At a time when it is critically important to preserve natural resources and reduce the amount of man-made pollution, this article explores other potentials for materialism in today’s market economies. Based on a two-year ethnography in Poland, we learn from simplifiers who denounce current materialism—while remaining inside the market—about what materialism could potentially become (or already is). Our study shows that materialism can take on other less studied but more eco-friendly expressions. In particular, we highlight an alternate expression of materialism, which we call “appreciative materialism” (in contrast to “accumulative materialism”). Appreciative materialism still ascribes a great deal of importance to objects in the lives of consumers but does so through the voluntary non-possession and/or non-accumulation of these objects, as well as a caring ethics that extends to non-humans. These findings call not only for the refinement of scales to measure materialism but also for a revision of the role of materialism in our lives. They suggest that, in order to trigger more sustainable practices, policymakers and managers should put greater emphasis on appreciative materialism.

在保护自然资源和减少人为污染至关重要的时候，本文探讨了当今市场经济中唯物主义的其他潜力。根据波兰为期两年的民族志，我们从谴责当前唯物主义的简化者那里了解到唯物主义可能成为（或已经成为）什么。我们的研究表明，唯物主义可以采用其他研究较少但更环保的表达方式。特别是，我们强调了唯物主义的另一种表达方式，我们称之为“欣赏唯物主义”（与“累积唯物主义”形成对比）。欣赏唯物主义仍然非常重视消费者生活中的物品，但通过自愿不拥有和/或不积累这些物品来做到这一点，以及延伸到非人类的关怀伦理。这些发现不仅要求改进衡量唯物主义的尺度，而且还要求修正唯物主义在我们生活中的作用。他们建议，为了触发更可持续的实践，政策制定者和管理者应该更加重视欣赏性唯物主义。