Consumption in retirement: implications for environmental sustainability

Susan Venn and Kate Burningham

Centre for Environmental Strategy

University of Surrey

Guildford

GU2 7XH

www.somnia.surrey.ac.uk

Outline

ELiCiT project: Exploring lifestyle changes in transition

Current and competing discourses on consumption in later life – ‘baby boomers’

Explored through grocery shopping practices

Thrift/frugality

Caring roles and identities

Potential environmental implications

Conclusions

ELiCiT: Exploring lifestyle changes

in transition

‘Moments of change’ hypothesis

Explore aspects of continuity and change through lifecourse transitions

Becoming a first-time parent

Retiring

Explore expectations of changes to lifestyles

Do considerations of sustainability inform any changes

Delineate assumptions about normal and appropriate retirement (and parenting)

Sample:

80 people recruited from four locations London boroughs

Accessible rural Scotland (Fife)

Kent

Lancashire towns (Morecambe and Lancaster)

10 about to retire and 10 about to start a family in each location

Different SEG/gender

Interviews:

Three semi-structured interviews

Approximately 8 months between interviews.

Exploring recent and current lifestyle, changes that take place, and reflections on aspects of change

Methods

Final interview - reflect on what they understand by ‘a sustainable lifestyle’

Degree to which their lifestyles can be considered sustainable

What are the influences on how they live and consume

Daily journals

following each interview, 7 day reflective journal

sent to respondent prior to follow up interviews to use as discussion point

Questionnaires

following first and final interview, lifestyle and values questionnaire

Methods

The ‘Boomers’ – competing discourses

‘Boomers’ (born 1946-1964)

Cohort reaching retirement are unique

Active in a ‘cultural field’ shaped by Austerity of parents’ generation

Exposure to consumerism of 1960/70s

Increased job security and access to wealth

Agentic and active ‘third age’ characterised by increasing consumption

“Over 60s plan to ‘spend, spend, spend’ during retirement – finds

survey by McCarthy & Stone Money” April 2013

Without reference or deference to future generations

Offering a niche market (grey consumers, silver surfers)

Housing wealth

Consumer orientated, individualistic and less family orientated

Implications for the environment largely ignored

Large carbon footprint (global travel/leisure activities)

The ‘Boomers’ – current rhetoric and

competing discourses

Politically, environmentally and culturally active

Also known as the ‘Sandwich generation’

Caring - elderly relatives, children/grandchildren

Largely unpaid

Evidence for declining consumption in retirement

Changes to shopping practices

Refocusing of consumption to ‘others’

Engagement with community

Criticisms ignore heterogeneity, and create intergenerational conflict

20% under 25 and over 65 in poverty

The ‘Boomers’ – current rhetoric and

competing discourses

‘Boomers’:

Spending in retirement

Avoiding consumption

Competing discourses

Two time bombs

‘Agequake’

Climate change

Explore through grocery shopping practices

Ageing and Environmental issues rarely intersect

‘boomers’ have highest carbon footprint

Vulnerable/at risk to extreme weather conditions

Time as a resource Before retirement

Shopping more ad hoc, en route, time constrained

Following retirement

Shopping for bargains

Carefully, judiciously and thriftily

Changing practices

Shopping practices reveal enactment of Thrift = spending to save and saving to spend

Frugality = ‘careful consumption and the avoidance of waste’ (Evans 2009)

Mr Average – me – will do what’s convenient, so I do the shopping either on the way back

from golf with my list or I’ll do it on the way back from school.’ Derek

Requires skills and knowledge about shopping and cooking

Bargain hunting within shop

BOGOF, reduced goods section

Bargain hunting across shops

Potentially leading to over buying/hoarding

Enabling re-acquaintance with local shops and area

Thrift – consuming more

“I once had a cupboard full of toilet rolls because they were on a very good

offer (laughter).” Theresa

‘I’ve gone to the Co-Op, and because the Co-Op’s got a flyer, Utterly Butterly for a £1,

Heinz tomato sauce is a £1, I’ve gone in there, spent about 3 or 4 quid. Then I’ve taken

the dogs to the park on the way from the Co-Op on the way home, and then I’ve gone

off to Lidl’s and I bought sugar, bacon, because they’re on the offers, and I’ve come

back, so today I spent about £9 but I got bag loads.’ Adrian

Growing own vegetables

Batch baking and freezing (of bulk purchases)

Using everything up, avoiding waste

Recycling waste

Frugality – avoiding waste

‘we don’t waste stuff.. that’s the way we are’ Derek

Choices rooted in and explained through parental upbringing and

values

Not necessarily based on financial status

Thrift/frugality – parental values

“I think that post-war era, being post-war babies – that had a lot of

influence on our parents and how they brought us up. You know, waste

not, want not, was the main sort of phrase in our household really you

know” Sally

‘Boomers’ situate themselves

Between austerity and thrift/frugality of parents and

‘Time for me’, ‘spend’ now

Is revealed in narratives

But largely found parental values remain strongest even in

face of transitions and competing demands

Bridging identities (Leach et al)

‘Kids are terrible consumers, they think nothing of spending money like

[having] cake and coffee out’ Kenneth

‘Save energy when you can – all the time. Try not to waste food – all the

time. Got my dad’s habit there, always leave an empty plate”’ Andrew

Shopping embedded within household context and relationships

Encompasses aspects of care Shopping as act of love (Miller 1998)

Sentient activity (Mason 1996)

Caring invokes competing moral rules (Finch and Mason 1993)

Largely undertaken by women

In terms of shopping is manifest in form of ‘treating’

‘Moment’ of treat overrides desire to be thrifty

Caring roles and identities

“Morality in everyday life is constantly negotiated in relation to particular

situations, social conditions, the specific history of social relationships and

in the context of other often competing moral claims and social norms”

Caring roles and identities - treat

Influenced by changing household composition

Treating Healthier food options OR unhealthy options

Treats for other family members (returning children/grandchildren)

Also treats for self (reward)

At shops normally out of usual ‘repertoire’ , M&S, Waitrose

‘We have got a Londis, they are quite cheap. But if I really fancy something

nice to eat then I go up to Marks and Spencer’s’. (Grace)

Caring roles and identities - Gender

Changing of traditional gendered roles following retirement

Men became more engaged with shopping and cooking

To demonstrate skills of bargain awareness and prices

Treating

Depends on power balance within couples

Largely reflecting shifting domains of power within household – reasserting ‘work role’ since giving up working

‘I suppose to a degree we’re saving a little bit because I'm getting bargains,

but then I see something that I think “oh [wife] would like that”, so I buy that

which I wouldn’t normally do or we wouldn’t normally have done.’ Jerry

Difficult to assess influence of thrift/frugality/caring in sustainability terms Saving money to continue spending on global travel

Saving money to pass to children (generativity)

Bargain shopping over and above needs - hoarding

More time means longer distances travelled to find a bargain

Shopping less overall, reduced meat consumption

Shopping less overall at local shops

Buying from local shops

(Re)engagement with home baking and cooking (but includes unusual and non-seasonal produce)

Contradictions and environmental

implications

Multiple cascading transitions

Moving home

Fluctuating retirement status

Changing relationships

Partners

Broader family and friendship relations

Health issues

Seasonality of interviews

Recession

All of which potentially ‘disrupt’ and influence everyday practices

Shopping and cooking practices (mostly) change through transition to retirement

Narratives reveal tensions between parental upbringing and aspirations to spend/travel , but practices largely reflect upbringing

Shopping takes place within a household context where caring responsibilities significantly influence consumption choices

Changes have both positive and negative environmental implications

Changes also influenced by multiple transitions

Questions single ‘moments of change’ hypothesis

Retirement itself is a fluid and long lasting transition

Given that, sustainability of any positive changes are unclear….

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by :

Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Scottish Government

The ESRC (Economics and Social Research Council)

July 2010 - August 2013

s.venn@surrey.ac.uk