This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Unclaimed
Mikko Kurenlahti
Faculty of Theology/Study of Religions, University of Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland

Basic Info

Basic Info is private.

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

The user biography is not available.
Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Journal article
Published: 13 July 2018 in Sustainability
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Due to the global challenges that are posed by the Anthropocene and the academic focus on the fragmented state of modernity, we extend an invitation for shared dialogue on the all-pervading nature of consumerism as the seemingly problematic ethos of Western consumer culture. To this end, we outline a way to approach consumerism as an implicit religion, theorized as having adopted functionalities related to explicitly faith-based traditions within secular settings. We suggest that a similar kind of holistic and multidimensional approach might be of great benefit in the implementation of sustainability, as this would allow, e.g., (i) a more holistic analysis of the all-pervading nature of consumerism; (ii) acknowledgement of the functional diversity of the phenomenon; (iii) recognition of the shallowness of the critique of consumerism as a way of life; and, (iv) shared dialogue across a spectrum of academic perspectives under a unified model. This approach problematizes standard interpretations of consumerism as being about the promotion of the individual against the collective and as leading to a general sense of purposelessness. The perspective of religion reveals how patterns of consumption become illuminated with meaning and connected to a shared way for individuals to articulate a sense of purpose in contemporary contexts.

ACS Style

Mikko Kurenlahti; Arto O. Salonen. Rethinking Consumerism from the Perspective of Religion. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2454 .

AMA Style

Mikko Kurenlahti, Arto O. Salonen. Rethinking Consumerism from the Perspective of Religion. Sustainability. 2018; 10 (7):2454.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mikko Kurenlahti; Arto O. Salonen. 2018. "Rethinking Consumerism from the Perspective of Religion." Sustainability 10, no. 7: 2454.