
The standard form under pressure?
Whether when shopping online, in the supermarket or the drugstore: ecologically sustainable products appear to become an integral part of everyday consumption. Eltje Gajewski and Simon Schrör examined how providers incorporate ecological sustainability as a product feature in order to enrich their products with values and justify them against the increasing criticism of mass consumption. Caroline Tomalka interviewed the authors.
(This is a short version of the Interview by Caroline Tomalka, you can download the full interview here).
You are sociologists working in quite different fields. How did you come to work on a common topic?
Schrör: Our joint work came about as part of a fellowship with Eltje Gajewski at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. We observed that an increasing number of new start-ups are trying to market sustainable alternatives to products that are avoidably harmful to the environment, particularly via digital distribution channels. We took this as a starting point to delve deeper into the matter.
What was the puzzle you encountered when looking more closely at the marketing strategies of those start-ups?
Gajewski: I examined ecologically sustainable start-ups, business models and products. A particularly striking observation was the tendency to directly compare sustainable products with conventional products at the level of consumption qualities. In essence, the initial question that emerged during this research process was: “How do manufacturers attempt to discursively produce ecologically sustainable consumption without fundamentally questioning the socially established mode of mass consumption?”
And what drove you decision to apply Boltanski & Esquerre's framework on enrichments of luxury products to tackle this question?
Schrör: With "Enrichment - a critique of commodities", Boltanksi and Esquerre have presented an important analytical scheme for understanding the luxury industry in contemporary capitalism. One of their most important findings is that a commodity economy that seeks more than a price-based race to the bottom in times of standardised mass production must construct its value differently. The luxury industry is so successful because it has managed to create a value from the history of things, ideas, places and aesthetics for which people are willing to pay high prices. However, this can be justified in different ways. The great strength of "Enrichment" lies in the differentiation between analytical and narrative enrichment.
Do I buy the Bauhaus armchair for five thousand euros because I want to participate in the history inscribed in the object? Then I accept narrative enrichment. Or do I buy a Picasso for five million euros, put it in a storage safe and hope that I can sell it for twice that amount in ten years' time? Then I look at the development of value on the art market analytically. In both cases, it is the history of the objects that constructs the value. Regardless of whether I feel it or calculate it.
If you look at sustainable alternatives to everyday consumables, the first thing you notice - as in the luxury industry - is the often significantly higher price. Nevertheless, the products seem to be successful in offering an alternative to the standard form. We asked ourselves how exactly these alternatives construct their value and realised that this works in a very similar way to the luxury industry. The key difference is that it is not the history of things that acts as the central source of value, but a more present- and future-focused engagement with ecological crises such as climate change, pollution and exploitation. As we show, however, the actual logics of value attribution remain largely intact.
What challenges have you encountered during the research process?
Gajewski: The most significant challenge in conducting research on sustainable startups and their products is the anonymisation of the cases. Although ecological sustainability is becoming increasingly prevalent as a product feature, the majority of providers of such products remain pioneers in this field. Their business models and products are typically distinctive in nature, rendering them readily identifiable based solely on the product description, even in the absence of the name. However, as our study also relies on interviews, we are of course concerned about protecting the identity of our contacts. Consequently, we were required to strike a delicate balance between anonymising and disguising the cases, on the one hand, and disclosing the necessary information about the products and business models, on the other, which are directly relevant to our generalisations. Consequently, we enlisted student assistants who were unfamiliar with our cases and had them meticulously verify the possibility of traceability based on our case descriptions in several rounds. This process enabled us to identify the specific information that provided key insights into the particular startup.
What were some of the key findings?
Schrör: Our study shows how environmental sustainability adds value to consumables and pressures conventional products through various enrichment strategies. We identified five key strategies of ecological enrichment that justify higher prices by making sustainability a crucial evaluation criterion. This shift is part of a broader trend towards a "green" spirit of capitalism.
Entrepreneurs play a crucial role in shaping perceptions of product quality and price through their justifications, influencing social consumption patterns. We extended the conventionalist approach of Boltanksi and Esquerre beyond luxury goods to mainstream markets, showing that sustainability narratives now add value to everyday products. These narratives focus on future-oriented goals like saving the planet and emphasise production context and marginalised individuals.
We found that the market's response to environmental criticism involves deep-seated social and cultural dynamics, not just advertising. However, the widespread use of sustainability has led to ambiguities and challenges in defining and implementing it. Terms like "climate neutral" and "sustainable" often lack clear definitions, complicating efforts to establish objective criteria.
What future research directions do you see stemming from your work?
Schrör: We see this on two levels. On the one hand, we want to contribute to research into sustainable consumer products and believe that we have made an important first step in this direction. However, further research is undoubtedly necessary. Research into the further development of the market shares of such ecologically enriched products is important, as is the development of parameters for categorising actual sustainability. With our framework, we are also discussing different ways of defining sustainability. Further work is needed to achieve greater clarity here.
Gajewski: On the other hand, we are interested in how capitalism as a whole is coming to terms with crises such as climate change and other major upheavals. We have shown that Boltanski and Esquerre's model of analysis is suitable for providing good explanations beyond the expansion of the luxury industry - this expansion is also a late capitalist finding. We believe that this capitalist commodity value model can also be applied to other, neighbouring areas, in particular the (sustainable) digital economy.
More Information
-
Read the article: Eltje Gajewski, Simon Schrör, The standard form under pressure? On the ecological reconfiguration of product presentation using the example of consumables, Socio-Economic Review, 2024; https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae020