Set in the City: Condominiums As Settings of Technological Innovations Toward Sustainable Consumption

One of the tangible signs of growth in Metro Manila, a Philippine mega-city of about 11.7 million people, is the proliferation of condominiums. A condominium is a form of housing tenure whose cost of land is prorated due to multi-story building and which makes it possible for many people to live closer to the workplace and shopping centers. This paper lays out the proposition that the condominium is both medium and outcome of technological innovations that either stimulate or stymie sustainable consumption. Technological innovations embodied in the design of spaces and rules of condominium living provide the material setting that defines interactions and images relating to inhabitants’ consumption of technologies in the home and consequent social constructions of sustainable consumption. The paper focuses on social practices relating to the use of information, communication and entertainment technologies as well as domestic technologies by condominium-household members. The take off point is a body of data and insights from key informant interviews, direct observations, and secondary data analysis.