Overview
Sustainable consumption research, and the field of environmental social science more broadly, has historically focussed on white, middle-class households living in rich countries.
More work must be done to make this research more inclusive and reflective of the perspectives that exist in diverse societies.
Background
Sustainable consumption research, and the field of environmental social science more broadly, has historically focussed on white, middle-class households living in rich countries.
More work must be done to make this research more inclusive and reflective of the perspectives that exist in diverse societies.
TIES is the first in-depth study of the intersections of immigration experiences and everyday sustainability practices in the UK.
Analyses of sustainable consumption as a policy goal have paid little attention to the intersecting challenges of environmental degradation, cultural diversity, global migration, and social inequalities.
Little is known about how culturally specific notions of sustainability, premised on the need to reduce the impacts of Western over-consumption, are understood by people with non-Western world views and lifestyles who have settled in cities of the Global North.
This knowledge gap is problematic not only because the success of sustainability agendas depends on maximum societal uptake, but also because the misalignment of cultural norms and practices may contribute to a lack of social cohesion in diverse cities seeking to be more inclusive.
Our project investigates how migration from Global South (GS) to Global North (GN) and the drive for urban sustainability intersect at the household level in Greater Manchester, a city region that has both increasing immigration and ethnic diversity and aspirations to become a leading sustainable city in Europe.
By applying a mixed-methods, co-produced approach to research this study explores how immigrants from Pakistan and Somalia, two of the largest and fastest-growing groups in Manchester, perceive the sustainability agenda and engage in 'environmentally significant' practices in daily life.
We are also investigating how immigrants’ knowledge of and engagement in sustainability practices contribute to building social cohesion and community resilience.
Objectives
- To identify the cultural norms, economic opportunity structures, and policy prescriptions that intersect to shape the environmentally-significant household practices of people who have migrated from GS contexts to settle in a GN city.
- To compare and critically consider how axes of social difference (in particular gender, class, and generation) intersect with ethnocultural and religious backgrounds in the ways that individuals perceive, respond to, and are differentially positioned to the green agenda.
- To develop a theoretical framework for social scientific studies of the cultural politics of household sustainability in urban GN contexts, and demonstrate the analytical purchase of this framework through situated analysis of data generated with immigrants from GS countries and British-born residents.
- To use this knowledge to broaden the conceptions of sustainability that inform socio-environmental policies and research, and to engage in dialogue with key policymakers to consider how immigrant knowledge and practices contribute to just and sustainable urban environments.
- To develop methodological approaches for integrating attention to culture, ethnicity, and country of origin into future research on household sustainability in diverse contexts.
About the Pakistani and Somali Populations in Manchester
Manchester is a highly diverse city.
The ethnic composition of the city of Manchester is: White 66.7%, Asian 17.1%, Black 8.6%, Mixed Race 4.7%, Arab 1.9%, Other 1.2%.
The 2021 ONS population census estimates that Manchester has 57,000 Pakistan-born residents and 3000 Somali-born residents.
Both groups have come to the UK from climate-challenged countries on two different continents, with serious drought and flooding affecting millions of lives.
Both groups come from Muslim-majority countries. Islam is the second biggest religion in the UK (ONS 2015) and in Manchester (UK Population Data 2022). It is a significant motivation for environmentalism among Muslims.
The two groups have very different migration and settlement histories that are interesting to compare.
There are large Pakistani and Somali-origin communities in the local neighbourhoods south of The University of Manchester.
Over the past five years, the research team has been developing relationships with people in these communities to facilitate research that is as constructive, respectful, and non-extractive as possible.