This thesis begins with the simple observation that the term ‘green consumption’ would have appeared, at the very least, oxymoronic to those concerned with environmental issues some thirty years ago. Yet now it is a commonplace aspect of popular, academic and policy discourse in the global north. In recognizing the diversity of products and services that fall under the rubric of ‘green consumption,’ this project situates it as a form of discursive positioning and a potential set of a practices that indicate a ‘friendly’ or benign association between consumption and the environment. The thesis has three components. Firstly, it reviews the literature on consumer culture and environmentalism, highlighting relevant thematic debates concerning the critique of consumer culture and its potential effects upon the environment. Secondly, the thesis constructs a post-Foucauldian ‘analytics of green consumption’ in order to understand such a radical shift in representations of consumption and environmental thinking. Thirdly, the thesis employs this analytics to examine two dominant ‘environmentalities’ or programmes of green consumption – Eco Labelling and the Ecological Footprint – wherein the advanced liberal rhetorics of ‘choice,’ ‘freedom’ and ‘responsibility’ are found to operate in different ways. Drawing upon the work of Rose (1999), Barry et al. (1996) and others, the thesis shows how these ‘informational’ techniques are predicated upon and reproduce specific conceptions of consumer behaviour, encouraging the formation of ‘green consumer-subjects.’ It is argued that the terrain of consumption has become the primary locus where political, social, economic and cultural elements overlap to shape the decisions of consumers. The field of consumption is being restructured around lifestyle choice-driven models of responsible subjectivity, with consumption becoming the key means for shaping the conduct of individual citizens. The thesis goes on to argue that such a market-based approach to engendering green consumption is problematic in terms of its conception of how consumer choice and freedom are constrained, raising difficult issues for policy efforts in this area. The thesis also points toward the limits of post-Foucauldian analyses of green consumption, especially the impossibility of knowing whether, and for what reasons, practices of green consumption are taken up by consumers. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-25 08:48:47.876

Cette thèse s’intéresse à l’alimentaire en tant que discours social du « comment se nourrir » se déployant avec une intensité toute particulière dans l’actuel régime de gouvernement de libéralisme avancé. Elle propose plus spécifiquement de penser cette intensité comme participant d’un investissement de l’alimentaire en tant que lieu privilégié dans la production d’articulations du rapport à soi (relation éthique à soi-même) et d’une citoyenneté comprise en termes d’abord normatifs. Cette productivité est mise en évidence par le biais d’une « exemplification » des ensembles de régularités des discours alimentaires contemporains qui s’avèrent les plus saillants quant à leurs effets de citoyenneté. Le premier de ces ensembles est abordé à travers une analyse de la campagne de réforme des habitudes alimentaires des écoliers britanniques Jamie’s School Dinners, considérée en tant qu’exemple des discours tendant aujourd’hui à faire d’une certaine culture alimentaire un enjeu de citoyenneté culturelle. Je m’intéresse dans un second temps aux dynamiques qui s’opèrent dans Mettez le Québec dans votre assiette!, une campagne sociétale en faveur de l’alimentation locale qui m’apparait exemplaire de la production contemporaine du « manger local » en tant qu’expression de confiance et de patriotisme envers une nation définie par ses terroirs. Finalement, je me tourne vers l’ouvrage In Defense of Food. An Eater’s Manifesto de Michael Pollan en tant qu’exemple de coprésence des deux ensembles de régularités discutés précédemment et d’un troisième (le « nutritionnisme ») que j’analyse en tant que réarticulation du discours de devoir de santé de la science nutritionnelle. Cette thèse se conclut sur une discussion de quelques-uns des effets de cette coprésence et des citoyennetés alimentaires qu’elle informe. Je m’attarde plus spécifiquement à la politique des plaisirs qui traverse ces citoyennetés, une politique se déployant sur le mode de l’anxiété (face à un futur incertain) et selon une logique générationnelle par laquelle les espaces de la nation et de la famille se trouvent simultanément investis. / This dissertation examines food and eating as a social discourse on “what to eat” that unfolds with a remarkable intensity within the current advanced liberal regime of government. More specifically, I propose to conceive of this intensity as participating of an investment of food and eating as a privileged site in the production of articulations of the ethics of the care of the self (ethical self-formation) and of a normative understanding of citizenship. This productivity is put forth by means of an “exemplification” of clusters of regularities in food and eating discourses that appear to be the most prominent in terms of their effects of citizenship. The first of these clusters is explored through an analysis of Jamie’s School Dinners, a campaign for a reform of the British school dinner system that I consider exemplary of discourses that are currently positing (a specific) food culture as an issue of cultural citizenship. I then look at some operations at play in Mettez le Québec dans votre assiette!, a social marketing campaign in favour of local food that, I contend, is exemplary of the contemporary production of “local eating” as an expression of trust and of patriotism toward a nation defined by its terroirs. I finally turn to Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food. An Eater’s Manifesto as an example of co-presence of the two clusters of regularities already discussed and a third one (“nutritionism”) that I regard as a rearticulation of the “duty to be well” put forth by nutritional science. This dissertation concludes on an examination of some of the effects of this co-presence and of the food citizenships that it informs. More specifically, I argue that these citizenships are pervaded by a politics of pleasure which works through anxiety (toward an uncertain future) and according to a generational logic which unfolds simultaneously in the space of the nation and in that of the family.

EIA's contribution to increased environmental awareness is a posited means by which EIA's contribution to a substantive level of environmental protection can be measured. However, little research has been done to evaluate and properly contextualise this increased environmental awareness in members of the public who participate in EIA and its associated processes of public participation. Utilising a Foucauldian understanding of power and governmentality, this research has shown how this process of becoming environmentally aware takes place within a broader application of governmental power and it is within this context which the success (or otherwise) of steering towards a greater environmental awareness must be evaluated. The biopolitical intentions EIA has for managing environmental life in general draws strict boundaries of expertise and authority in governing the environment, and as products of this formation of governmental power the public become subjects of expert direction. In opposition to this, the public produced a rural environment and local community as defined and governed by forms of experiential knowledge, which although pertaining to a truth-oriented mentality of rule, exerted a similar biopolitical control over the environment and immutable form of authority and expertise within it. It is contended that for EIA to penetrate bounded environments and disrupt their totalising environmentalities, the tool must extend the meaning of uncertainty to explicitly recognise the conflict that exists between actors and their respective environments. In this way, EIA can contribute to a form of self-reflexive and -critical environmental citizenship deemed necessary for a thorough investigation into the political dimensions of the environment and its associated substantive measures of enhancement and protection. Employing a realist governmentality approach to the case-study of the 2016 public inquiry in shale energy proposals in Lancashire, this research generated discourse analyses of key policy documents and public contributions to the inquiry in addition to a 'lived experience' of the inquiry as a participatory space through participant observation. The key findings were that at the policy level, the participating member of the public is produced as both a trustee and an expert, heightening the potential for conflict. Further to this, the experiences of the public inquiry added to this potential by seeking to impose on the participant an individualised, silent identity which was directly contradicted by the public during 'non-technical' sessions who sought to participate actively and collectively. Within their contributions the public produced further internal conflicts, with aspects of this discourse relying on existing institutionalised forms of knowledge and expertise to respond to environmental problems, while in others asserting that localised and personal experiences were necessary. EIA as a technique of government can have a leading role in defining the environment in both a physical, surrounding sense and as a mentality. To do so and challenge essentialised and concrete ideas regarding the environment avoiding the acts of exclusion that underpin them becoming normalised the thesis builds on the analysis to make a proposition for a more effective agonistic EIA process.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à l’alimentaire en tant que discours social du « comment se nourrir » se déployant avec une intensité toute particulière dans l’actuel régime de gouvernement de libéralisme avancé. Elle propose plus spécifiquement de penser cette intensité comme participant d’un investissement de l’alimentaire en tant que lieu privilégié dans la production d’articulations du rapport à soi (relation éthique à soi-même) et d’une citoyenneté comprise en termes d’abord normatifs. Cette productivité est mise en évidence par le biais d’une « exemplification » des ensembles de régularités des discours alimentaires contemporains qui s’avèrent les plus saillants quant à leurs effets de citoyenneté. Le premier de ces ensembles est abordé à travers une analyse de la campagne de réforme des habitudes alimentaires des écoliers britanniques Jamie’s School Dinners, considérée en tant qu’exemple des discours tendant aujourd’hui à faire d’une certaine culture alimentaire un enjeu de citoyenneté culturelle. Je m’intéresse dans un second temps aux dynamiques qui s’opèrent dans Mettez le Québec dans votre assiette!, une campagne sociétale en faveur de l’alimentation locale qui m’apparait exemplaire de la production contemporaine du « manger local » en tant qu’expression de confiance et de patriotisme envers une nation définie par ses terroirs. Finalement, je me tourne vers l’ouvrage In Defense of Food. An Eater’s Manifesto de Michael Pollan en tant qu’exemple de coprésence des deux ensembles de régularités discutés précédemment et d’un troisième (le « nutritionnisme ») que j’analyse en tant que réarticulation du discours de devoir de santé de la science nutritionnelle. Cette thèse se conclut sur une discussion de quelques-uns des effets de cette coprésence et des citoyennetés alimentaires qu’elle informe. Je m’attarde plus spécifiquement à la politique des plaisirs qui traverse ces citoyennetés, une politique se déployant sur le mode de l’anxiété (face à un futur incertain) et selon une logique générationnelle par laquelle les espaces de la nation et de la famille se trouvent simultanément investis. / This dissertation examines food and eating as a social discourse on “what to eat” that unfolds with a remarkable intensity within the current advanced liberal regime of government. More specifically, I propose to conceive of this intensity as participating of an investment of food and eating as a privileged site in the production of articulations of the ethics of the care of the self (ethical self-formation) and of a normative understanding of citizenship. This productivity is put forth by means of an “exemplification” of clusters of regularities in food and eating discourses that appear to be the most prominent in terms of their effects of citizenship. The first of these clusters is explored through an analysis of Jamie’s School Dinners, a campaign for a reform of the British school dinner system that I consider exemplary of discourses that are currently positing (a specific) food culture as an issue of cultural citizenship. I then look at some operations at play in Mettez le Québec dans votre assiette!, a social marketing campaign in favour of local food that, I contend, is exemplary of the contemporary production of “local eating” as an expression of trust and of patriotism toward a nation defined by its terroirs. I finally turn to Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food. An Eater’s Manifesto as an example of co-presence of the two clusters of regularities already discussed and a third one (“nutritionism”) that I regard as a rearticulation of the “duty to be well” put forth by nutritional science. This dissertation concludes on an examination of some of the effects of this co-presence and of the food citizenships that it informs. More specifically, I argue that these citizenships are pervaded by a politics of pleasure which works through anxiety (toward an uncertain future) and according to a generational logic which unfolds simultaneously in the space of the nation and in that of the family.