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Just Enough pp 99–115Cite as

‘Fashion Acolytes or Environmental Saviours? When Will Young People Have Had “Enough”?’

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Abstract

In the global north, high rates of material consumption show few signs of abating, despite oft-repeated warnings of dire social and environmental consequences. Environmental educators have identified young people as a potentially effective group of change agents, capable of driving a transformative shift in how we consume. Yet this picture of the young environmental ‘saviour’ is at odds with many Western young people’s thirst for the ‘latest’ fashions and trends. This chapter explores how young people themselves make sense of this apparent contradiction. Exploring under-researched questions around young people’s conceptualisations of, and affective and embodied responses to, the notion of ‘enough’, it highlights the cultural and contextual factors which could prove decisive in positioning the notion of ‘enough’ centrally in a sustainability-compatible youth material culture.

With: Sion Platts-Kilburn, Matthew Norton, Samantha Jarvis, Rachel Cookson, Lucy Noden, Olivia Buckley, Nikita Patel, and Zach Stuhldreer

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The fact that Snapchat was not one of these proved to be a major point of frustration.

  2. 2.

    Popular examples include volunteer-led repair workshops facilitated by organisations such as Restart and the Repair Café network, as well as websites such as iFixit.com.

  3. 3.

    An abbreviation of ‘magazine’.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Rebecca Collins

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  1. Rebecca Collins
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Correspondence to Rebecca Collins .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of English and Drama, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Matthew Ingleby

  2. Department of Geography, University College London, London, UK

    Samuel Randalls

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Collins, R. (2019). ‘Fashion Acolytes or Environmental Saviours? When Will Young People Have Had “Enough”?’. In: Ingleby, M., Randalls, S. (eds) Just Enough. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56210-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56210-4_7

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56209-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56210-4

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

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