ABSTRACT
This chapter examines consumption-oriented policies with reference to the theoretical frameworks upon which they are founded. It explores the relationship between theoretical understandings of consumption and how they frame policy approaches and discusses 'orthodox' framings of consumption policies, which privilege the consumer as a 'sovereign' market actor. Core theoretical approaches are examined with examples of how they have been applied within consumption policy frameworks. The chapter also discusses 'heterodox' framings of consumption policy, which are based on theoretical approaches that emphasize the inter-connections between different processes of societal change across a number of scales. It considers the grand societal challenge presented by climate change, and environmental sustainability more specifically, to illustrate and summarize the principal distinctions between theoretical understandings of consumption and their attendant policy approaches. Orthodox framings of consumption policies, drawn principally from economic and psychological theory, take as their ontological starting point the actions of individual consumers.
