Abstract
China's rapid economic growth has expanded the urban middle class and intensified material consumption, which functions both as a marker of social status and as a source of environmental strain. Meanwhile, some consumers increasingly embrace post-material values such as environmentalism and simplicity, creating tensions in everyday practices. Drawing on practice theories, this paper analyzes how middle-class Chinese practice sustainable consumption within these competing economic and cultural currents through forming new dispositions and rebranding of old ones. We conducted a seven-month-long participant observation, 41 in-depth interviews, and a survey of 500 people in China's largest social media-based sustainable lifestyle community, GoZero Waste. We identify environmentalism, simplicity, and frugality as the three main ideals that drive community members’ sustainable consumption practices. Facing challenges of limited infrastructure, status signaling through material well-being, and the poverty-related stigma of frugality, sustainable consumers cope with making pragmatic incremental changes and the reconstruction of non-material well-being against consumerism. They rebrand traditional values for sustainable consumption and gain support in the GoZero Waste community. We further provide a critical analysis of the conditions necessary for sustainable consumption that pertain to multiple scales. The adoption of sustainable consumption is likely to be challenging without broader transformations in both status norms and material infrastructure. Our study contributes to our understanding of sustainable consumption in emerging economies and the sociology of consumption literature by highlighting the dynamic and contested formation of practical understandings in changing practices.
Keywords
Introduction
Transforming consumption and lifestyles is a crucial aspect of social responses to environmental problems like climate change (Hirth et al., 2023). While research on the sociology of consumption has predominantly focused on Global North contexts, the rise of the middle class and new consumers in emerging economies like China and India requires studies of sustainable consumption 1 in this context as well (Anantharaman, 2018; Hansen and Wethal, 2023). Select studies argue that it is difficult to mitigate the general tendencies toward resource-intensive lifestyles in emerging economies (Schäfer et al., 2011), while others propose the possibility of leapfrogging to sustainable consumption and simultaneously improving the quality of life (Schroeder and Anantharaman, 2017). Overall, empirical studies about practicing sustainable consumption in rapidly transforming societies have received limited attention, despite their critical importance for our planet's future (Lubowiecki-Vikuk et al., 2021). This article adds to the discussion by analyzing the experiences of Chinese middle-class sustainable consumers within larger processes of economic, social, and cultural change.
Sustainable consumption in China sits at the intersection of increasing consumer culture and post-material values (i.e. environmentalism and self-expression). After the initiation of China's reform and opening-up in 1978, urban areas became increasingly integrated into global consumer culture, and middle-class citizens formed the main force behind mass consumption (Zhang, 2020). The culture of mass consumption is driven by globalization, pro-growth state policies (Tomba, 2004), and middle-class identity pursuits (Elfick, 2011). Consumption patterns that signal status influenced by traditional Chinese culture have also evolved, including inconspicuous luxury consumption (Wu et al., 2017) and conspicuous frugality (Zhang, 2020). Meanwhile, environmental awareness and sustainable consumption are gaining influence among Chinese citizens (Liu et al., 2019). Urban middle-class consumers are increasingly exposed to global environmental lifestyle movements. One example is the emerging zero waste movement in China, where citizens minimize household waste by reducing consumption, choosing reusable products, exchanging secondhand items, and so on (Lu, 2024; Zhan, 2022).
Tensions in practicing sustainable consumption emerge at the intersection of these two competing trends. On one hand, middle-class citizens are immersed in the mass consumption society and symbolic status pursuits. On the other hand, increasing environmental awareness drives their agency for change. How is sustainable consumption practiced among middle-class citizens in China? What are the social and material challenges they navigate when practicing sustainable consumption? What does this reveal about opportunities and constraints of sustainable consumption in contemporary Chinese society? To explore these questions, this paper examines China's biggest social-media-based sustainable lifestyle community, GoZero Waste. Founded in 2016, the community operates through a WeChat 2 official account, WeChat groups that span 22 Chinese cities, and in-person events. Our study of the GoZero Waste community was conducted in 2022, involving interviews, surveys, and online as well as in-person participant observation.
We find that environmentalism, simplicity, and frugality are three overarching themes that motivate sustainable consumer practices. Faced with challenges of limited infrastructure and societal expectations to signal status through material wealth, sustainable consumers navigate these pressures by embracing incremental changes, reconstructing non-material well-being, and rebranding traditional values for sustainable consumption. They also gain social support in the GoZero Waste community. We further provide a critical analysis of the conditions necessary for sustainable consumption that pertain to multiple scales (Sayre, 2015): individual dispositions, community social norms, broader societal values in China, and urban systems of provision that structure consumers’ relationships to material entities. Building on practice theories and cultural perspectives, our study advances the sociology of consumption by examining the active and contested formation of dispositions and material arrangements that impact sustainable consumption in China. Resonating with Jacobsen and Hansen (2021), we emphasize the need for practical understandings of how to perform sustainable consumption in both human dispositions and material systems. We highlight the formation of new dispositions and the rebranding of old ones, as well as constant negotiation between competing practical understandings. This process is particularly salient in emerging economies, making our study a potentially valuable contribution to a much-needed new research agenda (Anantharaman, 2018).
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. The next section reviews theoretical strengths and weaknesses of practice theories, cultural perspectives, and the material turn in the sociology of sustainable consumption. We also provide the background of sustainable consumption research among the middle class in emerging economies, particularly China. The following section details our research methods and the case of GoZero Waste. Next, we present our findings, with three subsections on environmentalism, simplicity, and frugality, each derived from the analysis of participants’ motivations, challenges, and coping strategies. The final section critically examines the conditions needed for sustainable consumption lifestyles to take root in China and discusses our study's contributions to the sociology of consumption.
Culture, practice, and materiality in sociology of sustainable consumption debates
Sustainable consumption refers to everyday practices of individuals and households that reduce environmental impacts, overlapping with practices including sustainable lifestyles (Evans and Abrahamse, 2009), anti-consumption (Black and Cherrier, 2010), green consumption (Sheng et al., 2019), and voluntary simplicity (Cherrier, 2009). The literature on sustainable consumption is large and interdisciplinary, ranging from greener consumer choices such as buying fair trade and organic food to institutional change in production and consumption systems (Jackson, 2014). Early theories emphasized technological efficiency and industrial greening for sustainable production, prompting subsequent studies that have highlighted consumers’ agency in resource use and waste reduction (Anantharaman, 2018). The sociological literature on sustainable consumption, rooted in evolving debates in the sociology of consumption since the 1990s, consists of three key streams: cultural perspectives, practice theories, and the material turn. Below, we summarize the contributions and limitations of each, concluding with the theoretical direction proposed by Jacobsen and Hansen (2021) that underpins our article.
Cultural perspectives view consumption as a means for identity formation, lifestyle expression, and group belonging; these perspectives dominated the field of the sociology of consumption in the 1990s (Warde, 2014). Studies of consumer culture focus on the symbolic aspects of consumption, wherein individuals and groups represent and communicate their tastes (Welch et al., 2020). Later accounts of how material and economic factors shape consumer culture were developed, such as Bourdieu's work illustrating how taste is structured by social position and cultural capital, along with research on the culture industries that highlights the systemic production of cultural meanings and preferences (Warde, 2014).
Cultural perspectives have been applied to sustainable consumption to explain conspicuous consumption (Shove and Warde, 2002) and eco-lifestyles driven by a redefinition of identity, well-being, and lifestyle politics (Jackson, 2014; Lorenzen, 2012). For example, voluntary simplicity practitioners construct consumerism-resistant identities rooted in recognition of the ecological and social injustices caused by consumption as well as the emotional solitude of status-seeking consumption (Cherrier, 2009). They strive for a coherent narrative of the self with their ethical awareness through an ongoing, piecemeal, and gradual process of green lifestyle change (Lorenzen, 2012). Sustainable consumers rationalize the reduction in material possessions by downplaying their symbolic meaning in terms of status or social belonging (Shove and Warde, 2002; Soper, 2007). Cultural perspectives offer valuable insights for treating consumption as an independent analytical concept apart from production, ushering in the subfield of consumer culture studies (Welch et al., 2020). Nevertheless, cultural perspectives are critiqued for treating material entities only as carriers of meanings and neglecting the broader political-economic processes in social life (Evans, 2020; Jacobsen and Hansen, 2021).
Practice theories, which have gained popularity in consumption research, followed the cultural perspectives (Welch et al., 2020). The early works of Bourdieu and Giddens focused on interactions between social structures and individual practices. Bourdieu's concept of habitus explains how internalized dispositions—ingrained ways of acting, thinking, and perceiving the world that individuals acquire through socialization—guide practices (Jacobsen and Hansen, 2021). These dispositions are relatively stable and tied to class status, education, and cultural context. Later theorists such as Reckwitz (2002) and Shove and Warde (2002) developed the concept of consumption as embedded in routinized, collectively shared practices that integrate material entities, competencies, and meanings. Shared practical understandings of appropriate conduct in certain circumstances become crucial in transmitting and reproducing practices (Shove et al., 2012). Shove et al. (2012) argued that social practices are shaped by both shared practical understandings and material infrastructures and technological systems, which stabilize consumption habits over time. Practice theories pay greater attention to objects and technologies in the routinization of behaviors than cultural perspectives. Nevertheless, scholars point out that practice theories still struggle to locate consumption in wider economic processes, such as institutional or systemic conditions (Evans, 2020).
The material turn in the sociology of consumption responds to this critique and further centers materiality as an active agent in transforming practices. With the influence of science and technology studies as well as actor network theory, the material turn acknowledges objects as active components and determinants of social arrangements (Jacobsen and Hansen, 2021). Additionally, scholars seek to address systemic conditions that determine material arrangements. The systems of provision approach look to the political and economic processes underlying the production and distribution of specific commodities (Fine, 2016). Evans (2020) uses material semiotic approaches to demonstrate how material objects and infrastructures carry meanings and are entangled with broader economic and political structures. In line with the call for attention to structural factors behind sustainable consumption, scholars analyze structural barriers to sustainable consumption, including surface-level challenges like weak policies and market inefficiencies, and deeper systemic challenges like entrenched power imbalances and fossil fuel dependence (Hirth et al., 2023). Power dynamics and inequities that shape and are shaped by sustainable consumption practices are understudied (Anantharaman, 2018).
The ongoing theoretical debates in the sociology of consumption reveal a pendulum swing between cultural, practice, and material perspectives. Acknowledging cultural perspectives’ limits, materiality, infrastructure, and technology have been central to explaining regularities in consumption practices. However, the material emphasis downplays the importance of practical understanding of consumption internalized in humans shaped in social interactions (Warde, 2014). As Jacobsen and Hansen (2021) argue, practical understandings are located in two interdependent systems: one internalized in dispositions and the other materialized in systems of material entities. To take full advantage of practice theory, researchers of sustainable consumption should integrate these two locations of practical understandings (Jacobsen and Hansen, 2021). Our article highlights mutual adjustments in material arrangements and social structures needed for change in sustainable consumption practices. In addition, while practice theories summarize practical understandings as historically embedded and collectively shared among agents with similar trajectories, we find this to be insufficient to account for the dynamic formation of new dispositions on the part of emerging economies’ consumers. We thus draw on cultural perspectives to further Jacobsen and Hansen’s (2021) argument, where the formation of new dispositions among sustainable consumers reinterprets and negotiates with competing practical understandings of appropriate conduct.
Context of middle-class consumption in emerging economies
Since class status is an important factor in disposition formation and the broader economic processes contextualizing consumption practices, we now turn to an overview of factors impacting middle-class consumption in emerging economies. Identity construction, status signaling, and well-being pursuits are key issues in the cultural politics of middle-class consumption (Hansen and Wethal, 2023). There is no single definition of the middle class, but membership of the middle class is usually defined by a certain income level, college education, and occupation status such as salaried professionals (Tomba, 2004; Zhang, 2020). Tsang (2014) argues that socio-cultural factors are more important than economic ones in distinguishing the new Chinese middle class. Consumption fulfills multiple socio-cultural functions for the middle class, including self-identity (Wu et al., 2017; Zhang, 2020), status signaling (Elfick, 2011; Schäfer et al., 2011), and well-being (Schroeder and Anantharaman, 2017; Zhan, 2022). Classic sociological theories have discussed how cultural capital underpins consumption practices that reinforce social distinctions (Bourdieu, 2002) and how conspicuous consumption serves to signal status (Zhang, 2020).
Emerging economies like China, India, and Brazil provide a unique context of middle-class consumption, where competing and evolving aspirations shape consumption practices. The middle class is expected to drive economic development while also taking the lead in sustainable consumption (Hansen and Wethal, 2023). In recent decades, infrastructure and norms of mass consumption have been rapidly developed in these countries. Middle-class households are the first to embrace consumer goods as a tool of upward mobility and distinction (Anantharaman, 2018). The new middle class in rising economies imitates resource-intensive consumption patterns in developed countries to acquire class status, causing environmental consequences (Hansen and Wethal, 2023). For example, the middle class in Hong Kong consumes high-value marine wildlife such as shark fins as an expression of classed and gendered social distinction, despite the severe ecological consequences (Rodenbiker, 2025). At the same time, some middle-class citizens are leading environmental actions, from community-based waste management (Anantharaman, 2014) to sustainable lifestyles (Lu, 2024), emphasizing their compatibility with well-being pursuits and non-material satisfactions such as intrinsic cultural rewards, social solidarity, and health (Zhan, 2022).
China has made considerable progress in economic security in recent decades, leading to not only an increase in household consumption but also awareness of and campaigns for sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumption research in China predominantly takes an individualist behavioral approach, with few paying attention to transition dynamics toward sustainable consumption as a social practice (Liu et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2014). Consumer culture has become deeply ingrained in Chinese society, and conspicuous consumption has been a hallmark of the cultural lifestyle of the middle class (Tsang, 2014). Elfick (2011) notes that consumption is sometimes less of an expression of taste than an expression of professional middle-class collective identity. Nevertheless, Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital and taste as well as Veblen's (1994 [1899]) status-seeking consumption have different embodiments in China, influenced by Chinese social history and traditional values (46-47). For example, lived experience through hard times makes purchasing expensive items a psychological compensation instead of a status signal (Zhang, 2017). Rooted in traditional values that prioritize modesty and restraint over overt displays of wealth, the upper-middle-class practices of “conspicuous frugality” and “unostentatious conspicuous consumption” are increasingly prominent (Zhang, 2020). Instead of relying on habitus, the Chinese middle class deliberately crafts their expressions of taste for the purposes of class distinction (Zhang, 2020). Some consumers prefer inconspicuous products with understated cultural significance or locally inspired designs, emphasizing functionality, aesthetics, and ethical considerations (Wu et al., 2017). These findings highlight the importance of local socio-cultural context in shaping consumption behaviors.
Another concept that particularly influences Chinese consumption practices is “face” (mianzi) culture. Face refers to dignity and decency, which are keys to maintaining social relationships in China and driving luxury consumption (Zhang, 2017). Conforming to the social norm of buying mainstream products to save face, or the habit of valuing short-term effects instead of long-term consequences to conform to social relationships (guanxi culture), are found to challenge sustainable lifestyles (Liu et al., 2019). Besides face culture, sustainable behaviors are limited by ingrained habits, cultural norms, and structural factors like provision systems and prioritized economic goals (Liu et al., 2019). Experiences of resource deprivation in recent history among some Chinese threaten the development of post-materialist values, including environmental protection (Inglehart, 2016).
There are other traditional norms, such as qinjian jieyue (being diligent and frugal) (Liu et al., 2019), and cultural values, such as the Doctrine of the Mean (not being excessive, harmony between human and nature) (Sheng et al., 2019), that facilitate sustainable consumption. Frugality has a long history and rich cultural meanings in China, including admiration for the ethics of resourceful domesticity, the official ideology of stewardship of materials in the pre-reform era to increase production, and the collection of scrap materials during the late-1950s as a symbolic effort to reorient remaining capitalist resources toward socialist development (Liebman, 2019). Overall, frugality and avoiding waste have been emphasized as virtues on the household and national levels throughout China's social history, and networks of transforming waste to value are deeply rooted.
Chinese middle-class citizens, with their high education levels and civic qualities (suzhi), are well placed to become leaders in sustainable consumption and environmental actions in general. They are already active in non-material civilization building in urban self-governance in residential communities (Tomba, 2004). This group's moral and civic consciousness often translates into public activism, like Guangzhou homeowners protesting against waste-to-energy incinerators due to their pollution of the rural environment (Zhang, 2024). Similar trends appear in India, where the middle class promotes sustainable waste management through household practices and community infrastructure (Anantharaman, 2014). Urban middle-class citizens in China also actively participate in social-media-based sustainable lifestyle activism, forming networks of secondhand item exchange that foster non-confrontational environmental actions in the public sphere (Lu, 2024; Zhan, 2024). The moral and civic consciousness as well as aspirations for self-improvement among middle-class citizens could become sources for sustainable consumption.
Methods
To understand why and how sustainable consumption is practiced in urban China, we conducted a mixed-method study on GoZero Waste. 3 Founded in 2016, GoZero Waste is a social media (WeChat)-based network that promotes sustainable lifestyles and is currently China's largest sustainable lifestyles community. We chose GoZero Waste as our study site because it is a large, accessible, and impactful network that brings together individuals who are already engaged in sustainable consumption practices. It is registered as a company and operates as a social enterprise. It consists of the WeChat public account, WeChat groups, and in-person events. The WeChat public account, having more than 30,000 followers, publishes articles and information about events that are open to all subscribers and the general public. The WeChat groups include seven national group chats, 22 city-specific group chats, and activity-based group chats such as 365-day zero waste blogging. There is no exact count of total group members, but the authors estimate around 12,000 based on counts of the group chats. The national groups are mainly sites of sustainable lifestyle discussions, while city groups have the additional function of online gifting communities (i.e. secondhand item exchange). The city groups also hold in-person events such as secondhand swap parties, crafts workshops, zero waste picnics, environmental film screenings, and so on.
Since there are few empirical studies on sustainable lifestyle practitioners in China, our study adopted an exploratory sequential design (Creswell et al., 2003). In the first stage, qualitative data were collected through seven months of participant observations in the GoZero Waste community and 41 in-depth interviews with members. The participant observation enabled us to understand the operational dynamics of the community and make connections for interviews. Interview data were thematically coded to form variables in the survey. In the second stage, quantitative data were collected through 500 online surveys in the GoZero Waste community to show broader patterns of motivations and challenges of sustainable lifestyles in a large sample. We chose a mixed-method approach to capture both a comprehensive view of the demographics and diverse experiences of sustainable consumption practitioners and in-depth insights into lived experiences of individuals.
The participant observation and interviews
During the first stage, the first author conducted participant observation in multiple GoZero Waste WeChat groups from February 2022 to August 2022. Online ethnography has become a common method for studying online communities, enabling the study of cultural and social phenomena in technologically mediated spaces through immersive data collection (Nascimento et al., 2022). It complements traditional ethnography by offering convenient access to rich, asynchronous, and often naturally occurring data that reflect participants’ voluntary and authentic interactions. This approach also expands the scope of data collection by enabling longitudinal immersion, providing researchers with theoretical insights into the development of online spaces, thus redefining the concept of the “field” (Andéhn et al., 2024; Cordoba-Pachon and Loureiro-Koechlin, 2015). During participant observation, the first author joined GoZero Waste's national and city WeChat groups as a member, reading chat messages, engaging in discussions, webinars, and exchanging secondhand items with other group members. Additionally, the author attended three GoZero Waste city groups’ in-person events in Beijing, Fuzhou, and Changsha from June 2022 to August 2022. In online groups and in-person events, the first author made clear her role as a researcher. The participant observation helped reveal common topics and practices in sustainable lifestyle and facilitated establishing contacts for interviews.
From May to July 2022, the first author conducted 41 semi-structured interviews with GoZero Waste city group leaders and active group members. City group leaders and active group members were chosen for the interview because they were the specialized informants (Bernard, 2018) who were knowledgeable about sustainable consumption and group activities. City group leaders also introduced key members in their groups for further interviews. Seven interviews were conducted in person, and 34 interviews were conducted online via video conferencing due to Covid-19. Interviews were all conducted in Chinese and lasted between 30 and 90 min. The quotations used in this paper were translated by the first author. Each participant read and agreed to the consent form before surveys and interviews. Table 1 below shows the demographics of the interviewees based on information obtained by the first author during the interviews. Please refer to Appendix A (the appendices are available online only) for a more detailed interviewee list. Interviewees consented to the pseudonyms used in this paper.
Sample characteristics of interviewees (n = 41).
The interview included eight guiding questions on the “why and how” of practicing sustainable consumption and the challenges practitioners meet. It also explored their involvement with GoZero Waste and their commitment to and opinions on transitioning to greater engagement with broader environmental sustainability-related practices. The first author transcribed interviews and conducted thematic coding of the transcripts using the qualitative software ATLAS.ti. For thematic coding, the first author generated initial codes through open coding and then adopted an iterative process of summarizing codes into themes and reviewing themes to ensure they reflect all data. An example of the coding of motivations is shown in Appendix B.
The survey and middle-class status of sustainable consumers in GoZero Waste
The survey (n = 500) was conducted in August 2022. It consisted of 25 multiple-choice questions and three short-response questions (Appendix C). An initial round of coding of the interviews informed the categories of motivations, practices, and challenges of sustainable lifestyles in the survey. A full analysis of the survey is not the main focus of this article. We used the demographic results to show characteristics of sustainable consumers in GoZero Waste and descriptive findings about motivations and challenges of sustainable consumption to identify the most prominent themes that complement our qualitative analysis.
The anonymous survey, conducted in Chinese, was distributed across all GoZero Waste WeChat group chats. Based on our tallying, the total number of members in WeChat groups is around 11,895, but due to the overlap of members in national groups and city groups, the actual number of members could be slightly smaller. We received 589 responses with 500 of these being valid, which led to a margin of error of 4% at a 95% confidence level. The consent form was presented before the survey, and a monetary reward was offered to respondents with valid responses. The sample is non-probabilistic as no master list of members or demographic information is available for probabilistic sampling. We recognize that our study represents a particular subgroup of sustainable consumption practitioners in urban China, and there are opportunities to explore other subgroups of Chinese urbanites.
As shown in Table 2 below, sustainable consumers represented by the GoZero Waste community are predominantly urbanites (94%), female (81%), young (80% aged 18–39), well educated (91% have bachelor's degrees and above), and relatively well-off (52% belong to high income brackets). There is diversity within the practitioners’ marital status and job statuses, with a greater proportion being single (59% not married) and around half having full-time jobs (55%). There is a certain proportion of students (17%) and part-time workers (17%). This profile is characteristic of the urban middle class (Zhang, 2020) and the high cultural capital group that has been used to describe members of online gifting communities in other countries (Bargain-Darrigues, 2023).
Demographic characteristics of the survey respondents (n = 500).
Findings
Based on the survey and interviews, we identify three key themes—environmentalism, simplicity, and frugality—that shape the motivations and practices of sustainable consumption among GoZero Waste participants. We use environmentalism to describe an individual's awareness of environmental issues and their actions to reduce the environmental impacts of daily consumption. Simplicity refers to the reduction of material possessions and life complexities. Frugality refers to maximizing the use of available resources and avoiding waste or unnecessary expenditure. On the individual scale and at the scale of the GoZero Waste community, participants develop values, skills, and secondhand exchange networks to achieve sustainable consumption. However, participants encounter barriers when engaging in broader social interactions and systems of provision that operate beyond their immediate sphere of influence. In the following subsections, we examine each theme in depth, highlighting how participants navigate tensions that arise across individual, personal life sphere, and infrastructural scales in their pursuit of sustainable consumption.
Doing what I can incrementally: Tensions between environmentalism and structural constraints
In terms of what motivates their engagement in sustainable consumption, 65% of survey participants answered “being aware of the environmental problems and wanting to do something”. Most interviewees described developing environmental awareness through experiences of pollution, exposure to information about environmental degradation, and childhood connections with nature. This awareness prompted them to deliberate on the environmental impact of every act and incrementally adopt sustainable consumption practices, which entail a wide range of actions. The most frequently mentioned ones were rejecting single-use products, shopping less, reusing items, engaging in secondhand exchange, and eating a vegetarian diet. Interviewees were at different stages of transitioning toward sustainable consumption, so some had adopted more practices than others, but most described the transition as a gradual process of intentional information-seeking and habit formation through trial and error.
Twenty-one interviewees considered sustainable practices to be a civic responsibility, revealing how individual scale ethics are embedded in broader socio-material systems. The sense of responsibility causes sustainable consumers to redefine the meaning of consumption, wherein systematic thinking about individual impacts and moral values of sustainability emerge as key distinctions. One college student active in the Shenyang group articulated the mundane versus the sacred in material consumption as follows: I reuse items multiple times and maximize the utility of everything. What I do for good might have benefits for another person or humanity as a whole. … I am happy and proud of myself that, besides the mundane concerns, I can pay attention to bigger issues that impact beyond myself … with a little dedication (to the earth). (S, Female, Shenyang)
S's quote emphasizes the fulfillment of personal meaning and the pursuit of environmental protection as sacred through the reduction of consumption.
Scaling out to the household and community level, GoZero Waste groups provide platforms for both the exchange of tips for sustainable living and secondhand item exchange, illustrating how sustainable lifestyles are co-constructed within relational networks. The WeChat official account publishes handbooks like “21-day going zero waste” and articles guiding members on how to host zero waste events, zero waste weddings, zero waste picnics, and so on. The main function of the city groups is facilitating secondhand exchange, where participants circulate free items in group chats and in-person swap parties with the purpose of avoiding buying new. To a certain extent, GoZero Waste city groups form the soft and hard infrastructure that facilitates sustainable consumption.
Despite their personal efforts and the support networks in GoZero Waste, sustainable consumers face several structural constraints that challenge their practices. To begin with, the lack of sustainable purchasing options makes some sustainable consumption actions unfeasible. As one young professional in Shanghai stated: I am reducing plastic bags in my consumption, but we are in no way close to plastic reduction. For example, fruits in stores come in plastic boxes, packaged snacks. … Plastic products are everywhere, and no consumer can escape when all supplies come in plastic packages. (Y, Male, Shanghai)
Y's quote reveals that choices embedded in the current supply of consumer products hinder sustainable consumption. Some interviewees offered the solution of only buying products in bulk stores, but such stores are few. One group member stated that “I have to drive an hour to get to a bulk store to shop plastic-free but I cannot always drive so far. … A friend tried to run a bulk store but it didn’t turn out well” (YA, Female, Guangzhou). Bulk stores that sell organic products can also be more expensive. The inconvenience caused by limited infrastructure for sustainable consumption creates significant demands on time, energy, and information. Additionally, it requires specific skills and the ability to pay, which can be challenging for many. Survey respondents stated that lack of time and energy (36%), constraints of economic and living conditions (33%), and lack of external support (32%) were the top three challenges to sustainable lifestyles. As one artisan in the Beijing city group similarly complained, “I asked the pharmacy to reuse the big packaging, but they don’t agree—needs policy intervention” (HW, Female, Beijing).
These constraints call for attention to the unfolding of individual struggles in structural scales, where infrastructures and policies determine the possibility of practicing sustainable consumption: in terms of the support needed for sustainable lifestyles in the survey, policies regulating unsustainable production and ensuring effective waste infrastructure were the most frequently mentioned. While most GoZero Waste participants acknowledged that change is needed on all scales, they intentionally chose depoliticized sustainable consumption advocacy given relatively constrained political participation channels and the prevailing preference for non-confrontational approaches in China. This leads to a second tension that sustainable consumers face: their efficacy in change. As S, the college student in Shenyang, explained: Personal ability is indeed limited. Economic growth and efficiency are prioritized now, which conflicts with sustainable actions to some extent. Policy implementation is hard, including the plastic ban. I am a bioengineering major so I know it's hard. It's also my question, and I don’t have an answer. … What I can do is to sort waste and maximize use of all things, but whether sorting waste makes a difference, I cannot control. (S, Female, Shenyang)
S's quote genuinely reveals the internal struggle stemming from the uncertain effectiveness of her actions and the difficulty of achieving radical economic and policy reform. Not having answers does not hinder S's environmental actions. Rather, she chooses to focus on what she can control and the fulfillment her actions bring.
Many other well-educated interviewees found themselves negotiating between the desire to contribute to environmental protection and acknowledged limits of their impact within China's current political and economic context. To cope with struggles brought about by structural constraints, sustainable consumers framed incremental change within their capabilities as empowering. Twenty-three interviewees emphasized the pragmatic approach of “doing what I can” and “not stressing about what I cannot do”. Further, they highlighted other benefits such as pleasure and personal growth brought about through lifestyle change. An eight-year zero waste lifestyle practitioner in the Beijing group shared her journey and mindset in the following statement: Zero waste living is like playing games: today I solve the problem of plastic bags, tomorrow I learn to make DIY natural cleaning products, the next day I challenge myself to buy in bulk. … As I “level up” in the game, I find the process fun and rewarding. Rather than calculating how far I am from the absolute “zero”, I pay more attention to my feelings, achievements, and relationships with people around in the process. … There is no one strict way of sustainable living. (LT, Female, Beijing)
LT's quote emphasizes the importance of flexibility and personal enjoyment in adopting sustainable consumption practices to make them more accessible and appealing. Twenty-five interviewees resonated with her focus on a sense of joy, relaxation, and achievement in transitioning toward sustainable consumption, which relates to the section below about reconstructing non-material well-being.
Reconstructing well-being: Tensions between simplicity and middle-class consumption norms
Participants in GoZero Waste achieve simplicity through sufficiency-oriented consumption. Furthermore, they pursue well-being through forming new dispositions of non-material fulfillment such as internal peace and social connections. However, these dispositions on an individual scale often clash with the broader social norms in a mass consumption society, especially among the rising middle class, where material well-being is often seen as a status indicator. In this section, we explore how sustainable consumers reconstruct well-being while grappling with societal expectations.
Many interviewees discussed resisting consumer culture's control and the anxiety it causes. They questioned the manufactured needs and satisfaction promised by material acquisition in a consumer society. One woman reflected on her former obsession with shopping: I thought that purchasing certain items would make my life complete, but the desire was never truly satisfied. My home became cluttered with so many unnecessary things. I became aware of my shopaholic tendencies, but the guilt was overshadowed by the joy of shopping, leading to constant inner conflicts. (I, Female, Fuzhou)
A feeling of idleness and personal struggles prompted her to seek alternatives and free herself from “consumerist traps”, which several interviewees identified with. GoZero Waste participants exhibit strong resistance to consumerism, which is sharpened through reading books about consumption, minimalism, and personal growth. Gradually, they redefine what is sufficient for living. As one avid secondhand shopper said, “I don’t need much money to realize my values. The society is too anxious, and I want to seek a balanced life” (SS, Female, Chengdu). Some of them even shift from consumers to producers of necessities. As BL, an ingenious baker and gardener, stated, The first step is to rethink what I truly need. Consuming less means I don’t have to spend as much time earning money. … I transitioned from full-time to part-time work. My income has decreased significantly, but it's enough to cover my needs. I grow my vegetables. I make my own snacks: cookies, cakes, and mung bean pastries. (BL, Female, Changsha)
While not everyone “downshifts” in their working time and manages to DIY everything, most interviewees discover that they can manage to live with fewer material possessions. For necessary consumption, they prioritize finding existing alternatives and getting them secondhand, resorting to buying new products as the last option. This approach to consumption seems to go against the consumer culture norms of convenience and individual possession, but GoZero Waste participants emphasize that they are conducive to well-being that cannot be bought with money. Making genuine, social connections through alternative consumption forms is a main aspect of non-material well-being. As ZZ, a mother working in an insurance company in Beijing stated, When we exchange items, the interactions in the process are not just material. … After an exchange of goods, we would chat and learn about their stories. Sometimes I chat with them more online, on a deeper level of communication. This is what I find fascinating. (ZZ, Female, Beijing)
Others resonated with ZZ as secondhand exchange is a fundamental activity that connects participants in GoZero Waste. Some interviewees also mentioned sustainable consumption as a conversation starter that prompted them to talk more with their family and friends, while others mentioned becoming more outgoing after being introduced to environmental volunteer groups through GoZero Waste.
In addition, sustainable consumers emphasize inner peace and health through more control over their pace of life. BL continues her story: My life has become more regular and rhythmic. When I was working in Shenzhen, I felt dragged along by external forces. Zero waste lifestyle means I no longer have to be pulled along by others; I can set my rhythm. I learned more about the harms of food processing, so I grew my own. Overall my interactions with the world have become more friendly. It's not a mainstream value, but it's about living true to your inner self.
Nevertheless, just as BL acknowledges, simplicity and satisfaction in non-material well-being are not mainstream. GoZero Waste participants face peer pressure and conflicts with people around them when material consumption is viewed as a status symbol. Several college students and young professionals stated that their parents are against secondhand clothes and critique their lack of fashion. S recalled that “after following a secondhand fashion influencer, I began to get clothes secondhand. At first I felt strange because I was so different from my classmates” (S, Female, Shenyang). WY stated that “my parents ask me to buy new clothes and wonder if I buy secondhand because I am poor. They don’t think secondhand clothes are decent” (WY, Female, Xi’an).
Beyond aspects of conspicuous consumption that signal middle-class status, GoZero Waste participants’ decisions to downshift their lifestyles, usually with a change of job and earnings, conflict with middle-class values of upward mobility. As one newly graduated college student who is now working for GoZero Waste stated, My family doesn’t understand (my choice). They have some stereotypes of the environmental protection industry and the non-profit industry. They think environmental protection is the job of janitors and street sweepers. I am a college graduate, why do it? We are not a rich family. They are concerned that I need to have some financial wealth before going into environmental protection. (GY, Female, Luoyang)
GY's quote reveals her decision to choose a modest-earning job that signals lower-class status. This conflicts with her family's occupational expectations of middle-class citizens and their emphasis on material wealth as a marker of security.
To grapple with challenges that arise within the personal life sphere, GoZero Waste participants negotiate with their families by demonstrating well-being and seeking support from like-minded peers in the community. One GoZero Waste leader stated that her parents questioned her decision to quit a white-collar job, but when they saw that she was eating well and living a good life, their worries were alleviated. They became more understanding about her choice to reduce her use of plastic bags and eat plant-based foods (LT, Female, Beijing). She went on to describe the role of the GoZero Waste community in sustaining her through the process and her vision for the community to be a source of mutual empowerment: The power of mutual support in the group touches me … everyone has a different life, but all are trying to make it more sustainable. Such diversity emerges from the process. An SL [sustainable lifestyle] is not a formula, everyone can explore a unique SL, like our name—zero waste lifestyle lab, everyone is experimenting. (LT, Female, Beijing)
Of the survey respondents, 31% resonated with LT that the community provides a sense of belonging and group support. Many interviewees also acknowledged that sustainable consumption values and practices remain subcultural to the mainstream of consumer culture: “We won’t shake the whole economy” (I, Female, Fuzhou); “Without fundamental shifts of lifestyles and social formation, we cannot reach zero waste” (XS, Male, Beijing).
The double-edged legacy of frugality: Traditions of sustainability and poverty-related stigma
China's long-standing virtue of frugality and older generations’ frugal practices provide a natural breeding ground for sustainable consumption. Sustainable consumers in GoZero Waste uphold these values and practices of thrift and resourcefulness on the individual scale. However, frugality can be perceived as a marker of poverty or backwardness that mainstream values shy away from to maintain status and avoid shame in social interactions. Cultural tensions thus arise when individual adherence to frugal practices conflicts with societal expectations to progress away from them. This section explores how sustainable consumers rebrand frugality yet grapple with modernizing ambitions that equate frugality with deprivation or backwardness.
Frugality is a historically embedded virtue, and Chinese society's recent and rapid change in economic wealth facilitates an inter-generational legacy of frugality. Before the economic reform that began in 1978, the majority of households lived below the poverty line. Living in households where the generations born in the 1960s and 1970s are present inherently cultivates frugality. As one female informant in her 40 s said: The time when I was born was an age of resource deficiency, and my family was always frugal. Not wasting food and consuming with limits are values in my bones—I can never think of wasting. There is a historical background to it. (LY, Female, Beijing)
Some younger interviewees who grew up with their grandparents resonated with LY's quote that frugality should be habitual. They mourned that “modern people are too wasteful—we become rich and the society develops fast, causing the throwaway-and-buy mindset” and appeal to having traditional values like xiwu (cherishing items) back (M, Male, Wenzhou). Other interviewees who spent their childhood in rural areas recalled inherently sustainable lifestyles. “All items used were natural, without any plastics. My grandparents were very economical with resources and instilled the values in me” (X, Male, Beijing). One female teacher in her 40s also stated that her father's habits of shopping with baskets and reusing provided a vivid example for her to follow since she was young (YX, Female, Changsha). The inter-generational legacy of frugality provides valuable resources for sustainable lifestyles, and there is a huge potential base of zero wasters in Chinese society. As the founder of GoZero Waste summarized, “Sustainability is not imported from overseas, requiring certain knowledge or a certain education level to get in touch with. … Generations before us practiced this lifestyle. They are so accustomed to it that they don’t have to give it a name” (LT, Female, Beijing).
Nevertheless, frugality tied to poverty is volatile as sustainable practices become unnecessary once economic constraints disappear. “Once the economic price [factor] is eliminated, the frugality goes away. For example, they would ask for more plastic bags and don’t care” (BX, Female, Kunming). Measurement of monetary values also leads to oversight of environmental and social costs. A female artisan in her 40s articulated the clash of values regarding price: “When I used water from the laundry to clean the toilet, they didn’t understand: water is very cheap, why bother? I told them that it was not about being cheap or expensive” (HW, Female, Beijing). Most interviewees noted that they respond to their family and friends without direct confrontation but give them time and influence them through actions. They also advocate for “flipping the cultural script” of frugality in their social media materials, such as demonstrating bring-your-own, secondhand exchange, and reuse of materials as fashionable and compatible with modern life.
The double-edged legacy of frugality points to broader questions about sustainable consumption and ideals of modernization, wealth, and progress. Lots of GoZero Waste participants have achieved or could have achieved a middle-class elitist lifestyle, but they intentionally choose to downshift. Some reconcile this by demonstrating frugality as a global trend of sustainable consumption. Ten interviewees recalled reading social media content, such as zero waste influencers in the US and simplicity ideals from Japan, which prompted them to embark on the lifestyle change journey. Some of them described entering a stage of habitual sustainable consumption regardless of wealth. One female informant who recently rejoined the workforce in a managerial role in Beijing illustrated this well: I quit my job in 2020 and my income dropped. This prompted me to live with a smaller budget. I read books about simplicity and zero waste living. … Sustainable behaviors can become a habit. … Now I am back to work and my previous income level, but I have formed the habit. … Many people haven’t reached the stage—they are not lacking material wealth, but they lack a sense of security and feel empty internally. (LY, Female, Beijing)
LY's quote shows that the legacy of frugality is best used when it stays as a habitual mindset that prioritizes resourcefulness and environmental responsibility. This rebranding of frugality as a resource for sustainable consumption is especially salient due to the stark socio-economic change within one or two generations in China. The coexistence of generations with different perceptions provides unique opportunities and challenges for sustainable consumption. The GoZero Waste community navigates this tension by redefining frugality as a modern, globally relevant value that aligns with sustainability, using both personal practices and social media advocacy to shift cultural perceptions.
Discussion and conclusion
This study examines how a group of Chinese middle-class citizens practise sustainable consumption driven by environmentalism, simplicity, and frugality, and how they navigate challenges in terms of social interactions and material arrangements in the broader society. Based on descriptive statistics drawn from a survey and thematic analysis of interviews, we provide insights from sustainable consumers who participate in China's largest online sustainable lifestyle community, GoZero Waste. Building upon practice theories and cultural perspectives in the sociology of consumption (Jacobsen and Hansen, 2021; Shove and Warde, 2002), we examine the formation of new dispositions among the sustainable consumers through the reconstruction of moral identities, pursuit of non-material well-being, and rebranding of frugality. We find that while social interactions and secondhand item exchange in the GoZero Waste community strengthen dispositions and material arrangements for sustainable consumption, mainstream consumption norms and systems of provision present significant challenges for sustainable consumers.
Contributing to studies of sustainable consumption, our findings align partially with those from developed and developing economies while highlighting distinct issues not addressed in the existing literature. Regarding the first theme of environmentalism, our article affirms that change toward sustainable consumption is a gradual, piecemeal process guided by new moral identities (Evans and Abrahamse, 2009; Lorenzen, 2012) and new forms of well-being and fulfillment (Soper, 2007; Zhan, 2022). Seeking diverse entry points to sustainable consumption and looking beyond the traditional environmental agenda are critical to encouraging wider participation in sustainable consumption (Evans and Abrahamse, 2009; Lubowiecki-Vikuk et al., 2021). We agree with Jacobsen and Hansen (2021) that diversifying away from an approach to sustainable consumption rooted in practical understandings embedded in a system of material entities is key. Compared to countries like Germany and Japan, China's infrastructure in support of sustainable consumption, such as bulk stores, effective waste sorting infrastructure, and sustainable supply systems of consumer products, is underdeveloped (Hirth et al., 2023). Currently, sustainable consumption relies on middle-class citizens’ cultural capital, civic qualities (suzhi), and disposability of time and energy, which cannot be expected for all (Bargain-Darrigues, 2023). Developing sustainable infrastructure is necessary to develop practical understandings embedded in material entities and also help internalize new practical understandings of sustainable routines in humans (Jacobsen and Hansen, 2021; Shove, 2014). Meanwhile, resorting to a pragmatic strategy of incremental, flexible, and non-confrontational actions undermines environmental effects (Lu, 2024). Unlike Western environmentalism's close ties to civic activism, Chinese citizens’ non-activist approaches reflect pragmatic adaptation to its institutional environment (Lu, 2024; Zhan, 2024). It is beyond the scope of this study to discuss how individual efforts can shape deep-rooted political and economic realities in China, though examples exist (Zhang, 2024), and we acknowledge the importance of political participation. Meanwhile, we propose new pathways for middle-class individuals to enact broader-scale change through sustainable consumption, including expanding alternative consumption networks and engaging in consumer activism (e.g. pressuring businesses through commenting on online platforms). China is experiencing a shift toward a downturn in consumption and economic stagnation, which could serve as a unique opportunity for the fostering of new consumer values.
Furthermore, the practice of middle-class sustainable consumption in our study is not primarily that of consumption of green alternatives (Black and Cherrier, 2010) or exclusivity based on inconspicuous consumption or taste (Bourdieu, 2002; Zhang, 2020). GoZero Waste emphasizes consumption reduction and sustainable living with whatever one already possesses, resonating with anti-consumption (Black and Cherrier, 2010) and voluntary simplicity (Cherrier, 2009). This highlights new directions for sustainable consumption research in China that go beyond consumer choices of green products (Liu et al., 2016). Nevertheless, the potential exclusionary nature of sustainable consumption stems from factors such as time, knowledge, access to information, and a taste for non-material satisfactions (Soper, 2007). These are expressions of deeper levels of class privilege built upon cultural capital that the middle class acquires. To some extent, sustainable consumers in GoZero Waste have already secured their class status associated with their education level and background (e.g. living in first-tier and second-tier cities with decent jobs). For individuals who face more immediate economic concerns and status-signaling needs, the barriers to adopting sustainable consumption increase.
Regarding the themes of simplicity and frugality, sustainable consumer efforts to produce new dispositions are legitimated on the individual scale and within the GoZero Waste community, but are yet to be accepted in larger social structures. Similar to the voluntary simplicity movement in Western societies (Cherrier, 2009; Soper, 2007), Chinese sustainable consumers seek fulfillment beyond material accumulation. Nevertheless, China's rapid economic growth has positioned high consumption as aspirational, making frugal behaviors less socially acceptable. Our research shows that symbolic values attached to consumption for social status acquisition are still prevalent, and certain zero waste behaviors that signal poverty or backwardness have low social acceptance. These resonate with Inglehart’s (2016) statement that China's social memory of existential insecurity persists, and post-material values have yet to take hold. While some GoZero Waste members have always practiced a sustainable lifestyle without going through a high consumption phase, most are in the class position of relative wealth and many of their narratives reveal experiences with high consumption. The broader social legitimacy of sustainable consumption remains uncertain in emerging economies undergoing rapid economic transitions, making the “leapfrog hypothesis” debatable (Schäfer et al., 2011; Schroeder and Anantharaman, 2017).
Our empirical findings from emerging economies where competing practical understandings of consumption are rapidly developing also advance theoretical discussions in the sociology of consumption. Differing from Bourdieu's relatively stable view of dispositions and extending of dispositions as historically and collectively embedded (Jacobsen and Hansen, 2021), we explore dispositions and materialized practical understandings as actively developed through new social experience and the reinterpretation of traditional values. Competing social structures and material arrangements co-exist, not only forming and reproducing consumption practices but also challenging one another. Future research should further explore the interaction between multiple sets of practical understandings and how they influence consumption practices over time.
Furthermore, our research on sustainable consumers within GoZero Waste demonstrates that the prevalence and reproduction of practical understandings are contingent upon scale (Sayre, 2015). At the individual and community levels, GoZero Waste participants develop new dispositions and alternative infrastructures for sustainable consumption. However, these practices struggle to gain institutional recognition on larger scales, where the impact of social norms in a mass consumption society and default systems of provision prevail. Future research should explore how grassroots sustainability efforts can be scaled up and institutionalized in China.
We recognize that our study has several limitations. We focus on individuals who are already inclined toward sustainable consumption and are active on social media platforms. These characteristics overlook the experiences of other sustainable consumers, such as older adults or those from less affluent socio-economic backgrounds, who might be sustainable consumers without joining social media communities. It is equally important to investigate individuals who resist sustainable consumption. Furthermore, our sample doesn’t have a high proportion of upper-middle-class individuals, which might explain the reduced need for deliberate status and taste expressions (Wu et al., 2017; Zhang, 2020). Individuals with greater economic resources and cultural capital could engage differently with sustainable consumption than those with limited means. Future research could benefit from exploring variations within subgroups of the middle class as well as sustainable consumers who are at different stages of the transition. Finally, our research hasn’t addressed the potential for consumer activism, political advocacy, or objective measures to evaluate sustainable consumption's environmental impacts.
Our study contributes to consumer culture and practice theories in the sociology of consumption as well as empirical research on sustainable consumption in emerging economies. It underscores the need to examine sustainable consumption not as a singular trajectory or product of social structures, but as a dynamic process shaped by old and new values and socio-economic conditions. We shed light on how middle-class sustainable consumers in China negotiate with competing systems of dispositions and material entities. Our findings highlight the reconstruction of moral identities, non-material well-being, and refashioning of traditional values as opportunities in emerging economies and critically reflect on middle-class privilege and limited scalability (Schäfer et al., 2011; Schroeder and Anantharaman, 2017). This approach fills a gap in sustainable consumption research in China, which has been dominated by individualist approaches or technical solutions to production systems (Liu et al., 2016). We build on research about consumption theories’ unique expression in China, influenced by traditional, local culture (46-47), by bringing middle-class status-seeking and the discourse of well-being and fulfillment into the discussion of sustainable consumption. By analyzing the challenges and negotiation processes faced by sustainable consumers, we argue that the reproduction of sustainable consumption requires a shift in the collective practical understandings that are internalized in both human dispositions and material entities.
Supplemental Material
sj-pdf-1-chs-10.1177_2057150X251371845 - Supplemental material for Navigating social and material challenges of sustainable consumption among the Chinese urban middle class: Environmentalism, simplicity, and frugality
Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-chs-10.1177_2057150X251371845 for Navigating social and material challenges of sustainable consumption among the Chinese urban middle class: Environmentalism, simplicity, and frugality by Danning Lu and Tianshu Ran in Chinese Journal of Sociology
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
Appreciations to Dr Amity Doolittle who has shown great support during the research and writing of this article. Thanks to GoZero Waste and every member who participated in this research. Thanks to Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability, the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University, and Yale School of the Environment for making the research project possible.
Author Note
Danning Lu is currently affiliated with Department of Global Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, USA.
Ethical approval and informed consent statements
This research has been approved by the IRB at Yale University (IRB Protocol ID: 2000032343), following ethical guidelines for human subject research. Each participant read and agreed to the consent form before surveys and interviews.
Contributorship
Lu was responsible for the research design, data collection, data analysis, paper conceptualization and part of the writing. Ran was responsible for paper conceptualization and part of the writing, especially the literature review part.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project was funded by Yale University's Hixon Center for Urban Sustainability, Council on East Asian Studies, and Yale School of the Environment.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data availability statement
There is no publicly available data associated with this research. The data collected for this research are to be kept confidential based on ethical guidelines.
Supplemental material
Supplemental material for this article is available online.
Notes
References
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