This study examines the “sustainability
movement’s” role in tackling the issues of power that are embedded in the
discourses and practices of consumer society. This
examination includes the power-related framing of knowledge practices, people’s
roles as consumers and citizens, and certain movements such as Degrowth,
Carrotmob, and the cultural critique of consumerism. The data and evidence for
this study is mostly gathered from groups in Finland, although the intellectual
background and action networks of the groups are international. By taking a
collective action approach to the concept of cognitive praxis developed by Eyerman and Jamison (1991), I
find that the discourses and practices established by these particular movements,
such as alternative economical discourses and consumer campaigns, were created to encourage people to adopt
sustainable lifestyles and to engage in broader systemic change. I also find that
the politicization of knowledge practices can reciprocally impact various
actors with the responsibility to usher in a sustainable transition. In this
way, social movements function as spaces and
processes in which new knowledge practices are constructed and processed, and
the conception of democratic participation is reconfigured. Thus, knowledge
practices are essential for making alternative consumption choices as well as
advancing broader institutional change.