Kohti kestävää kuluttamista: Materiaalitaju kuluttajien ja materiaalien aktiivisen suhteen hahmottajana

Abstract

The article outlines the concept of material sense as an active and situational relationship between consumers and materials. The aim is to create new understanding of consumers' relations with materials as part of sustainable consumption. On the conceptual level, material sense is built upon the discussions and critique of literacy. Through drawing theoretical influences from pragmatism and neo-materialism, the concept of material sense emphasises the momentary, relational, open-ended, and lively nature of interrelationships with materials. In addition, material sense builds an understanding of how consumers creatively learn and change their ways of interacting with materials. The concept of material sense introduces into sustainable consumption research more strongly than before the idea of active agencies of materials and a wide range of interfaces between material relationships in the daily life of consumers. In the article, we define material sense through four dimensions (situationality, temporality, liveliness, corporeality), in relation to which we outline four sustainability related empirical examples as a foundation for applied research in the future.