Lifestyle, Suburban

While the term lifestyle has become synonymous in popular culture with terms such as way of life, in academic circles the term finds its strongest elaboration in debates on consumption and consumerism. Returning the focus to consumption enables us to assess more clearly both the ways in which lifestyles contribute to environmental harm as well as how [Page 274]they might be redirected toward lessening environmental impact. Moreover, orienting lifestyle consumption within a larger vision of green ways of life may strengthen the ways in which more sustainable living practices can be developed. The suburban environment can be seen as both the location for many environmentally harmful consumption practices as well as a fertile one for the development of more environmentally beneficial alternatives. Indeed, there are ...