The Role of Emotions in Social Innovations for Sustainable Consumption REsI

Many people participate in energy cooperatives or community-supported agriculture, repair everyday items in repair cafés, or live in communal housing arrangements. What all these social innovations for sustainable consumption have in common is their goal of reorganizing consumption and production.

What role do emotions play when people engage in collective social innovations for sustainable consumption? This is the central question of the research project “The Role of Emotions in Social Innovations for Sustainable Consumption (REsI).”

The project builds on the idea that community-based initiatives – such as food co-ops, repair cafés, or sharing platforms – not only promote sustainable consumption practices but also create a strong sense of community and agency. According to the project's hypothesis, this can empower consumers by enabling them to actively shape production structures rather than merely accepting consumption options passively.

So far, systematic knowledge is lacking about which emotions motivate people to participate in such initiatives and how different feelings influence sustainable behavior in the long term. The REsI project aims to close this gap by conducting interdisciplinary research – including expert interviews, surveys, and focus groups with members of social innovation initiatives, as well as practice-oriented workshops – to develop recommendations for an emotion-sensitive consumer policy and communication strategy.