Unravelling the Threads: Discourses of Sustainability and Consumption in an Online Forum

Abstract

This article analyzes an online discussion that followed an article published by UK environmental activist and journalist George Monbiot in The Guardian online newspaper. The analysis addresses the ways in which participants in an online forum debate responded to the tensions and contradictions between lifestyle, consumption, and sustainability highlighted in the original article. The discursive construction of class, green political orientations, and identities; visions of “the good life”; and appeals to religion and science are highlighted throughout the analysis—as are the discursive strategies for positioning self, other, and audience in the debate. The argument emphasizes the heterogeneity of discursive positioning and reflects on the role of social media in the politics of consumption and sustainability, especially given the inherent reflexivity of web forums as online communicative forms.

Keywords:

• Lifestyle
• Sustainability
• Consumption
• Online Forums
• Web 2.0

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the co-investigators, research fellows, and doctoral researchers in the RESOLVE research group at the University of Surrey for their collegial support. The RESOLVE research was made possible via a grant from the United Kingdom's Economic and Social Research Council: Grant number RES-152-25-1004.

Notes

1. Monbiot's article is also potentially of analytic interest in itself because it provides a case study of environmental communication that extends and revises Singer's (2005) discussion of the political “j-blogger”—the professional political journalist who simultaneously maintains a personal weblog (Robinson, 2006; Singer, 2005). Monbiot's role as a prominent UK environmental organizer and activist arguably sits uneasily amongst the tensions here between traditional professional journalistic values, and the online dissemination of personal perspectives (via the weblog) in public discursive space.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Geoff Cooper

Geoff Cooper is a Reader in The Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey

Nicola Green

Nicola Green is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey

Kate Burningham

Kate Burningham is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey

David Evans

David Evans is a Lecturer in Sociology and Research Fellow in the Sustainable Consumption Institute at the University of Manchester

Tim Jackson

Tim Jackson is a Professor in Sustainable Development in the Centre for Environmental Strategy at the University of Surrey