Sustainable Consumption Institute

Harald holds an interdisciplinary master degree in Socio-Ecological Economics and Policy from Vienna University of Economics and Business. Before joining the Sustainable Consumption Institute in Manchester, he worked on various research projects at the Austrian Chamber of Labour, the European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC) in Italy, and the International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS), Maastricht University.

Harald’s current research at the Sustainable Consumption Institute evolves around ‘conventions of up-to-dateness’ and the acceleration of consumption. In particular, his research aims to identify the drivers of accelerating consumption and the potential conflicts arising from the need to keep up with recent trends, technological innovations, and social practices. Notably, such conflicts may arise among consumers, but also between consumers and producers, for many consumers may be unable or unwilling to replace their possessions at an increasing rate. The research project thus emphasises the interaction between consumers and producers and how they co-produce, negotiate, and reproduce what it means to be up-to-date. To this end, empirical work focuses on mobile phones, which as paradigmatic products of modern consumer culture exemplify the combined logics of fashion and technology.

Supervisors: Andy McMeekin and David Evans

Selected Publications:

Backhaus, J., Wieser, H. & Kemp, R. (2015). Disentangling practices, carriers, and production-consumption systems. A mixed-methods study of (sustainable) food consumption. In E.H. Kennedy, M.J. Cohen, & N. Krogman (Eds.). Putting Sustainability into Practice: Applications and Advances in Research on Sustainable Consumption. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. pp. 109-133

Wieser, H. and Tröger, N. (2015). Die Nutzungsdauer und Obsoleszenz von Gebrauchsgütern im Zeitalter der Beschleunigung. Eine empirische Untersuchung in österreichischen Haushalten (The Use-time and Obsolescence of Durable Goods in the Age of Acceleration. An Empirical Investigation among Austrian Households). Report, Austrian Chamber of Labour, Vienna.

Zoderer, B., Stanghellini, P.L., Tasser, E., Walde, J., Wieser, H., Tappeiner, U. (forthcoming). Exploring socio-cultural perceptions of ecosystem service categories: The influence of socio-demographic factors and landscape type. Regional Environmental Change, special issue on Ecosystem Service Research in Mountain Regions Worldwide