Normalising what’s outside the norm? The social life of consumption reduction

A better understanding of the factors at play in the normalisation of sustainable lifestyle choices is essential to achieve a large-scale transition to sufficiency-oriented lifestyles and societies. Aiming to contribute to this understanding, this article builds on literature on normativity and normalisation related to consumption and analyses interview material from a study with 25 Swedish individuals who aim to reduce their consumption. The analysis identifies both contextual and processual factors that dynamically interact in the process of normalising reduced consumption. The contextual factors are the cultural and social contexts shaping the ways consumption is practised, like social norms and sociomaterial infrastructures, but they also include the different settings where consumption is practised and talked about in everyday life, such as in the household, the workplace and with friends. The processual factors refer to factors of importance in the reduction process itself, such as the strengthening of reflexive capacity and the (re)negotiation of ‘normality’ through social interaction. Even if sociomaterial infrastructure and ideas of comfort act as barriers in the reduction process, we can discern a shift in norms around consumption in Sweden, towards normalising reduced consumption. The results show that renegotiating meanings and developing new competences and skills are important parts of normalising more sufficiency-oriented ways of consuming. They further suggest how everyday conversations and inspiring examples can help push the boundaries of what is perceived as ‘normal’ consumption, by initiating explicit negotiations about what consumption is acceptable in certain contexts.