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Rebecca Collins
My PhD research, driven by the increasing focus on a societal shift towards more sustainable consumption, aims to build a picture of UK adolescents' material consumption that moves beyond recent preoccupations with acquisition. By focusing on decisions to divest, dispose of and/or waste personal items, my research examines how different ways of moving items out of spheres of engagement reflect young people's relationships with material objects. By deepening understanding of young people's motivations for 'getting rid' of items, I suggest that important facets of their attitudes towards personal material consumption are revealed, knowledge that is arguably well placed to illuminate the as yet under-researched intersection of youth consumption and sustainable consumption.
Publications
Collins, R. and R. Hitchings (2012) 'A Tale of Two Teens: Disciplinary Boundaries and Geographical Opportunities in Youth Consumption and Sustainability Research', Area (forthcoming).
Collins, R., J. Esson, C. O'Neill Gutierrez and A. Adekunle (under review) 'Youth in Motion: Spatializing Youth Movement(s) in the Social Sciences' (submitted to Children's Geographies)
Conference Papers
2011" 'Until it breaks or I lose it, I'm not going to change it' - Teenage material consumption beyond acquisition". Lancaster University Sociology Summer School, UK, 4-6 July 2011.
" 'I would never chuck it away, I would have to recycle it' - Teenage
material consumption as the crucible of sustainability". RGS-IBG
Annual Conference, London, 2nd September 2011.
" 'Until it breaks or I lose it, I'm not going to change it' - Teenage
material consumption beyond acquisition". European Sociological
Association International Conference, Université de Genève, Switzerland, 10th September 2011.
"Structure-agency interrelations in young people's pro-environmental consumption behaviours". RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London, UK, 3rd September 2010.
"The power of agency in young people's consumption choices". RGS-IBG Postgraduate Forum Mid-Term Conference, University of Aberystwyth, Wales, 6th March 2010.
Membership of Research Groups
Founder Member, UCL Youth Geographies Research Group (YGRG)
Founder Member, MEND*RS
RGS-IBG Social and Cultural Geography Research Group
RGS-IBG Geographies of Children, Youth & Families Research Group
British Sociological Association - Youth Research Group
Committee Membership
Postgraduate Representative of the RGS-IBG Geographies of Children, Youth & Families Research Group (2009-)
Related Activities
Co-organiser, "Youth In Motion: Spatialising Youth Movement(s) in the Social Sciences", a one-day interdisciplinary workshop organised by the UCL Youth Geographies Research Group, held at UCL, 16th June 2011.
Co-organiser, "Understanding Transitions Through Methodological Innovations", a one-day workshop for PhD students and early career researchers, sponsored by the RGS-IBG Geographies of Children, Youth & Families Research Group, held at the University of Leicester, 25th February 2011.
Contact address
UCL Department of Geography
University College London
Pearson Building
Gower Street
London.
WC1E 6BT.
Enquiries: +44 (0)20 7679 0500
Fax: +44 (0)20 7679 0565
+44 (0)20 7679 0500