Fostering social norms for sustainability : a comparison of two community socioeconomic initiatives

In the socioeconomics literature, community socioeconomic initiatives (CSIs) are identified as important institutions for achieving sustainability. In this literature, CSIs are argued to contribute to sustainability by fostering a set of compatible social norms of reciprocity, equity, deliberation and sufficiency. This dissertation investigates the potential of CSIs to foster such sustainability norms by comparing and contrasting two different CSI types: community supported agriculture (CSA) and local exchange trading systems (LETS). To undertake the comparison, each sustainability norm is further elaborated in indicators linked to their capacity to encourage volunteering, redistribution, dematerialization, prosumption and purposeful social interaction. Drawing on literature reviews of international case studies and participant-observation and interviews of two Tasmanian CSIs, the research finds that while both types of CSIs foster sustainability norms, they do so in different ways and to different degrees. The research has important implications for sustainability strategies as it implies that a diversity of CSIs are required to foster the full suite of sustainability norms.