The roles of civil society as a protagonist in the process of promoting consumption sustainable: an analysis based on the perception of Brazilian experts

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the roles of civil society to promote sustainable consumption in the Brazilian context. It is considered that the sustainable consumption promotion requires the action of civil society through an emancipatory process (SACHS, 2007), from the deepening of participatory democracy and broad exercise of citizenship (COSTA; TEODÓSIO, 2011; MICHELETTI; STOLLE, 2012). The sustainable consumption depends on structural changes associated with political, institutional and market factors, which requires the development of more collaborative proposals, in which civil society has starring roles alongside governments and businesses. Thus, in terms of methodological procedures, a survey was conducted with Brazilian experts in the subject, from the use of the Policy Delphi. The results demonstrate that the roles of civil society analyzed, only carrotmob, at the meso level, has not been verified as relevant. As for the other evaluated roles, only the buycott practice was rated as “very important”, at the micro level, while others were classified as “critically important” in the process of the sustainable consumption promotion in the Brazilian context.

Keywords
Sustainable consumption; Civil society; Citizenship