The Greening of Consumer Culture

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this article is to gain a deeper understanding of the effect of business practices, the socially constructed nature of consumerism, the adoption and normalization of new products, and the construction of consumers' identities. This research makes conceptual and methodological contributions to the greening of consumption practices, factors that influence ecologically conscious consumer behavior, the anxieties and insecurity felt by consumers around food consumption, and the marketing and consumption of products. The literature on the impact on choices of adding a green attribute to a product, consumers' willingness to engage in consumption behaviors, the motivational basis of behavior, and the nature of the consumer society is relevant to this discussion.JEL Codes: J43; N5; O13Keywords: consumption behavior; marketing practice; subjectivity1. IntroductionOver the past decade, there has been increasing evidence describing the adoption and maintenance of consumer behavior, the influence of practice implementation on the business functions, the development of marketing, and products as material-symbolic artefacts made in and through marketing practices. We are specifically interested in how previous research investigated the construction of products, the development of a consciousness by specific consumers, the growth of the product market, and the role that consumption plays in people's lives. This paper aims to analyze and discuss the creation and maintenance of a subjectivity, companies' unwillingness to develop or market products, the morality of biological diversity, and the impact of going on the business functions. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of products' discursive practices of consumerism, the marketing of products, the maintenance and constitution of a subjectivity, and the process of making.2. The Possibilities and Limits of Green ConsumptionGreen marketing may play an important role in the social normalization of practices and products, has tended to inadvertently positioned products and behaviors as relevant only to a niche group of very consumers, and may contribute to sustainability objectives (Mako and Mitchell, 2013) by driving processes of social normalization (green marketing may play an important role in the social normalization of behaviors). A key element in the promotion of activities and products is to position them as normal. A process of social normalization is relevant to behavior, many products are positioned as different from the norm, new products should be positioned as mainstream alternatives, and differentiating products on a platform limits their sales potential. (Rettie, Burchell, and Bamham, 2014) Marketing products involves making them meaningful for consumers, i.e. constructing material-symbolic artefacts that make sense to consumers (Popescu, 2013b) and fit into their lives and their practices. Green products are made by being inscribed with a certain environmental morality. The marketing of products involves complex sociomaterial practices that result in the construction of products through a process of moral inscription (products become through a process of socio-material inscription). The construction of products may be a complex accomplishment with uncertain outcomes (the green quality constructed is specific). (Fuentes, 2014) States regulate green-marketing claims either by general consumer protection acts (Popescu, 2013a), operating much like the federal regulations, or by specific green-marketing acts (they are narrowly tailored laws that specifically address only green-marketing claims). Greenmarketing laws vary significantly from state to state: it does not fall exclusively within the confines of a traditional state function, and impacts interstate commerce. …