Media Practices and Sustainability

Project coordinator
Dr. Sigrid Kannengießer

Funding
Central Research Development Funding, University of Bremen

Description
How do people appropriate me­dia in order to contribute to sustainability? The postdoc project (Habilitation) by Sigrid Kannen­gießer investigates this research questi­on in three different case studies, which are analysed comparatively: First, the repairing of media technologies in Re­pair Cafés is examined, secondly, the production and appropriation of fair media technologies is analysed using the example of Fairphone, a smartpho­ne, which should be produced under fair and sustainable conditions, and thirdly, websites which advertise for sustainability are researched using the example of the website www.utopia.de.

These cases are examples of consump­tion-critical media practices (Kannen­gießer 2016): “Consumption-critical media practices are those practices which either use media to criticize (cer­tain) consumption or which are (cons­cious) alternatives to the consumption of media technologies such as repai­ring or exchanging media technologies or producing durable media devices.” (Kannengießer 2016, 198)

Prolonging the life-span of media technologies to contribute to a sustain­able society is one of the aims people follow when repairing their media de­vices in Repair Cafés or producing and appropriating fair and sustainable me­dia technologies. The third case study shows that people also use media cont­ent to reach for sustainability.

The project analysis consump­tion-critical media practices from a critical perspective and also takes am­bivalences within these practices into account. Nevertheless, the practices analysed are attempts to contribute to a sustainable society using media.

References
Kannengießer, Sigrid (2016): Conceptualizing consumption-critical media practices as political participation. In: Leif Kramp/Nico Carpentier/Andreas Hepp/Richard Kilborn/ Risto Kunelius/Hannu Nieminen/Tobias Olsson/Simone Tosoni/Ilija Tomanic Tri­vundža/Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt (Hrsg.): Politics, Civil Society and Participation. Tar­tu: Tartu University Press, S. 193-207.