Environment and consumption: media representations from the theoretical perspective of governmentality

Abstract

This paper focuses on the representation of consumption and the environment when they appear associated as “green consumption” employing the theoretical and critical studies of governmentality. It is important to understand these two areas of thought, environment and consumption, because green consumption as a discursive construction and practice incorporates a complex convergence of ideas on the meaning of “green” and “consumption” nowadays. The weekly magazine Veja, editions of 1992 and 2012, is taken as the research corpus and marks the two world conferences on the environment, Eco 92 and Rio +20, both held in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a result, we highlight two distinct discursive pronouncements: Eco 92 is marked by the benefit of market efficiency, and Rio +20 by the consumer sovereignty and its power to change the environmental standards. The commonalities are that both attenuate the involvement of social and political relations, and conflicts associated to them.

Keywords: environment, consumption, governmentality, Eco 92, Rio+20.