A Creator’s Life: The Middle Way Approach to Living Sustainably

Abstract

This research explores what it means to live sustainably within a modern urban environment. The contributions of this research include the identification of a subculture, a new positive approach for marketing sustainability and an innovative research method. Using a qualitative multimodal design that combined photo elicitation, journaling, observations and interviews, informants were researched over one year using a three‐phase strategy. This study revealed a ‘Creators’ subculture in which informants used their creative energy to create a connected and sustainable way of living. Analysis revealed that escape from a consumerist culture was deemed impossible so Creators adopted the middle‐way, a lifestyle that balanced living sustainably within an unsustainable system. Instead of perceiving this challenge in a negative light, they framed it as an opportunity for personal growth and empowerment. For Creators this lifestyle was a path to self‐actualisation, enabling them to reach their full potential and having an on‐going positive impact on society. My analysis revealed a ‘cloaked’ subculture who were early adopters of the environmental movement and whose boundaries were deliberately inclusive and permeable to encourage others to join and informants with an aggregated self‐concept, extended to include nature and unfamiliar others as part of their in‐group. This resulted in mindful consumption decisions in which informants considered the wider impacts of their behaviour. Instead of adopting lifestyles based on minimal consumption and austerity, Creators chose ‘valued consumption’ in which the profane became sacred. Issues of disposability, usefulness and societal impacts were carefully considered and once possessed these items were loved and revered. My analysis found that informants were motivated by the positive, life‐enhancing benefits of their lifestyle that included a sense of abundance, joy, creativity, connection and wellbeing. I propose that social marketing and political approaches need to move beyond the information‐deficit and fear‐based appeals used to date and create new inspiring campaigns based on positive emotional motives.