[雙語(yǔ)翻譯]外文翻譯--消費(fèi)信貸、家庭財(cái)務(wù)管理和可持續(xù)消費(fèi)（英文）

1、 International Journal of Consumer Studies 31 (2007) 57–65 © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd57International Journal of Consumer Studies ISSN 1470-6431Blackwell Publishing LtdOxford, UKIJCInternational Journal of Consu

2、mer Studies1470-64232005 Blackwell Publishing LtdOctober 200631??5765Original ArticleSustainable consumptionM.J. CohenConsumer credit, household financial management, and sustainable consumptionMaurie J. CohenGraduate P

3、rogram in Environmental Policy Studies, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ, USAAbstractOver the past decade, sustainable consumption has emerged as an issue of growing international promin

4、ence. Policy initiatives to facilitate more environmentally and socially preferable household provisioning have typically emphasized materials and energy effi- ciency. While this approach holds the prospect for some nota

5、ble short-term gains, experi- ence suggests that longer-term improvements are likely to fall short of expectations and trigger unanticipated rebound effects. Effective policy programs need to acknowledge the social and f

6、inancial dimensions of consumer decision making and become more attentive to the role of households as catalysts of production. From this perspective, consumer payment systems take on special significance. In particular,

7、 the prevalence of credit cards and the accumulation of consumer debt in the USA and other advanced countries have been important drivers of economic growth in recent years. This paper highlights the linkages between con

8、sumer credit and sustainable consumption and discusses the structural changes in lending practices that account for the popularity of this payment system. While unsatis- factory conceptual models and inadequate data make

9、 it difficult to advance any definitive assessment of this relationship, it is possible to outline the basic elements of a research agenda in this area.IntroductionThe administrative procedures that have evolved over the

10、 past several decades in most developed countries to maintain environ- mental quality are largely organized around managing the adverse consequences of production. Broadly speaking, this approach has entailed the creatio

11、n of elaborate social and technical systems to control pollution and to ensure that manufacturers conduct their operations in accordance with proscribed performance standards. Policy makers’ preoccupation with producers

12、as the main agents of hazardous environmental outcomes has led to the design of regulatory structures that impose extensive requirements on firms while simultaneously disregarding the reciprocal role of consumers.

13、Given that end-user consumer demand is the ultimate driver of economic activity, and that retail transactions account for at least half of all exchange in advanced nations (two-thirds in the USA), this fixation with prod

14、uction appears to be a curious anachronism. To encourage greater balance between the environmental obliga- tions of producers and consumers, several international organiza- tions and national governments have since the 1

15、992 Rio Earth Summit sought to reconceptualize prominent environmental issues from a consumption perspective (see, e.g. IOCU, 1993; OECD, 1997, 1998; Stern et al., 1997). While the visibility of sustainable consumption a

16、s a policy issue has increased during this period, theprominence of consumer sovereignty within contemporary con- ceptions of governance has slowed its political uptake. Proponents of sustainable consumption seek to redu

17、ce the wastefulness of current household provisioning practices and, in some cases, to foster greater personal and societal reflection on the notion of human needs. Social scientific research related to this policy progr

18、am has drawn attention to a wide range of issues including the pervasiveness of marketing and advertising, the pro- motional activities of major media, the linkages between con- sumption and working hours, and the upscal

19、ing of standards of luxury and convenience (Schor, 1998; Cohen and Murphy, 2001; Princen et al., 2002; Shove, 2003). The current analysis compli- ments this prior work and examines the role of household financial managem

20、ent in shaping capacity for more environmentally and socially responsible consumerism. Of special concern in this regard is the impact of consumer credit. The discussion that follows is organized into five subsequent sec

21、tions. Section 2 provides a brief description of the international politics of sustainable consumption and the third section opens some new ground in these discussions by highlighting the neglected role of consumer credi

22、t. Section 4 describes the growing importance of credit cards as profitable products for lenders and as indispensable ‘lifestyle tools’ for consumers. Although the pri- mary emphasis here is on the USA, the treatment is

23、readily gener- alizable to most other advanced countries. Section 5 outlinesKeywordsCredit cards, consumer payment systems, household finance, LOHAS, lifestyles of health and sustainability, revolving debt.Correspondence

24、Maurie J. Cohen, Graduate Program in Environmental Policy Studies, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102 USA. E-mail: mcohen@adm.njit.edudoi: 10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00485.xM.J. CohenS

25、ustainable consumptionInternational Journal of Consumer Studies 31 (2007) 57–65 © 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd59assuage the strong emphasis on technical efficiency and to develop better appreciation for the factors

26、 that enable and constrain con- sumer decision making (Cohen and Murphy, 2001; Princen et al., 2002; Spaargaren, 2003).2Such cautionary advice is not necessar- ily motivated by scepticism about the short-term benefits th

27、at could potentially flow from more proficient use of materials and energy. Rather, this forewarning stems from recognition that fail- ure to consider the social and political context in which consump- tion occurs often

28、leads to inadvertent ‘rebound effects’ in which first-order efficiency gains are overwhelmed by unanticipated sub- sequent increases in aggregate use (Tenner, 1996; Sanne, 2000; Binswanger, 2001; York and Rosa, 2003).3A

29、concurrent concern is that a steadfast emphasis on science and technology to foster more sustainable consumption fails to recognize the limited power of the methodologies on which this approach depends (Clow, 1998; Huese

30、mann, 2001). Efforts to encourage more sustainable consumption unavoidably depend on life cycle analysis, but such tools are fraught with numerous inad- equacies and, on their own, are frequently unable to deliver objec-

31、 tive guidance (Fava, 1997; Heiskanen, 2002).Forging the linkage between sustainable consumption and consumer creditCurrent preferences for a science- and engineering-dependent path toward more globally equitable and re

32、source efficient consump- tion is nonetheless easy to understand. After all, the prevailing political climate in most advanced nations, combined with con- sumers’ general reticence to reflect upon entrenched lifestyle co

33、m- mitments, profoundly limits opportunities to encourage alternative modes of household provisioning. Nonetheless, the inclination to treat sustainable consumption in terms of overcoming a series of technological challe

34、nges overlooks the fact that the acquisition of material goods is first and foremost a monetary activity. Moreover, meaningful efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of con- sumer practices will undoubtedly require

35、consumers, at some point, to make certain financial adjustments. Accordingly, talking about consumption (sustainable or otherwise) without considering the negotiated social processes that make it all possible is tanta- m

36、ount to talking about automobiles exclusive of their fuel require- ments. The cash, in its various forms, is, after all, the energy that makes the overall system move.2Policies geared toward encouraging sustainable consu

37、mption do not com- pletely disregard more socially informed strategies. Environmental label- ling is one approach that has received particularly enthusiastic uptake in Europe. While this technique offers the potential of

38、 supplementing cus- tomary engineering approaches, there are indications that informational campaigns are rarely as effective as proponents contend. There is a pre- sumption that consumers, armed with appropriate data an

39、d resolve, have the wherewithal to make sound purchasing decisions. However, such prac- tices are fraught with numerous complications that include insufficient buyer attentiveness, poor intelligibility of the proffered i

40、nformation, and overly truncated arrays of realistic alternatives (Salzman, 1997; Loureiroet al., 2002; Nilsson et al., 2004; Gulbrandsen, 2005).3The challenge of automotive fuel economy in the USA is an especially poign

41、ant example of this perverse phenomenon. Notable efficiency improvements during the 1970s and 1980s were readily overwhelmed by growth of the size of the domestic fleet and drivers’ tendency to travel longer distances.Th

42、e driving economic force in most advanced nations is no longer personal savings, but rather purchases sustained by con- sumer debt – especially through the use of credit cards.4The overall importance of this mode of fina

43、nce has soared over the past three decades and Americans now carry an average of 6.5 credit cards (2.7 bank-issued cards and 3.8 store-issued cards).5In the USA, annual credit card expenditures in 1971 were approximately

44、 $600 (2002 US dollars) per household; by 2002, this amount had increased to over $10 000 (2002 US dollars) (Evans and Schmal- ensee, 2005). In and of itself, this large rise simply reflects the growing popularity of cre

45、dit cards as a preferred form of payment and the corresponding decline of cash and checks (Humphrey, 2004). Concomitant with this surge in plastic, however, has been a several-fold increase in outstanding consumer debt a

46、nd a personal savings rate in the country that has fallen effectively to zero. The practical consequence of this revolution in household finance is that the prevalent practice among consumers is no longer to set aside mo

47、ney for future purchases, but instead to finance new acquisitions with prospective income. The fact that approximately 60% of all American cardholders do not pay off their outstanding balances in a timely manner, but ins

48、tead roll over, on average, $5000 each month, is evidence of this new approach to balancing household income and expenditures (Yoo, 1998; Masci, 1999; Manning, 2000). These accounts can carry annual interest rates of upw

49、ards of 30% and entail onerous fees for violations of the underlying credit agreement. The accumulation of untenable debt loads now prompts more than 1.5 million American households to file for bankruptcy each year.6Whil

50、e scholars and other social commentators have identified numerous reasons for these circumstances, it is possible to boil them down into essentially five broad explanations. First, some observers contend that Americans,

51、especially those situated in the upper tiers of the income distribution, have been engaged for the past two decades in a profligate consumption binge, and the upsurge in household fiscal distress is the outcome

52、of this uncon- trolled extravagance (Durning, 1992; de Graaf, 2001). Second, less irreverent analysts such as Juliet Schor (1998) and Frank (1999) attribute this epidemic of financial breakdown to a relent- less pursuit

53、for status and social prestige. Third, a slightly different argument asserts that middle-class consumers in the USA are pitted against one another in mutually destructive competition for positional goods – chiefly suitab

54、le public schools – and this strug- gle inadvertently forces them into problematic financial situations (Warren and Warren-Tyagi, 2003). Fourth, economic sociologists observe that wages, when adjusted for inflation, have

55、 been essen- tially unchanged over the past few decades and this state of affairs4Mortgage debt is a separate liability category that is not directly addressed in the following discussion. It also merits observing that t

56、he conventional delineation between mortgage and non-mortgage debt has become blurred in recent years as homeowner-consumers have used the upsurge in housing prices to convert large volumes of unsecured consumer indebted

57、ness into collateralized first- and second-mortgage loans.5These data are from cardweb.com, an Internet-based organization that offers consumer and industry information on payment cards (http:// www.cardweb.com).6Data on