Lecture 6 Flashcards
Place-based Consumer Behaviour
Where is place-based behaviour placed in the course scheme?
In between household/meso level and society/macro level
Why are there differences in urban and rural areas consumer behaviours?
Differences appear and remain due to differences in spatial opportunities and
constraints, as well as due to differences in the types of people and households
living in urban and rural areas (more or less children)
In several countries, cultural
differences are declining. In urban areas people are more influential regarding norms and traditions.
Innovations, such as
telecommunication, internet
and high-speed transport
have brought the urban into
the rural and vice versa
Where do the differences between urban and rural population result from?
Sorting of people:
- (Non-random) clustering of similar people into
areas where their similar preferences are best met
- (Non-random) clustering of similar people who
cannot relocate (involuntarily)
External factors:
- Local environmental differences result in behavioural differences (conditions for recycling; urban closer to nature)
What is the result of voluntary and involuntary sorting into the urban and rural population?
It leads to socio-economic
differences between the urban and rural population
What are concerns and behaviours of rural vs urban?
- Rural people show much less trust in national political systems and
in the EU parliament - More votes for right wing parties in rural areas
Environmental concerns:
- Rural people are more AWARE of climate change, but LESS worried
and feel LESS responsible to fight climate change (feel they can’t change much)
- Rural people are more in favour of increased taxes on fossil fuels
- Urban people are more worried, but less aware
- Urban people are relatively more likely to reduce their energy use
What are urban-rural differences in consumption behaviour?
How does the physical and social context influences consumption
behaviour?
Cultural influence
Spatial consumer behaviour and towns as providers of retailing
services
Urbanization
Brings many modifications; impact sustainability etc.
What is a city?
- Absence of physical space between people and firms
- Spatial agglomeration of population and economic activity
- Density or proximity
- Complex hubs of government, human interaction, commerce and transportation
- Central nodes in the global network of resource flows
Slow food case - communities
- Top-down policies are less likely to
be successful in rural areas - The Slow food movement is unique
in that it takes a‘bottom-up’ approach to food and local development
“In the name of productivity, the ‘fast
life’ has changed our lifestyle and now
threatens our environment and our
land (and city) scapes. Slow Food is the
alternative, the avant-garde’s riposte.”
What theories can be used to predict pro-environmental behaviours?
Norm-activation model and value-belief-norm theory
Norm-activation model to predict pro-environmental behaviours
Value-belief-norm to predict pro-environmental behaviours
Altruism –> ecological
worldview –> awareness of consequences –> outcome efficacy –> personal norm –> behaviour
Why do pro-environmental values often fail
to predict pro-environmental behaviours?
Value-action gap (also known as attitude-behaviour gap)
Values -/-> behaviour (context plays a role)
Specific contexts might
facilitate or hamper
pro-environmental
behaviors!
Theory of affordances
Objects trigger actions
Affordances are defined as “the action possibilities provided by
objects or environments”
Type of affordances:
- Object-level affordances: objects imply specific functions,
e.g. packaging to be recycled
- Household affordances: set-up of building, feedback system
- Urban affordances: design of urban environments
Spatial context of a person as an important
determinant of consumer choice
I.e. the system of provision of food,
water or energy – and the social environment within which that person
operates.
- Recycling, carpooling, or cycling
- Contact with nature
- Operation of electricity and water infrastructures
- Urban Gardens
- Car ownership
Environments do not afford pro-environmental behaviour alone, but always in relation
to human abilities and motivations!
Context influences …
Consumption behaviour and accessibility
Place attachment
Emotional attitude towards a place
Strongest predictor of self-reported pro-environmental behaviors
Place identity
Regarded here as an aspect of social
Sustainability:
- Increases in one’s sense of community were associated with
increases in willingness to protect
water resources
- Pro-environment behavioural
intentions was stronger when identity was more localized
(neighborhood-based rather than
regionally based)
Social environment: people follow the crowd
Social norms are maximized in uncertain, ambiguous, and unclear situations.
–> System 2?
When consumers are uncertain of a particular behaviour, they tend to look to the behaviour of others, searching evidences of how to act
Social environment: theory of Normative Conduct
Descriptive norm is how you think people behave, and an injunctive norm is how you think people feel about a behavior
Descriptive norms
What is typical and most people do
Powerful behavioural nudges:
- Effectiveness of descriptive norms in influencing pro-environmental behaviour
- “This shop sells several daily usage products” vs. “For your information, 70% of previous participants purchased at least one ecological product”
- Participants purchased more and spent more money on ecological products in the
presence of a strong descriptive norm compared to the control condition
Injunctive norms
Beliefs about what is morally approved and
disapproved
Behavioural nudges:
- Water score: your score vs average/efficient households and the top 20%
Cities are hotspots of economic activity
Features of Cities:
- Cities constantly attract
national and global
financial investments
- Spatial proximity of
companies from diverse
sectors
- Cities attracts talented
and well-educated
people
Lever for Change:
- Financial capital can be utilized to
facilitate structural change and to
redesign urban environments
- Collaborations to create closed
cycles of by-product and waste
flows
- Innovation hubs for sustainable
solutions and technologies
Urban institutions as central transition actors
Spatial agglomeration of institutions and relevant actors provide
opportunities to connect, experiment and to form governance
coalitions
Therefore, city governments need to:
- Connect with other national and international cities to engage in
agenda setting and policy learning
- Form strong partnerships with private companies
- Monitor impacts and trade-offs
Cities are characterized by highly dense
and dynamic social networks
Urban citizens are more likely to be highly educated, gain higher
incomes and show more trust in the political system
Engage in social movements for circularity
Therefore, city governments need to:
- Provide funding for innovations and places for experimentation
- Monitor the planning process of food-related projects
