notes about that proposed activity.
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Move around in the group, meeting other people. Try to locate a person who fits one of the descriptions in the table below. When you do, talk briefly about the particular item. Make a brief note on your table, indicating the name of the person you've met and some details of the item. Then move on to another person, and repeat the process. If you're feeling competitive, try to complete four boxes in a row, in any direction. When you do, feel free to call out 'Con-bingo'!
Find someone who ...
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A. Likes shopping |
B. Owns a digital watch |
C. Grows vegetables at home |
D. Has bought duty-free goods |
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E. Looks for environmentally sound products |
F. Buys at local craft markets |
G. Has a compost heap or bin |
H. Has computer games |
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I. Prefers to buy goods made in their own country |
J. Takes their own carry bag(s) when shopping |
K. Has shopped at a cooperatively owned shop |
L. Likes eating with friends |
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M. Recycles bottles |
N. Drinks imported tea or coffee each day |
O. Likes second-hand clothes |
P. Is wearing jeans |
Source: Adapted from The Times, London, 23 September 1989.
This text is based on a newspaper advertisement placed by a major British supermarket chain in 1989. The advertisement featured graphics of the Arctic and Antarctic polar ice caps, with the text sandwiched between.
To prevent two pieces of ice melting,
we've bought a new refrigerator
The fridge we're referring to is somewhat larger than your average domestic variety.
Located in Strathclyde in Scotland, our new refrigerated storage unit will sit on some 41 acres of land within a building of over half a million square feet which will swallow well over 300 000 tonnes of groceries. (Which, to put it in graphic terms, is about 250 fully laden jumbo jets.)
But perhaps what's even more impressive is the bit you can't see.
Heretically sealed into the pipework of our new refrigeration complex is an ammonia gas coolant, which, unlike CFCs, has absolutely no ill effect on the ozone layer. Nor will it contribute to the overall warming of the planet, known as the Greenhouse effect.
As you might expect, a fridge of this magnitude and complexity doesn't come cheap.
By the time it has been installed the whole project will have cost us a cool £27million.
But that's only the tip of the iceberg. We've been investing in the environment in this and other ways for nearly 20 years.
By the end of the year, four of our stores will be equipped with ozone-friendly cooling systems. These will be built from scratch and not bolted onto existing systems.
And there's more planned for next year and the year after that.
As a matter of fact, we don't intend to stop until each and every refrigeration unit in our supermarkets across the country is replaced.
The cost of such an exercise is staggering. But the consequences of doing nothing would be far more chilling.
Source: Advertisements in The Australian Women's Weekly, 20 June 1979.
1. 'My husband says his handkerchiefs have never been so clean.'
What with working as a media rep. in her husband's business, and running a home as well, Shirley needs a thoroughly reliable washer. Married for 30 years, the SUPERMODEL is her third BRAND X. 'It gives me much more room in the laundry and takes a big load,' she smiled. 'I wash every three days and always use the suds save for socks, sheets and underclothes.'
As Shirley put it 'Who wants to waste water?' Even her husband runs a load through occasionally, and he'd never used an automatic washer before. 'He just read the instruction book once, and went ahead.'
2. 'I always use cold water in my MINIMODEL.'
Mrs Lydia K., originally from Samarkand, and now a resident of Sydney. Dog lover, and full time manageress in a catering company, Lydia still manages to run a home and look after her husband.
In Kenya, many people travel in Matatu public service vehicles. The Matatu is usually a Japanese-brand minibus. From the fares they receive, the Matatu drivers and conductors must pay the minibus owner a set fee. They can then keep any additional money they receive as fares from passengers. So the drivers and conductors are keen to attract passengers, and to cover as much distance as possible. Some drivers and conductors work from 05.00 am to 10.00 pm each day without a break. They often drive very fast and recklessly. They are often rude to passengers, overload the Matatus, and break the traffic laws. Some even take mild drugs. Many Matatu drivers have accidents, causing many deaths and injuries. Ask a Kenyan to name the most dangerous vehicle on the road, and they will name a Matatu.
Source: Voluntary Health Association of India, New Delhi.
The following table indicates the health problems associated with certain occupations in India. Approximately 44 million children in India are involved in full-time employment, many of them in the industries and occupations listed. The products of most of these industries find their way to consumers in the first world.
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Pneumonia, bronchopneumonia, breathlessness and even heart failure |
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Match Industry Fireworks Industry |
Breathing problems, severe burns, muscle fatigue from lifting heavy loads, muscle wastage from long hours of working in one position. |
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Lock Industry |
TB and upper respiratory tract diseases, acid burns, asthma, acute headaches, breathlessness. |
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Glass Industry |
Silicosis and burns. Lifespan reduced by a third due to heat and dust. |
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Powerloom Industry |
Fibrosis and byssinosis. |
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Slate Industry |
Silicosis. Eventually the patient suffocates to death. Few slate workers live beyond the age of 40. |
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Domestic workers, shop boys, dhaba workers |
Overwork, physical and sexual abuse, narcotics. Dependence often develops. |
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Carpet Industry |
Poisoning from colouring agents, lung diseases from dust and fibre dust. |
Source: L. Waddell (1988) Learning for a Fairer Future, WDT Cooperative and NSWGTA, Sydney, p. 59.
This is the opening scene from an Australian play that deals with the tea industry in Sri Lanka, and tea drinkers in Australia:
NARRATOR (pouring a cup of tea from a tea pot): Have you had a cuppa today? Tea is one of Australia's most popular drinks and one of the cheapest too. Only three cents a cup, with milk (pours some milk). Have you ever wondered where our tea comes from? Do you know who grows it? Do you know how they get it to us? Today we are going on a long journey - the journey of a tea leaf. Our journey begins on the island of Sri Lanka where some of the world's best tea is grown. The journey ends here in Australia, when I drink this cup of tea (narrator takes a drink of tea). Now let's start our journey and meet Indrani the tea picker who lives and works on a tea estate in Sri Lanka.
INDRANI: Hello, my name is Indrani. I'm 17 years old and work on this government owned tea estate in Sri Lanka. I pluck only the new bud and top two leaves of the tea bush (picks next bush). I'm a skilled plucker so I can gather about 30-35 kilos of green leaf tea in a day. That will produce between 7 1/2 to 9 kilos of manufactured black tea. And for all this I get 24 rupees a day . I'm paid on a daily rate according to how much I pick. Some days I'm turned away because there isn't enough work or when I'm too sick to work, then I'm not paid. I'm taking my full bag of tea down to be weighed and then I'm going home to prepare my evening meal.
Source: Modern Times, April 1992, p. 12.
Jeremy Rivkin has written about the treatment of beef cattle in the USA:
After being fattened to their 'ideal' weight of 1000 pounds, mature steers are herded into trailers for the journey to the slaughterhouse - a journey that may involve travelling along the interstate highways for several days, during which time it is impossible to stop for rest or nourishment - sometimes not even for water. On the way animals fall and are trampled, breaking legs and pelvises. The injured animals are called 'downers'. On arriving, the animals are led to a holding pen; downers - lying spread-eagled on the floor, unable to stand, or chained together by their broken legs - must wait to be unloaded. The animals who have died en route also have a name. They are called the 'dead pile'.
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Environ- mental Damage |
Use of Resources |
Use of energy |
Animal Welfare |
Physical Wellbeing |
Mental Wellbeing |
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Material
Source
Processing
Transport
Storage
Advertising
Retailing
Consumption or Use
Waste Disposal |
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Damage |
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Material Source |
Does the production or extraction of the materials used damage the environment? |
Are non-renewable resources used as a source, or in any of the stages of processing, transportation, storage, advertising, or retailing of the product? |
Is there an unwarranted use of energy in the production of the material or in its processing? |
Are animal products involved? If so, are the animals treated will in the various stages of their purchase, holding and use? If animals are killed, is suffering minimised? |
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Processing |
Does the processing, transportation or storage of the product pollute the environment? |
Is there any unnecessary wastage of resources at any stage of the process? |
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Are animals used in testing the product? If so, how ethical is their treatment? |
Is there the danger of physical harm or ill-health to people in the various stages of production? |
Do the various stages of production cause stress, anxiety or loss of self-esteem to the workers involved, or to any other people affected? |
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Transport |
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Is the product transported or stored in ways that use too much energy? |
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Is there a risk of physical danger in the transportation or storage of the product? |
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Storage
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Advertising |
Is the product advertised in a way that damages the environment - for example by visual pollution? |
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Does the advertising of the product use too much energy? |
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Is the product advertised in a way that might induce feelings of stress, anxiety or inadequacy in those exposed to the advertising? |
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Retailing |
Does the retailing process cause environmental damage? |
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In the retailing of the product, is much energy required - for example, in controlling temperature of store or product, in travel by clients, in delivery of goods? |
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Is the physical health of workers safeguarded during the retailing process? |
Are retail workers subject to stressful or demeaning conditions? |
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Consumption or Use |
Is the environment damaged by the actual use of the product? |
Does the use of the product necessitate the further use of other resources? |
Is the product on that requires much energy when it is used? |
Are animal habitats threatened by any stages in the process? |
Does the use of the product endanger the physical health of people |
Does the use of the product cause an unnecessary level of stress? |
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Waste Disposal |
Does the product cause problems of waste disposal? |
What provision is there for recovery, reuse or recycling of resources from the process? |
Does the disposal of waste require much energy? |
Are animal habitats threatened by the location or process of waste disposal? |
Does the disposal of waste pose any threat to the physical health of people, either now or in generations to come? |
Can the process of waste disposal cause anxiety in process? |
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Are communities disrupted or displaced by the production of materials, or by the processing, transportation and storage of the product? |
Are the owners of the stages of production, processing, transportation, storage, advertising, retailing and waste disposal committed to ecological principles of *equity *empowerment of members |
Are just workplace relations associated with the production of the materials, the processing, transportation and storage of the product? |
Are the people and/or the environments of certain nations exploited for the advantage of others by the ways in which the product is produced, transported, stored, advertised or sold? Do the profits of the enterprise stay in the country? |
To what extent is the product itself a necessity for meeting real human needs? |
In the production and use of the product, is the principle of adequacy applied? Do people use this product in greater quantities or more often than is needed to meet human needs in an adequate way? |
Does one's role as a worker in the productive process, or as a consumer, enhance one's sense of 'ecological self' by strengthening a sense of connectedness with the natural environment, with other people and with future generations? |
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Are immigrant workers exploited at any stage of the process? |
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Could more ecologically sound materials be used, or more ecologically sound methods applied in the enterprise? |
Could the product still be adequate for human needs if it were made in a more minimal form? |
Does it promote a transcendent sense of being human, and an ethical commitment to a purposeful life? |
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Is the enterprise locally owned and controlled, and do profits benefit the local community? |
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Is it necessary that the product be as highly processed, be transported to such an extent, be stored as extensively, or be advertised as heavily? |
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Does it promote a transcendent sense of being human, and an ethical commitment to a purposeful life? |
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Do the owners recognise the right of workers to organise for their collective benefit? |
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Does it reflect a wish 'to be' rather than 'to have'? |
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Do employees participate in decision making and profit sharing? |
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Is the product advertised in a way that enhances a sense of social cooperation? |
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Does the advertising of the product involve discrimination, or stereotyping, or detract from the dignity of people? |
Are certain cultures stereotyped or demeaned by the advertising of the product? |
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Is the product retailed in a setting and manner that encourages social interaction? |
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Are retailing employees treated fairly? Does the retailing process involve invasion of privacy? |
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Do the product and its use reflect and enhance the culture of the people and encourage a sense of community? |
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Is the product available to all people who may need it? |
Is the product available to all peoples of the world who need it? |
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Are communities disrupted by disposal of waste from the product? |
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Is the burden of waste disposal borne justly? |
Are waste materials exported unfairly to another country? |
Could the product be more durable, or more amenable to repair, reuse or recycling? |
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Select one of the concepts or issues from the 'P-CAR and Critical Perspectives' web. Think about possible classroom activities for developing students' understanding of that concept or issue. In the appropriate space below, make some initial notes about that proposed activity.
Issue:
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Possible Activity |
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1. Research |
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2. Fieldwork (survey, interview, site study) |
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3. Debate/Discussion |
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4. Role-play |
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5. Simulation |
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6. Creative Writing |
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7. Artistic Expression |
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8. Other |
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