Sustainable Consumption and the Importance of Neighbourhood: A Central City/Suburb Comparison
Abstract
This paper applies urban and environmental sociological theory to survey data on self-reported sustainable consumption practices, using a matched sample of central city and suburban residents in Edmonton, Alberta. We use cluster analysis to create an ordinal typology of four types of consumers, conduct an analysis of variance to characterize the resultant clusters, and perform logistic regression to predict the net effect of urban and neighborhood context on sustainable consumption practices. We find that neighborhood and environmental attitude are the strongest predictors of sustainable consumption practices. We conclude by arguing many sustainable activities are more difficult to incorporate into daily routine when residing in the suburban neighbourhood.
While suburban residents may feel strongly that they should consume less, their geographic location appears to significantly constrain their ability to meaningfully reduce their own consumption. This urban Canadian case study has implications for middle class environmental practices in other North American urban and suburban settings.
Copyright © 2023 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
If you like this article, see others like it:
- Impact of Air Pollution on Human Health and the Environment
- Quantifying Rate of Vegetation Cover Changes in Enugu State Using NDVI Techniques for the Year 1991, 2003 and 2015
- Modelling the Cadastral System of Enugu State Using Unified Modelling Language (UML)
- Land Use and Land Cover Changes Detection in Abakiliki Metropolis and its Environs From 1986 to 2014 Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System
- Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in the Population Study of Achara Layout Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria