Marlyne Sahakian
Biographic Data
| ID | 254500 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Marlyne Sahakian |
| GIVEN NAMES | Marlyne |
| FAMILY NAME | Sahakian |
| SIGNATURE | SAHAKIAN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Geneva |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0196-7865 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 48 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 318 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 48 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Future directions for sustainable consumption research and action
This article identifies ten priorities for future sustainable consumption research and action, prioritising questions of (in)justice. It emerged from a series of interdisciplinary exchanges between sustainable consumption scholars from across Europe, reflecting their expert perspectives and research practices.
Themed section: Consumption, Living Labs and transformative change
Consumption and Society three years on: Taking stock and looking forward
Consumption studies in the global south: A conversation among scholars
This article addresses the collective learnings from studying consumption across various regions to inspire and inform further research on low-carbon transitions and the pursuit of the good life. In order to shed light on the growing dynamism and richness of the field of consumption studies outside traditional circuits of discussion in the so-called global north, this article presents an experimental writing exercise conducted with 16 scholars wh…
Participation as a pathway to procedural justice: A review of energy initiatives across eight European countries
The engagement of citizens in the energy transition through a variety of energy initiatives is an important component of a just energy transition. Through analyses of 378 energy initiatives, along with 81 interviews with energy professionals across eight European countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, and Türkiye, we examine how and in what ways these initiatives address justice outcomes. Specifically…
Of Practices and (Micro)politics: Challenges of Organic Waste Segregation in Dschang, Cameroon
Waste generation in Sub-Saharan Africa is increasing rapidly. While biodegradable waste remains predominant, it is rarely treated separately by municipal solid waste management systems, thus foregoing the possibility to reduce the volume going to landfills or dumpsites. This paper discusses the unique case of the small city of Dschang, Cameroon, where the municipality operates two central composting plants that treat about 20% of the city’s house…
Recycling Class: The Contradictions of Inclusion in Urban Sustainability by Manisha Anantharaman (2024)
From dispersed practices to radical socio-technical imaginaries: The role of action labs for supporting collective energy citizenship
How to engage diverse groups of people in the energy transition in Europe is a pressing issue, one that requires grappling with the role of collectivities and social change dynamics. Based on the results of multi-form Citizen Action Labs (CAL) in four European cities, this article details the different ways in which energy citizenship was practised, drawing from an analysis of survey and workshop data, national reports, and exchanges between rese…
Assessing the impact of structural change in sustainable consumption and lifestyles research
Scientific evidence highlights the pivotal role for structural change in pursuit of the sustainability transformation. A particular challenge for research on structural aspects of sustainable consumption and lifestyles, however, is the assessment of their impact. Especially quantifying the impact of structural change remains a serious problem. While some forms of structural change can be quantified, like the rate of building renovations, changes …
Energy sufficiency in buildings and cities: Current research, future directions
Highlights This special issue is dedicated to the topic of energy sufficiency, where the guiding question is how decent living standards for all can be ensured without exceeding planetary boundaries. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of exploring sufficiency for cities, buildings and infrastructures, before this special issue little specialist literature has been available. Thomas Princen’s seminal work on sufficiency as an organis…
Imagining sufficiency through collective changes as satisfiers
How can people imagine ways of achieving desirable energy futures in cities, oriented towards sufficiency? Building on the notion of sufficiency understood as avoiding demand while meeting human needs, this paper discusses the results of seven participatory workshops (n = 154 participants) held in Switzerland where new imaginaries around the future in cities were discussed. The results demonstrate that people can reflect on how living, consuming …
On the (In)visibility of Practices: Opportunities for the Promotion of Household Waste-Segregation in Western Switzerland
Organic waste is both a refuse and a resource. Focusing on household waste in a city in Western Switzerland, this study examines the practices of waste segregation in relation to the city’s (organic) waste management system. Based on qualitative research with diverse households and experts in waste management, we use social practice theory to discuss the meanings and materiality of household organic waste segregation. We show how more or less vis…
Spatialising degrowth in Southern cities: Everyday park-making for (un)commoning
Answering the call in this special issue to spatialise degrowth studies beyond the Global North, this paper examines practices of ‘park-making’ in Chennai and Metro Manila as a potential degrowth pathway. Parks in the coastal mega cities of Metro Manila and Chennai can be seen as relics of a colonial era, and spaces coherent with capitalist, growth-oriented and consumerist logics. At the same time, however, they become spaces that prefigure alter…
How social practices inform the future as method: Describing personas in an energy transition while engaging with teleoaffectivities
In the sociology of expectations, the future is seen as performative in the present: how energy futures are imagined has consequences for how the energy transition might be enacted today. This contribution discusses the conceptual and methodological work undertaken to develop personas from the future, on their way to the policy aim of so-called ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2050 in Switzerland. Social practice theoretical reflections contribute …
An agenda for future Social Sciences and Humanities research on energy efficiency: 100 Priority Research Questions
Decades of techno-economic energy policymaking and research have meant evidence from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)—including critical reflections on what changing a society’s relation to energy (efficiency) even means—have been underutilised. In particular, (i) the SSH have too often been sidelined and/or narrowly pigeonholed by policymakers, funders, and other decision-makers when driving research agendas, and (ii) the setting of SSH-…
Les épiceries participatives: Une contre-culture inclusive offrant une alternative à la consommation de masse
Dans les épiceries participatives, les consommateurs participent aux prises de décision et au travail quotidien dans un modèle qui cherche à expérimenter des alternatives à la consommation de masse. Toutefois, ce type de projet réunit principalement des individus à forts capitaux sociaux, économiques et culturels. Nous utilisons le concept de contre-culture pour analyser à la fois les discours, les pratiques et la composition sociale d’une épicer…
Consumption and society in the 21st century
We are delighted to present the inaugural issue of Consumption and Society. Our ambition for the journal is to invigorate and innovate the field of consumption studies and to renew the relevance of the study of consumption for the global social challenges of the 21st century. Consumption and Society will contribute to debates on contested aspects of consumption, such as environmental impacts, digitalisation, the shifting balance of collective ver…
What’s normal and what can we do about it? Challenging conventions, from research to teaching to action
How the consumption of green public spaces contributes to quality of life: Evidence from four Asian cities
While green public spaces have been studied in relation to biodiversity and climate change, and in relation to health and social inclusion, there is a need to further understand how they relate to a broader understanding of human wellbeing. Evidence suggests that public spaces play an important role with a view to happiness and mental health, but further evidence is needed on how people actually use such spaces and how human needs are met – and h…
Sustainable agrifood systems for a post-growth world
What subnational imaginaries for solar PV? The case of the Swiss energy transition
Growing attention is being paid to imaginaries of energy futures that originate from actors at subnational levels who engage directly with energy transitions, and how these imaginaries compare with national imaginaries. We focus on collectives (e.g., cooperatives, energy utilities or public administrations) that engage with solar PV in Switzerland, a technology that is seen as central to the future of the Swiss energy system. To uncover sociotech…
(Un)sustainable consumption: A Contested, Compelling and Critical Field
Connecting the multi-level-perspective and social practice approach for sustainable transitions
Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits
Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits explores how to enhance peoples’ chances to live a good life in a world of ecological and social limits. Rejecting familiar recitations of problems of ecological decline and planetary boundaries, this compact book instead offers a spirited explication of what everyone desires: a good life. Fundamental concepts of the good life are explained and explored, as are forces that threat…
From planetary to societal boundaries: An argument for collectively defined self-limitation
The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. We bring a critical social science perspective to this framework through the notion of societal boundaries and aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social nature of thresholds. We start by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. We then focus on capital…
Making practice theory practicable: Towards more sustainable forms of consumption
In recent years, there has been growing interest in applying social practice theory to theorizing consumption, specifically in relation to transforming practices that have problematic environmental impacts. In this paper, we address the questions: how do changes in practices occur, and what are the levers for influencing change towards more sustainable consumption practices? We argue that a view of agency distributed across people, things and soc…
Coming Full Circle: Why Social and Institutional Dimensions Matter for the Circular Economy
In light of the environmental consequences of linear production and consumption processes, the circular economy (CE) is gaining momentum as a concept and practice, promoting closed material cycles by focusing on multiple strategies from material recycling to product reuse, as well as rethinking production and consumption chains toward increased resource efficiency. Yet, by considering mainly cost-effective opportunities within the realm of econom…
Challenging social norms to recraft practices: A Living Lab approach to reducing household energy use in eight European countries
ENERGISE is the first large-scale European effort to reduce household energy use through a change initiative that adopted a ‘living lab’ approach informed by social practice theory. Two challenges were introduced to 306 households in eight countries: to lower indoor temperatures and to reduce laundry cycles. This contribution demonstrates the usefulness of a practice-centered design that takes habits and routines as an entry point for understandi…
More, bigger, better’ household appliances: Contesting normativity in practices through emotions
With electricity-using appliances as the starting point, we seek to uncover the normative authority in the performance of practices among households in Western Switzerland. Through complementary methods, we explore normativity in practices that involve communicating and entertaining, cleaning and tidying up, and storing food and preparing meals. Combined with this approach is an understanding of emotions in practice, which are used as a heuristic…
Connecting the multi-level-perspective and social practice approach for sustainable transitions
How social practices inform the future as method: Describing personas in an energy transition while engaging with teleoaffectivities
In the sociology of expectations, the future is seen as performative in the present: how energy futures are imagined has consequences for how the energy transition might be enacted today. This contribution discusses the conceptual and methodological work undertaken to develop personas from the future, on their way to the policy aim of so-called ‘net zero’ carbon emissions by 2050 in Switzerland. Social practice theoretical reflections contribute …
What socio-technical regimes foster solar energy champions? Analysing uneven photovoltaic diffusion at a subnational level in Switzerland
Transitioning to cleaner modes of electricity production requires a major uptake of renewable technologies, including solar photovoltaic (PV). However, the uptake has been spatially uneven within countries and requires more exploration. We analyse the spatial pattern of solar PV growth in Switzerland (76′587 PV projects) by quantifying the features of socio-technical regimes at a subnational level. We combine the multi-level perspective (MLP) fra…
Promoting 'pro', 'low', and 'no' meat consumption in Switzerland: The role of emotions in practices
(Un)sustainable consumption: A Contested, Compelling and Critical Field
Sustainable agrifood systems for a post-growth world
Making "Sustainable Consumption" Matter: The Indoor Microclimate as Contested Cultural Artifact
This article demonstrates how a cultural reading of consumption that focuses on the meaning and materiality of domestic indoor microclimates can contribute to conceptual developments in the field of practice theory that refocus attention on cultural patterns, including prevailing norms and prescriptions regarding indoor temperature and thermal comfort. Drawing on evidence collected during a research-led change initiative that encouraged people to…
Exploring emotions and norms around Swiss household energy usage: When methods inform understandings of the social
Cutting through conflicting prescriptions: How guidelines inform “healthy and sustainable” diets in Switzerland
This paper takes as a starting point "food consumption prescriptions", or guidelines on what and how one should eat when it comes to "healthy and sustainable diets". Through qualitative research in Switzerland, involving discourse analysis, observations, in-depth interviews, and focus groups, we set out to uncover the more dominant prescriptions put forward by a variety of actors, how consumers represent these prescriptions, as well as overlaps a…
How Do Ordinary Swiss People Represent and Engage with Environmental Issues? Grappling with Cultural Repertoires
This paper studies how ordinary people in Switzerland represent and engage with environmental issues in daily practices. Bringing together conceptual developments in cultural sociology and social practice theory, the paper argues that cultural repertoires strongly shape how representations and forms of engagement play out. It identifies two main repertoires of social and environmental change: adaptation and transformation. The adaptation repertoi…
Spatialising degrowth in Southern cities: Everyday park-making for (un)commoning
Answering the call in this special issue to spatialise degrowth studies beyond the Global North, this paper examines practices of ‘park-making’ in Chennai and Metro Manila as a potential degrowth pathway. Parks in the coastal mega cities of Metro Manila and Chennai can be seen as relics of a colonial era, and spaces coherent with capitalist, growth-oriented and consumerist logics. At the same time, however, they become spaces that prefigure alter…
Empowerment in an ecovillage: Unveiling the role of power relations in social practices
Living in an ecovillage requires that people reinvent everyday practices. It involves new forms of production, consumption, social organization, and subjective constitution, aiming toward the normative goal of achieving greater “sustainability.” Based on ethnographic research in Western Switzerland, this paper focuses on uncovering the nexus of power relations, social practices, and empowerment in daily life in an ecovillage. We find that power r…
Exploring the Role of Taste in Middle-Class Household Practices
Food consumption patterns and practices are undergoing changes in the mega-cities of South and Southeast Asia. Based on a qualitative, comparative case study, this article examines food consumption practices among middle-class households in Bangalore and Metro Manila. We demonstrate how taste preferences, shaped by and shaping food consumption practices, directly relate to increases in meat consumption, food packaging and household food waste—all…
Assessing the impact of structural change in sustainable consumption and lifestyles research
Scientific evidence highlights the pivotal role for structural change in pursuit of the sustainability transformation. A particular challenge for research on structural aspects of sustainable consumption and lifestyles, however, is the assessment of their impact. Especially quantifying the impact of structural change remains a serious problem. While some forms of structural change can be quantified, like the rate of building renovations, changes …
Energy sufficiency in buildings and cities: Current research, future directions
Highlights This special issue is dedicated to the topic of energy sufficiency, where the guiding question is how decent living standards for all can be ensured without exceeding planetary boundaries. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of exploring sufficiency for cities, buildings and infrastructures, before this special issue little specialist literature has been available. Thomas Princen’s seminal work on sufficiency as an organis…
On the (In)visibility of Practices: Opportunities for the Promotion of Household Waste-Segregation in Western Switzerland
Organic waste is both a refuse and a resource. Focusing on household waste in a city in Western Switzerland, this study examines the practices of waste segregation in relation to the city’s (organic) waste management system. Based on qualitative research with diverse households and experts in waste management, we use social practice theory to discuss the meanings and materiality of household organic waste segregation. We show how more or less vis…
Consumption and society in the 21st century
We are delighted to present the inaugural issue of Consumption and Society. Our ambition for the journal is to invigorate and innovate the field of consumption studies and to renew the relevance of the study of consumption for the global social challenges of the 21st century. Consumption and Society will contribute to debates on contested aspects of consumption, such as environmental impacts, digitalisation, the shifting balance of collective ver…
The micro-politics of energy efficiency: An investigation of ‘eco-social interventions’ in western Switzerland
Households have a role to play in the so-called ‘energy turn’ in Switzerland, a policy framework that calls for more efficient energy usage. Against this backdrop, this article critically analyses the mechanisms and running of a programme aimed at improving energy usage among low-income households in western Switzerland, bringing together both environmental and social objectives or what was termed an ‘eco-social intervention’. Based on ethnograph…
Energy Reduction Through a Deeper Understanding of Household Consumption: Staying Cool in Metro Manila
Making practice theory practicable: Towards more sustainable forms of consumption
In recent years, there has been growing interest in applying social practice theory to theorizing consumption, specifically in relation to transforming practices that have problematic environmental impacts. In this paper, we address the questions: how do changes in practices occur, and what are the levers for influencing change towards more sustainable consumption practices? We argue that a view of agency distributed across people, things and soc…
Cooling Histories, Habits and Variations
Air-conditioning is a relatively recent invention, yet in a matter of decades it has moved from being a novelty to being not only normal but also expected in certain contexts. This chapter explores the history of air-conditioning, in the Philippines and the region, as well as the strategies currently used by different people to keep cool in the mega-city of Metro Manila. Bodily dispositions towards indoor air temperatures will be discussed, as we…
Complementary currencies: What opportunities for sustainable consumption in times of crisis and beyond?
This article explores contemporary forms of social and solidarity-based economies, commonly known in French as économie sociale et solidaire (ESS). In English-speaking countries, these activities are part of what is being called the human or people-centered economy, or new economics—a growing area of research, policy and practice that is highly relevant to sustainable consumption studies. This article focuses on complementary currencies, or more …
Keeping Cool in Southeast Asia: Energy Consumption and Urban Air-Conditioning
Against the backdrop of the environmental impact of household electricity consumption and the history of cooling practices, Marlyne Sahakian considers how people keep cool, from Metro Manila to other
The social and solidarity economy towards greater 'sustainability': Learning across contexts and cultures, from Geneva to Manila
This article provides a snapshot of social and solidarity economy (SSE) institutions and activities in two differing regions of the world in order to reflect on how the SSE is being conceptualized and practised in varying contexts and cultures. The SSE is a growing social movement that includes a range of activities that share common values, including solidarity and mutual support, with a focus on community level development. We consider the case…
Urban Food Consumption in Metro Manila: Interdisciplinary Approaches Towards Apprehending Practices, Patterns, and Impacts
Food consumption is a local activity related to environmental impacts at different scales. Yet, the link between eating food as a social and cultural practice and the global implications of food consumption has not been sufficiently explored. We adopt a multidisciplinary approach to relate social practices with the biophysical flows of food products at the household level. Focusing on middle‐class households in Metro Manila, the Philippines, we c…
Coming Full Circle: Why Social and Institutional Dimensions Matter for the Circular Economy
In light of the environmental consequences of linear production and consumption processes, the circular economy (CE) is gaining momentum as a concept and practice, promoting closed material cycles by focusing on multiple strategies from material recycling to product reuse, as well as rethinking production and consumption chains toward increased resource efficiency. Yet, by considering mainly cost-effective opportunities within the realm of econom…
Exploring emotions and norms around Swiss household energy usage: When methods inform understandings of the social
Exploring the Role of Taste in Middle-Class Household Practices
Food consumption patterns and practices are undergoing changes in the mega-cities of South and Southeast Asia. Based on a qualitative, comparative case study, this article examines food consumption practices among middle-class households in Bangalore and Metro Manila. We demonstrate how taste preferences, shaped by and shaping food consumption practices, directly relate to increases in meat consumption, food packaging and household food waste—all…
Cutting through conflicting prescriptions: How guidelines inform “healthy and sustainable” diets in Switzerland
This paper takes as a starting point "food consumption prescriptions", or guidelines on what and how one should eat when it comes to "healthy and sustainable diets". Through qualitative research in Switzerland, involving discourse analysis, observations, in-depth interviews, and focus groups, we set out to uncover the more dominant prescriptions put forward by a variety of actors, how consumers represent these prescriptions, as well as overlaps a…
More, bigger, better’ household appliances: Contesting normativity in practices through emotions
With electricity-using appliances as the starting point, we seek to uncover the normative authority in the performance of practices among households in Western Switzerland. Through complementary methods, we explore normativity in practices that involve communicating and entertaining, cleaning and tidying up, and storing food and preparing meals. Combined with this approach is an understanding of emotions in practice, which are used as a heuristic…
How Do Ordinary Swiss People Represent and Engage with Environmental Issues? Grappling with Cultural Repertoires
This paper studies how ordinary people in Switzerland represent and engage with environmental issues in daily practices. Bringing together conceptual developments in cultural sociology and social practice theory, the paper argues that cultural repertoires strongly shape how representations and forms of engagement play out. It identifies two main repertoires of social and environmental change: adaptation and transformation. The adaptation repertoi…
Green public spaces in the cities of South and Southeast Asia. Protecting needs towards sustainable well-being
The significance of green public spaces is well documented in relation to social inclusiveness, human health, and biodiversity, yet how green public spaces achieve what Gough (2017) has termed ‘sustainable wellbeing’ is less understood. This contribution presents preliminary results from a study of green public spaces in four mega-cities of South and Southeast Asia: Chennai (Republic of India), Metro Manila (Republic of the Philippines), Singapor…
A review of linking models and socio-technical transitions theories for energy and climate solutions
Promoting 'pro', 'low', and 'no' meat consumption in Switzerland: The role of emotions in practices
Making "Sustainable Consumption" Matter: The Indoor Microclimate as Contested Cultural Artifact
This article demonstrates how a cultural reading of consumption that focuses on the meaning and materiality of domestic indoor microclimates can contribute to conceptual developments in the field of practice theory that refocus attention on cultural patterns, including prevailing norms and prescriptions regarding indoor temperature and thermal comfort. Drawing on evidence collected during a research-led change initiative that encouraged people to…
Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits
Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits explores how to enhance peoples’ chances to live a good life in a world of ecological and social limits. Rejecting familiar recitations of problems of ecological decline and planetary boundaries, this compact book instead offers a spirited explication of what everyone desires: a good life. Fundamental concepts of the good life are explained and explored, as are forces that threat…
From planetary to societal boundaries: An argument for collectively defined self-limitation
The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. We bring a critical social science perspective to this framework through the notion of societal boundaries and aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social nature of thresholds. We start by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. We then focus on capital…
Flying Less for Work and Leisure? Co-Designing a City-Wide Change Initiative in Geneva
Geneva prides itself on being an international city, home to the United Nations and international organizations. The airport plays an important role in this image, tied to a quest for hypermobility in an increasingly globalized society. Yet, mobility accounts for close to one quarter of the territory’s carbon emissions, with flights responsible for 70% of these emissions. With recent legislation that includes ambitious targets for net zero carbon…
Locating Leisure and Belonging in Metro Manila: From Hyper-conditioned Environments to Public Green Spaces
Leisure practices have implications for belonging. In Metro Manila, a rapidly urbanizing metropolis, leisure is becoming increasingly associated with the most ubiquitous hyper-conditioned environments: privately owned shopping malls. By decontextualizing the built environment from its natural and cultural settings, these malls present a challenge to establishing a sense of belonging within a metropolis. Yet, despite its ubiquity, the mall has not…
Challenging social norms to recraft practices: A Living Lab approach to reducing household energy use in eight European countries
ENERGISE is the first large-scale European effort to reduce household energy use through a change initiative that adopted a ‘living lab’ approach informed by social practice theory. Two challenges were introduced to 306 households in eight countries: to lower indoor temperatures and to reduce laundry cycles. This contribution demonstrates the usefulness of a practice-centered design that takes habits and routines as an entry point for understandi…
What socio-technical regimes foster solar energy champions? Analysing uneven photovoltaic diffusion at a subnational level in Switzerland
Transitioning to cleaner modes of electricity production requires a major uptake of renewable technologies, including solar photovoltaic (PV). However, the uptake has been spatially uneven within countries and requires more exploration. We analyse the spatial pattern of solar PV growth in Switzerland (76′587 PV projects) by quantifying the features of socio-technical regimes at a subnational level. We combine the multi-level perspective (MLP) fra…
The micro-politics of energy efficiency: An investigation of ‘eco-social interventions’ in western Switzerland
Households have a role to play in the so-called ‘energy turn’ in Switzerland, a policy framework that calls for more efficient energy usage. Against this backdrop, this article critically analyses the mechanisms and running of a programme aimed at improving energy usage among low-income households in western Switzerland, bringing together both environmental and social objectives or what was termed an ‘eco-social intervention’. Based on ethnograph…
Empowerment in an ecovillage: Unveiling the role of power relations in social practices
Living in an ecovillage requires that people reinvent everyday practices. It involves new forms of production, consumption, social organization, and subjective constitution, aiming toward the normative goal of achieving greater “sustainability.” Based on ethnographic research in Western Switzerland, this paper focuses on uncovering the nexus of power relations, social practices, and empowerment in daily life in an ecovillage. We find that power r…
Sociology (33 works) · Political science (25 works) · Economics (18 works) · Social science (15 works) · Engineering (14 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Geography (12 works) · Business (11 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Consumption (sociology (9 works)