Yksilövalintojen tuolle puolen korkean kulutuksen yhteiskunnissa : rakenteellisen ylikulutuksen käsitteellistäminen : tapausesimerkkinä Suomi

This master’s thesis defines, through a systematic literature review (n=25) and conceptual analysis, structural overconsumption. Structural overconsumption demonstrates that the overconsumption of affluent societies is not driven solely by individuals’ values and choices. Instead, global, and national societal, economic, built environment, and social structures push consumption toward overconsumption and maintain material-intensive consumption levels. Even when individuals’ values and intentions aim toward sustainable consumption, prevailing structures steer consumption toward overconsumption, making current consumption levels the default mode of consumption. The key structures identified include economic growth dependency, structures of overproduction, political structures, infrastructures, inequality, and the normalization of overconsumption. These structures are often hardly visible and exist on multiple levels of society. Their longevity, multidimensionality, and invisibility, as well as their interacting mechanisms make structural overconsumption stable, dynamic, and resistant to change. In Finland, structural overconsumption manifests strongly in politically and economically supported meat production and consumption, the growth dependency of societal institutions, car-centered infrastructure, and the normalization of overconsumption. Dismantling structural overconsumption requires structural changes across societal institutions, production systems, and social norms. These approaches are emphasized within the sufficiency perspective, which questions the necessity of continuous material growth and shifts attention from excess toward sufficient levels of consumption.