This presentation proposes that the central problem of environmental state has been its failure to adequately address the main cause of environmental harm: excessive consumption of natural resources. Currently most consumer policies focus on soft policies – like awareness raising – that will leave the final choice to consumers. A real transition towards sustainable, low-consumption society will require stronger policies restricting choices available to consumers, taking into account the speed with which such transition needs to take place.
Policies targeting reduction of private consumption would have to address controversial questions of economic growth, extent of state control and limiting individual freedom, and hence they are difficult to get through in liberal democracies. However, several antecedents do exist, at least in countries like Finland and regions like EU, where state intervention in the name of common good is commonly exercised and popularly supported. Simple examples of this are the no-smoking ban and gun regulations. The challenge is to argue and make case for long-term benefits over short term profits and here futures research can help in identifying alternative solutions and development paths that are ‘outside the box’.
This Paper presents an empirical case study that utilises frameworks developed in the research of futures and sociotechnical transitions. It examines the Finnish regime, its (de)stability and potential sources for tensions and rifts, signalling transition towards low-consumption society, through discourse analysis of interview data with 20-30 actors in strategic positions of the current regime. They represent all influential sectors of society from parliament to interest groups. The interviews will be ongoing this winter and they will be followed with Delphi survey in which the interviewees evaluate an unorthodox set of future consumption policies. In addition, the research studies the role of future consciousness in the choices made by the regime representatives.
