Review: Confronting Consumption By Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca (Eds.) Reviewed by William Ted Johnson Scottsdale Public Library, USA Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca (Eds.). Confronting Consumption. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. 392 pp. ISBN 0-262-66128- 4 (paper). US$26.95 If this book does not make you squirm, you are not paying attention. The authors have done a masterful job of bringing consumption into focus in the context of environmental issues. Consumption has become the black box of the environmental movement or as the authors put it, the AIDS of environmentalism. Consumption compromises our ability to recognize and respond to core threats to the environment because it does not allow us to engage an ethos of frugality. Everyone wants more stuff even if it hurts the environment, others, and ultimately, themselves. The essential failing of our current economic system is an unwillingness to entertain the terms too much when it comes to consumption or production; self-restraint could be considered the oxymoron of Western environmentalism. Production reigns supreme in our land because consumption is beyond scrutiny. Refusing to apply a band-aid to the wound of consumption, the authors demonstrate great courage as they confront many underlying assumptions about consumption and consumers. In short, the authors remind consumers to think of production as consumption along a chain of material provisioning and resource use. They claim that consumer sovereignty is a myth and consumption is deeply rooted in politics and corporate marketing. Therefore, the struggle to build new institutional mechanisms that more fully communicate the actual costs of consumerism, commoditization, and over consumption is an intense reality. This struggle will not be won through individual efforts carried out randomly but by collective action brought about through institutional and political reforms. It has long been fashionable to create lists of individual actions to save the earth. However, the authors here point out the shortcomings of such lists in that they lack institutional and political muscle. Some of the activities are even based upon the cultural mandate to produce and consume at ever- higher rates. The Environmental Defense Fund's list looks like this: 1) visit/support national parks, 2) recycle, 3) conserve energy, 4) properly inflate your tires, 5) plant trees, 6) organize a local program to recycle
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机译：评论：面对消费由Thomas Princen，Michael Maniates和Ken Conca（编），由William Ted Johnson Scottsdale公共图书馆审阅，美国Thomas Princen，Michael Maniates和Ken Conca（编辑）。面对消费。马萨诸塞州剑桥市：麻省理工学院出版社，2002年。392页，ISBN 0-262-66128-4（纸）。 US $ 26.95如果这本书没有使您蠕动，则您不会注意。作者们出色地完成了在环境问题中关注消费的工作。消费已经成为环境运动的黑匣子，或者正如作者所说的那样，成为环境主义的艾滋病。消费损害了我们认识和响应对环境的核心威胁的能力，因为它不允许我们节俭。每个人都想要更多的东西，即使它伤害了环境，其他人，甚至最终伤害了他们自己。我们当前经济体系的根本失败在于，在消费或生产方面，他们不愿意过多地接受这些条款。自我约束可以被认为是西方环境主义的对立面。在我们的土地上，生产至高无上，因为消费不受审查。拒绝对创口贴上创可贴，这些作者在面对有关消费和消费者的许多基本假设时表现出极大的勇气。简而言之，作者提醒消费者将生产视为沿着材料供应和资源使用链的消费。他们声称，消费者主权是一个神话，消费深深植根于政治和公司营销中。因此，建立新的体制机制以更充分地传达消费主义，商品化和过度消费的实际成本的斗争是激烈的现实。不能通过个人的随机努力来赢得这场斗争，而要通过体制和政治改革所采取的集体行动来赢得这场斗争。创建保护地球的个人行动清单早已成为时尚。但是，这里的作者指出了此类清单的缺点，因为它们缺乏制度和政治力量。有些活动甚至基于文化使命，以更高的速度生产和消费。环境保护基金的清单如下：1）参观/支持国家公园，2）回收，3）节约能源，4）正确地为轮胎充气，5）植树，6）组织当地的回收计划
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