Sustainability, design and consumerism in the developing world.

Lambert, Ian

Abstract

The research collected and presented in this paper is based on the author’s first-hand observations of the lifestyles of people living in and around the Dodoma region of Tanzania. The research was conducted using a number of creative research methods including still photographic surveys, video diaries, and indigenous physical artefact collection [1].

This paper examines the contrasting attitudes of different cultures, especially the cultural differences that exist between Western-European and Tanzanian models of consumption. In the global village, which grows smaller every day, there are places and countries where people have no notion of “the brand”. In the Tanzanian market place there are no Harvey Nichols or Conran shops, soap powder is soap powder, buckets are buckets, soap comes in long, unbranded bars (fig. 1). Products, in this context, are bought purely on physiological need.

A Dodoma consumer might correctly ask, where is the material value in a brand?

• Conference Name: 3rd ENGINEERING AND PRODUCT DESIGN EDUCATION CONFERENCE
• Start Date: Sep 5, 2005
• End Date: Sep 6, 2005
• Publication Date: Sep 6, 2005
• Deposit Date: May 29, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: May 29, 2015
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• ISBN: 0 415 391180
• Keywords: Design; sustainability; consumerism
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/8315
• Contract Date: May 29, 2015