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Die digitalisierende Alltagswelt der vergangenen Jahre geht mit einem sozialen und ökonomischen Wandel einher. In der digitalen Welt scheinen die traditionellen Rollenzuweisungen von Markteilnehmern als Anbieter und Nachfrager zu verwischen. Es wird vermehrt vom Verbraucherbürger bzw. vom Verbraucher-Produzent (Prosument) gesprochen, der insbesondere organisiert in der Sharing Economy mit scheinbar veränderter Stellung am Markt teilnimmt. Frage dieses Gutachtens ist, ob sich aus diesem gesellschaftlichen Wandel die Notwendigkeit ergibt, § 13 BGB zu modifizieren.

This paper propounds the concept of the moral household economy in order to understand and explain gender performances in food practices of sharing and caring in the socio-cultural domain of unpaid food work. Households are the immediate context for meeting people’s food and nutrition needs and for everyday practices of caring and sharing, which are based on moral responsibilities. By applying the concept of moral economy to households, the boundary that separates abstract morality from the morality acknowledged and implied by social practices is challenged. Since the household is a gendered sphere, moral household economies are gendered. We integrate these notions into one theoretical construct, drawing on illustrative cases to exemplify linkages and processes. The paper offers a novel theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between gender and food by looking at food practices of sharing and caring in the context of the household as a space of gendered morality.

Lebensmittelabfälle werden zunehmend als gesellschaftliches Problem erachtet. Die Initiative "foodsharing" versucht, diesem Problem entgegenzutreten. Dieser Beitrag untersucht, inwiefern diese Initiative als politischer Konsum und Lebensstilbewegung verstanden werden kann. In Lebensstilbewegungen streben individuelle Verbraucher durch ihre alltäglichen Konsumpraktiken einen gesellschaftlichen Wandel an. Anders als im traditionellen Verständnis sozialer Bewegungen treten in Lebensstilbewegungen (1) individuelle und private Aktivität in den Vordergrund, werden (2) kulturelle Ziele verfolgt sowie ist (3) die Partizipation als anhaltende zu erachten. Anhand dieser drei Distinktionskriterien wird das Foodsharing näher betrachtet, als Lebensstilbewegung kategorisiert und die unscharfen Grenzen zwischen sozialen Bewegungen und Lebensstilbewegungen herausgearbeitet., Beiträge zur Verbraucherforschung

In this paper we elaborate how the framing of lifestyle-based collaborative consumption impacts local mobilisation. We present time banking as a collaborative consumption lifestyle emerging from literatures on collaborative consumption and lifestyle movements. The cultural processes of meaning making and practices of framing, through which time banks mobilise constituents and entice collective action, are examined through naturally occurring text interpreted for diagnostic, prognostic and motivational framing. These three framing tasks further illuminate the change aimed for in local lifestyles. The data were collected from time banks in three European metropolitan areas. The findings highlight framing as a practice that challenges traditional monetised ideology of exchange in orthodox economic theory and the hegemonic understandings of consumption. This paper advances the recent discussions on lifestyle movements engaging in meaning creation practices impacting the everyday actions of consumers in local communities.

In this editorial, we contemplate how the politics of the everyday in consumption and consumer lifestyles emerge. Foundational here is the overarching question why, how and where do people come to share common spaces, meaning, identity, practice and goals in dispersed lifestyles aiming for (social) change. This special issue is an original endeavour to generate an understanding of the issues, problems and potential for change emerging from individual and collective efforts in and around consumption and lifestyles. The editorial presents principles and commonalities of the intersectional study of consumption, lifestyle and social movements. We connect these principles with the papers that make up the special issue and conclude with an outlook for future research.

This unique Feature article comprises a collage of contributions submitted by family and consumer sciences (FCS) practitioners from around the world (also called home economics, human ecology, and human sciences). As Interim Editor (this is my last issue), I reached out to FCS/home economists from all generations (Millennial, Generation X, and Boomers) and asked them to share their thoughts on the future of the profession. Their ideas (represented in their own words) are showcased here. May their musings stimulate your thoughts about ensuring our future. We have a responsibility to future-proof the profession and the discipline, which entails anticipating future developments so actions can be taken now to minimize negative consequences and seize opportunities

Within Western societies, the detrimental consequences of mass consumption on the environment have long been identified. Consumers have developed sustainability consciousness in accordance with research and policies. In non-Western societies, however, experiences with mass consumption have not been so long standing. Furthermore, the extent of mass consumerism is not as wide ranging as in many of the richer countries in the world. In central Asian countries, a soviet history adds to this the concept of resource depletion and sustainability impacting industrialization as an ideological taboo. Currently, central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan are embarking on enacting sustainability policies. Kyrgyz consumers are also developing sustainability awareness. This awareness sometimes leads to either new practices or changes in existing practices. However, consumption practices are too complex to assume that only consciousness will lead to increasingly sustainable practices. Furthermore, there is no control over the content of such awareness. The case of emergent sustainable consumption in Kyrgyzstan demonstrates how sustainability values become integrated with locally existing knowledge, meanings and material circumstances. The intent of this study is to investigate how Kyrgyz consumers perceive sustainable consumption and whether and how they integrate sustainability awareness into practices and with other values. Our data consist of 50 structured interviews that were conducted during the summer of 2013 in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Closed questions were analysed employing descriptive statistics, whereas a qualitative content analysis was applied to the results of open questions. The results provide an insight into the way in which emerging sustainability awareness is able to develop and how such awareness becomes integrated into existing practices and values.

Many consumers consider local food a more sustainable choice than conventional food because of the shorter transport distances involved as well as the support provided to local economies. In addition, consumers value the perceived safety benefits, ethical associations and improved taste of local food. In this study, we focus on the cultural meanings of locally produced food among Finnish consumers. Based on interviews with 22 consumers, our analysis suggests that, besides consumers valuing sustainable, healthy and tasty locally produced food, they perceived self-produced, self-processed items, including those they have gathered, hunted and fished themselves, as the most authentic local food. Furthermore, local food is associated with craftsmanship and artisan production. We also found that interviewees tended to historicize their relationship to food through local production. Thus, consumers seem to be in search of ‘real’ or ‘true’ food that is embedded in their personal and shared social histories.

This article traces the trajectories of consumer policy in Finland and Germany in the light of a comparative history in order to reflect upon the notion of consumer empowerment in public policy. The principle developments of contemporary consumer policy can be traced back to the post-war political and economic integrations arising from the initial idea of free markets and individual freedom emphasized in classical liberalism. The article explores this development in Finland and Germany to the point of the establishment of a joint European Union (EU) consumer policy to reveal the notion of consumer empowerment. This approach creates an understanding of the peculiarities of consumer policy in EU member states despite the presence of a joint European policy area. Nowadays, both Finnish and German consumers find EU regulations excessive. It is important to acknowledge the influence of this historic development in order to understand what consumer empowerment meant in the past and thus to further develop policy action on a joint level.