Articles tagged with 'sustainable-consumption-institute' | University of Manchester

The goal of the workshop is to build conversations among researchers about the political economy of energy transitions, focused on the question of their disruptive qualities. This is as part of a project funded internally at Manchester with the same …

Critical metals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese, are key to the path towards net zero. The UK Government released their Critical Minerals Strategy in early 2023, which sets out to improve the resilience of the critical metal …

The Government’s Net Zero Strategy (2022) calls for more attention to community-based action to meet ambitious targets. Similarly, the recently-published report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for ‘left behind’ neighbourhoods, ‘A neighbourhood …

Dr Helen Holmes, current Inclusive and Prosperous Challenge Lead for Sustainable Futures and Senior Lecturer in Sociology, has been newly appointed as Deputy Director for Sustainable Futures. Helen will start in post from the New Year and we …

Animal agriculture is responsible for considerable environmental burden, and a key contributor to climate change. Meat alternatives are increasingly understood as potential solutions to decreasing this burden by enabling a shift away from …

A new postgraduate course addressing the global environmental crisis and the challenges of building sustainable societies has been launched by The University of Manchester.According to a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate …

Many mainstream visions of sustainable societies assume that ‘green’ products will come to replace existing ones, reducing the footprint of consumption and enabling daily life to continue relatively undisturbed. However, several sustainable …

The role of central banks in perpetuating and tackling the economic patterns associated with climate change has increasingly been subject to academic and political attention. The Bank of England is no exception, having received a new mandate to …

This article explores a backlash against the net zero greenhouse gas emissions target within the UK. It introduces the term “anti-net zero populism” to analyse ideological and opportunistic counter-movements working to undermine climate …

Written by Andrew Lockhart, Simon Marvin and Aidan WhileClimate/ecological breakdown and automation are two defining challenges of the current era, yet there is little research on their conjunctural intersection. Across experimental landscapes from …

The Materiality of Nothing explores the invisible, intangible and transient materials and objects of everyday life and the relationships we have with them. Drawing on over 15 years of original, empirical research, it builds on growing research …

The complexities and scope of environmental issues have not only outpaced the capacities and responsiveness of traditional political actors but also generated new innovations, constituencies, and approaches to governing environmental …

This article analyses and theorizes the political strategies of businesses in the new digital ‘platform’ economy. Airbnb, Uber and meal delivery companies have transformed travel, urban space and repertoires of everyday exchange; they are also …

Written by Torik Holmes, Carla De Laurentis and Rebecca Windemer.The making of low-carbon places is crucial for achieving decarbonisation, but where are such places made? In extending and combining existing research and ideas, the authors take …

Maybe you have one bin or many boxes. You might even have a compost caddy. Whatever your recycling setup, chances are that at some point you’ve been left wondering what should go where and if a particular item is indeed recyclable or if it should …

Dr Maria Sharmina has written a commentary for the Academy of Social Sciences about what a Net Zero society might look like by 2050, based on her work with the Government Office for Science and the Department for BEIS.In this piece Maria describes …

Product longevity is one of the most vexed issues in emerging Circular Economy initiatives as it is antithetical to prevailing corporate business models. Yet there are many ways in which the lifespans of products and materials are currently extended …

Focusing on material and social forms of infrastructure, this edited collection draws on rich empirical details from cities across the global North and South. The book asks the reader to think through the different ways in which infrastructure comes …

Plastic recycling remains a persistent and stubborn challenge. The UK simply does not recycle enough. And while waste reduction and reuse remain important, there is no getting away from the need to drastically improve rates of recycling.A new policy …

The seminar discussed Professor Gabrys’ recent book of the same title. The book is available open access here. Here is a synopsis: Environments are increasingly sites of pollution, extraction, disaster, and development. Citizens of Worlds …

The UK’s recycling system requires a dramatic overhaul to effectively tackle the issue of plastic waste, according to a new report published by The University of Manchester’s One Bin to Rule Them All project team.

In this blog Prof Best and Prof Paterson discuss themes surrounding climate governance and central banking, which emerged during a recent workshop involving leading scholars hosted by the Politics Department and SCI in February at the University of …

Young People at a Crossroads (YPAC) explored how migrant-background young people and their families are learning and talking about climate change in Manchester and Melbourne. We are often told that ‘humanity is at a crossroads’ in relation to …

PhD student Usman Aziz, Elvira Uyarra (MIOIR) and Jo Mylan have written an article on how green city regions can deliver policy to meet net zero for Policy@Manchester. You can read the article here.The UK is making progress to achieve net zero, with …

Dale Southerton and Alan Warde have just published an essay on sustainable consumption in a collection of papers in honour of Hal Wilhite. Hal was a social anthropologist working on issues of consumption and sustainability with a special interest in …

SCI Honorary Researcher Tally Katz-Gerro co-published the paper ‘Between perceptions and practices: The religious and cultural aspects of food wastage in households’ in Appetite. You can access the paper for free here.AbstractUnderstanding the …

On Tuesday, 31st January, Celeste Hicks’ launch of her book ‘Expansion Rebellion: Using the law to fight a runway and save the planet’ is taking place from 3pm in 10.007 and on Zoom.Can the UK expand Heathrow airport, bringing in 700 extra planes a …

A beautifully-illustrated new resource has been launched which seeks to help teachers to address climate change in their classrooms using real-world stories in a creative, engaging and inclusive manner.

The study was completed on behalf of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and was funded by Research England. The objective was to contribute to an evidence base for an update of the Greater Manchester Local Industrial Strategy (GM …

The conference kicked off with the first keynote from high school English teacher and activist Matt Carmichael on "Climate change: What's at stake in high schools? And what can we do?".Catherine then spoke about her ESRC-funded Young People at a …