Lost in the city: the responsible consumption as message, and the city of Madrid as communication ecosystem

Abstract

The current rate of consumption is much higher than the ecology capacity of our environment. This is substantially important in cities where the imbalance of metabolic fluxes is greater. In this sense, to promote responsible consumption is the key to look for the urban sustainability, where the major communication messages are based on the current consumer society. Therefore we ask: what messages of responsible consumption are in the city? what discourses and practices related to responsible consumption are in Madrid? This work is an exploratory approach to that context and we use the technique of drift (28 drifts out in 2009 and distributed in four districts of the city of Madrid). We identify multiple and diverse discourses and practices associated with responsible consumption, especially in areas such as mobility, energy and water consumption or the use of time and space.Escuchar