Greening global consumption: Redefining politics and authority

In the recent upsurge of environmental concerns worldwide, sustainable consumption issues are more prominent than before on public and political agendas. But formulating policies for the greening of lifestyles and consumption patterns (e.g. traffic-behaviour, food, housing and leisure) turns out not to be an easy task, as consumption has become a global phenomenon and nation–states have lost their authoritative monopoly. This paper argues that, in the context of a globalising world of networks and flows, sustainable consumption policies have to be conceived of in terms of deterritorialised politics and programs which rely also on non-state environmental authority for the greening of consumption practices. In reflecting on the role of citizen–consumers in politics for the greening of global consumption, three basic concepts are presented to facilitate such analysis and to discuss non-state environmental authority: ecological citizenship, political consumerism, and life-politics.