{"id":16058,"date":"2016-03-30T21:57:09","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T21:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/03\/30\/perspectives-on-the-throwaway-culture\/"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:47:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T18:47:58","slug":"perspectives-on-the-throwaway-culture","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2016\/03\/30\/perspectives-on-the-throwaway-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Perspectives on the throwaway culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Audience members at the “Disposable Goods, Disposable People, Disposable Planet” panel at March 23 Climate Change Teach-In<\/a> raised the question “What makes a good life?” in relation to cultural values.<\/p>\n

Amy Richter<\/a>, associate professor of history<\/a> and director of the Higgins School of Humanities<\/a>; Halina Brown<\/a>, professor of Environmental Science and Policy<\/a>; and Anita Fabos<\/a>, associate professor of International Development and Social Change<\/a>, led the nearly 25 audience members in a discussion of that issue after delivering short presentations about how consumer and social values impact the disposable culture in which we live.<\/p>\n

Brown and Richter, whose presentations touched on systemic disposability versus individual cultural choice and history, respectively, found commonalities in their different takes on the issue.<\/p>\n

“In a consumer society, individual consumption isn’t so much a decision as it is a cultural act, it’s a systemic issue,” Brown said. There’s a “widespread, deeply held belief that economic growth is needed to improve quality of life in rich countries.”<\/p>\n

Richter explained that because systems and structures are shaped by cultural values, they can also be reshaped into new, different values.<\/p>\n

Both agreed that consumption became a way of life in post-World War II America. Richter, who said signs of a disposable culture began emerging in the 1800s, showed a slide from an August 1955 Life Magazine article about “throwaway living.”<\/p>\n

Fabos examined how more people across the world are finding they need to move — whether due to war or climate change — to maintain their livelihoods, and how those people are not perceived to have value. Mobility, she said, is a key strategy as ecosystems have transformed, but cultural structures have made it difficult.<\/p>\n

“People who cross a border aren’t thought to be a part of a country’s development goals,” she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Related stories:<\/p>\n

2016 Climate Change Teach-In asks crucial questions about issue<\/a><\/p>\n

Unpacking the politics of climate change<\/a><\/p>\n

Panelists explore a very human problem<\/a><\/p>\n

Writing a different future for the planet<\/a><\/p>\n

A ‘pause’ in global warming?<\/a><\/p>\n

Climate Change Teach-In: Researching dramatic changes at the planet’s ‘thermostat’<\/a><\/p>\n

Making Black Lives Matter on Earth: Teach-in dialogue looks at race and climate activism<\/a><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Audience members at the “Disposable Goods, Disposable People, Disposable Planet” panel at March 23 Climate Change Teach-In raised the question “What makes a good life?” in relation to cultural values. 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