Original title: From Identity Construction to Consumer Alienation: A Conceptual Review of Sustainable Consumption as Reconnection
People use what they buy to express who they are and where they belong. This review argues that this can also make people feel alienated, or disconnected, through pressure to consume, the meanings attached to products, and social differences. It proposes that reconnecting with yourself, other people, possessions, and nature may be part of more meaningful and sustainable consumption. The article develops a framework; it does not test it with consumers.
Imagine choosing clothes for school because they feel like you and help you fit in. That can get harder when trends, pressure from others, or worries about status start deciding what you wear. In this paper, choosing clothes stands for consumption, and feeling pushed or disconnected stands for alienation; reconnecting with yourself and others is part of the proposed route toward more meaningful choices.
People often treat sustainable consumption as a question of buying the right things or reducing environmental harm. This review offers a wider lens: it connects sustainability with whether people feel agency, meaning, and connection to others, possessions, and nature.
The abstract presents a conceptual review and proposes a framework; it does not report empirical tests of the pathways or show that reconnection causes more sustainable consumption. It also describes reconnection with nature as a broader ecological extension, so the framework’s claims should not be treated as established outcomes.
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From Identity Construction to Consumer Alienation: A Conceptual Review of Sustainable Consumption as Reconnection — Jale Minibas-Poussard, Ahmet Tuğrul Tuğer — Sustainability — doi:10.3390/su181910160
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.