Across Time, Across Space, and Intersecting in Complex Ways: A Framework for Assessing Impacts of Environmental Disruptions on Nature-Dependent Prosumers

Abstract

Environmental disruptions, such as extreme weather events or poisoning of natural resources, are increasing in frequency and intensity. These critical global problems demand market- and policy-based solutions. Adopting a Transformative Consumer Research perspective, this article examines the effects of environmental disruptions on the livelihoods of a very vulnerable group: nature-dependent prosumers. Nature-dependent prosumers often live in subsistence markets, but the impact of environmental disruptions on their lives can have repercussions throughout local and global systems. This article thus offers practitioners and researchers a framework, the “cross-scale intersectionality matrix” (CSIM), to better understand the differing impacts of environmental disruptions and envisage effective solutions. The CSIM reveals how environmental disruptions affect marketing systems’ exchanges of production and consumption (1) across multiple spatiotemporal scales, resulting in cross-scale impacts (per ecosystems theory) and (2) in diverse ways for groups/individuals experiencing intersectional power asymmetries such as geopolitical/economic power, classism/ableism, and sexism (per intersectionality theory). Building on insights from the CSIM framework, the authors propose improvements to research as well as policy and market-based solutions intended to enhance the well-being of nature-dependent prosumers.