Hello and welcome to all my new followers.

I must explain that this 'learning blog' idea is a bit of an experiment that Gill and I are trying, so please stick with us as we think it could be a really great way of getting everyone engaged with the course (and maybe even staying in touch with one another after the course finishes).

So, the first blog topic was 'what do I want to get out of this module, and what do I find interesting about sustainable consumption'.

Right - what do I want to get out of the module...hmm, what I like best about teaching on this module is the practicals and getting everyone engaging with the different theories and approaches to sustainable consumption that the course talks about. Everyone comes at this from their own unique perspective so it's quite exciting when people share them with others. This is, actually, one of the best parts about teaching on masters courses, where there are usually smaller groups, so more people can input more interesting ideas. This is another reason why Gill and I thought this blog idea would be a good one, because it gives people even more chance to engage with the ideas and to come up with their own better ones.

So, what do I find most interesting about sustainable consumption. Well, I hope some of my interest in it is explained in the posts I've added below - these highlight some of my research interests. In short, though, I'm interested in the idea that sustainable living might demand quite radical changes in what it means to be a 'normal' human being. One of the examples in this afternoons practical was about showering and how often we're socially expected to shower. I guess what I'm interested in is how these ideas evolve and change over time. Further, I guess I'm concerned that the current ways of trying to bring sustainable consumption about seem to fall well short of even beginning to challenge what counts as 'normal', so another interest is in what other methods we might use to do this.