Designed to break: planned obsolescence as corporate environmental crime

Author:

Bisschop LieselotORCID,Hendlin YogiORCID,Jaspers JelleORCID

Abstract

AbstractPlanned obsolescence is the practice of deliberately designing products to limit their life span to encourage replacement. It is a common business strategy for consumer goods, with far-reaching ecological and social consequences. Here, we examine the definition, causes and consequences of planned obsolescence by using insights from corporate crime literature, integrated with environmental philosophy, management sciences, technology studies and law. Focusing on cases of planned obsolescence in consumer electronics, we show that the concept and procedure carries conceptual ambiguity and moral ambivalence, bearing diffuse harms, benefitting short-term corporate profit but undermining consumer confidence, and posing a major barrier to environmental sustainability. We discuss the system lock-ins driving companies to engage in planned obsolescence, and reframe the practice as a form of corporate environmental crime.

Funder

erasmus universiteit rotterdam

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Subject

Law,General Social Sciences,Pathology and Forensic Medicine

Reference104 articles.

1. Adamson, G. (2003). Industrial strength design how brooks stevens shaped your world. MIT Press.

2. Aladeojebi, T. (2013). Planned obsolescence. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 4(6), 1504–1508.

3. Amandam, & Medium (2020). 6 times printer companies tried to screw people over and the five times people won. https://medium.com/@amandam_95165/6-times-printer-companies-tried-to-screw-people-over-dbc0e1eb5149

4. Apple Support. (n.d.). About genuine iPhone batteries. Retrieved August 24 (2020). from https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210323

5. Bacher, J., Dams, Y., Duhoux, T., Deng, Y., Teittinen, T., & Mortensen, L. (2020). Electronic products and obsolescence in a circular economy.

Cited by 9 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3