Nostalgia and Sustainability was the theme of the 5th seminar of the ESRC seminar series "Nostalgia in the 21st Century", which took place in the Department of Marketing on March 31. Sustainability, currently, is a very topical subject and interest in it is wide, which is demonstrated by the academic disciplines represented by the participating guests: namely an environmental scientist, a philosopher and a marketer.
The seminars are organised by Department of Marketing academics, Drs Beverly Wagner, Kathy Hamilton and Juliette Wilson, and HaSS academics Drs Sarah Edwards and Faye Hammill.
The first speaker was Professor Andrew Price of the Environment Department, University of York and School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, whose presentation was titled "Creating a more robust world: balancing modernity and nostalgia". The main thrust of his talk was that the downside of the human quest for super efficiency and speed is that we are squeezing nature and the human environment too far. Using as examples Aga cookers, traditional sailing crafts and hand tools for organic growers and farmers, Professor Price illustrated the link of these inventions with the public's nostalgia and its eagerness to rediscover and adopt principles of sustainability to enhance life as well as to lessen human impact on the planet.
Next, Professor Kate Soper of the Institute for the Study of European Transformations, London Metropolitan, focused on what she termed an 'alternative hedonist nostalgia', describing the disaffection resulting from the negative aspect of affluent consumption and widely held aspirations for a less harried and acquisitive, less time-scarce, and solely work-driven existence. She suggested that this form of nostalgia is a very recent emergence although it is still, in many ways, a minority response.
Finally, Professor Nina Ray of Boise State University, Idaho, USA, discussed nostalgic ties between BIO (Bilbao in the Basque Country) and BOI (Boise, Idaho). In her presentation, Professor Ray echoed many of the themes mentioned by previous speakers. She emphasised the importance of "place" as a means of sustaining emotional links and maintaining tradition, heritage and community within the immigrant population of Boise.
It is now generally recognised that continual erosion of Earth's natural capital is the net result of environmental damage by industrialisation. Over-consumption is not free and simply maintaining the status quo is no longer an option. Also, a healthy environment together with healthy economies can simultaneously be realised.
The seminar ended with a call for change in the way we live our lives, not by returning to the past, but by tapping into values of before, to promote a sustainable world and sound, sustainable societies.