ABSTRACT
Specific cultural objects feature significantly in what has become a global upsurge of green consumption: local, natural, and artisanal goods are refashioned in terms of aesthetics and price to allow the gentrification of a back-to-basics, place-based nostalgia. In context of fast-paced, high-tech global processes, including increased digitization and reproducibility, individuals and groups across the world feel moved to establish and safeguard slower, more traditional forms of living. In various sociogeographical spaces, one finds localism, environmentalism, and ethics tied—often paradoxically—to globalized identities, consumption, and elite lifestyles. In addition to the global-local, modern-traditional puzzles presented by eco-chic, another paradox lies in its conservative politics in relation to sustainable development. The most popular forms of green consumption are related to broadly shared anxieties concerning the social and economic changes associated with globalization. Corporate social responsibility is usually shorthand for extra attention to corporations’ responsibility to contribute to sustainable development, the welfare of the local population, and ecosystems of landscapes in which they operate.
