Longer Lasting Products

Alternatives To The Throwaway Society

Buch | Hardcover

460 Seiten

2010
Ashgate Publishing Limited (Verlag)
978-0-566-08808-7 (ISBN)

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Few of today's products will last longer than those of an earlier era. Indeed, some blame producers of planning obsolescence into their products. Despite this, consumers are at the very least compliant; meaning the current throughput of materials and energy in industrialised economies is unsustainable.

The present economic system requires us to consume and throw away more and more goods. Yet often it's our desire, and the best interests of the environment, for these goods to last. The contributors to this book, who comprise many of the most significant international thinkers in the field, explore how longer lasting products could offer enhanced value while reducing environmental impacts. If we created fewer but better quality products, looked after them carefully and invested more in repair, renovation and upgrading, would this direct our economy onto a more sustainable course? The solution sounds simple, yet it requires a seismic shift in how we think, whether as producers or consumers, and our voracious appetite for novelty. The complex range of issues associated with product life-spans demands a multidisciplinary approach. The book covers historical context, design, engineering, marketing, law, government policy, consumer behaviour and systems of provision. It addresses the whole range of consumer durables - vehicles, kitchen appliances, audio-visual equipment and other domestic products, furniture and floor coverings, hardware, garden tools, clothing, household textiles, recreational goods and DIY goods - as well as the re-use of packaging. Longer Lasting Products provides policy makers, those involved in product design, manufacturing and marketing, and all of us as consumers, with clear and compelling guidance as to how we can move away from a throwaway culture towards an economy sustained by more durable goods.

Tim Cooper is Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption at Nottingham Trent University. After graduating from the University of Bath, he worked as an economist in the construction industry for over a decade before undertaking research at the New Economics Foundation, where he developed his interest in the life-span of consumer durables. He was awarded a PhD from Sheffield Hallam University, where he worked from 1995 until 2010 and established the Centre for Sustainable Consumption. Dr Cooper's current research interests are multidisciplinary, embracing design, consumer behaviour, public policy and environmental ethics. He has participated in several European research projects and in 2004 was awarded funding by the EPSRC to establish the Research Network on Product Life Spans, which he continues to manage. He has advised the Research Council of Norway, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency and the Belgium Federal Science Policy Office, and was Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment Committee for its enquiry Reducing the Environmental Impact of Consumer Products.

Part I: Overview; 1: The Significance of Product Longevity; Part II: Design for Longevity; 2: Re-evaluating Obsolescence and Planning for It; 3: Subject/Object Relationships and Emotionally Durable Design; 4: Defying Obsolescence; 5: Understanding Replacement Behaviour and Exploring Design Solutions; 6: Adjusting Our Metabolism: Slowness and Nourishing Rituals of Delay in Anticipation of a Post-Consumer Age; 7: Durability, Function and Performance; Part III: Public Policy and Product Life-Spans; 8: Durability and the Law; 9: The Law on Guarantees and Repair Work; 10: Policies for Longevity; part IV: Marketing Longer Lasting Products; 11: Rethinking Marketing; 12: Marketing Durability; 13: Can Durability Provide a Strong Marketing Platform?; Part V: Product Use and Reuse; 14: Consumer Influences on Product Life-Spans; 15: Product Life Cycle Management Through IT; 16: There are Times and Places: Systems and Practices in the Domestic Processing and Reuse of Packaging; 17: Extending Product Life-Spans: Household Furniture and Appliance Reuse in the UK

Erscheint lt. Verlag	28.10.2010
Sprache	englisch
Maße	174 x 246 mm
Gewicht	453 g
Themenwelt	Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Design / Innenarchitektur / Mode
	Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht
	Technik ► Umwelttechnik / Biotechnologie
	Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Marketing / Vertrieb
	Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
	Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre
ISBN-10	0-566-08808-8 / 0566088088
ISBN-13	978-0-566-08808-7 / 9780566088087
Zustand	Neuware