Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

Topic A: Visions of societies where the economy and culture are not principally built on mass consumption: sustainable lifestyles, steady-state economies, degrowth, systemic change, new economies (sharing, solidarity, local, grassroots), sustainable business/production, alternative financial systems, the commons, equity of wealth and income, sufficiency, sustainable cities, well-being, and post-capitalist/alternative futures.

Topic B: Insights into the obstacles to a transition beyond consumerist societies: dominant consumer culture, laissez-faire market capitalism, institutional lock-in and path dependency, prevalent value systems, dominant power relations, peer/social pressure, materialism and focus on economic growth, income and wealth inequality, and class and gender inequalities.

Topic C: Strategies for successful transitions: leverage points for systemic change, government policies, new business practices, partnerships, multi-stakeholder collaborations, grassroots innovations and bounded socio-technical experiments, design for sustainability/roles for designers, law as agent of change, communication and framing, teaching sustainable consumption, and methodologies for measuring progress/indicators.

Topic D: Theories of social change: socio-technical transitions, social movement theories, theories of cultural change, social learning theories, communication (including mass and social media), scenarios, visioning, and backcasting.

Topic E: Thematic domains of consumption: agribusiness and food, transportation, building and housing,energy transitions and climate change, leisure and vacation, and cities and urbanism.

Topic F: Pollution of consumer products with toxic compounds (including exposure and regulation): pesticides and genetically modified crops, toxic compounds in consumer products.