Excuse me - did you say eco-centric or ego-centric? An exploratory of the relationship between green consumption and status games

The purpose of the thesis is to explore the apparent contradiction between the seemingly altruistic social movement of green consumerism and the established Bourdieuian claim that all consumption is status driven, and hence gain a rich understanding of how consumers draw upon green discourses to claim status. The thesis is carried out within the consumer research tradition of Consumer Culture Theory. We adopt the interpretative orientation of poststructuralist, and hence follow the logic of hermeneutic research. The idiographic approach of the case study using qualitative methods is employed to gain an in-dept understanding of consumers’ uses of green discourses to claim status. The empirical data was collected through unstructured interviews with female consumers, and through a media scanning of current environmental issues, and aspects relating to green consumerism. We find that the consumer claim status in their uses of green discourses by idealising green consumption practices, and hence compare and position themselves according to these social ideals. The green consumer is thus constructed as embodying these social ideals, and as the participants view themselves as green consumers in some form or another, they compare themselves with these social ideals, and hence seek status through this process. We find that green consumers are as much status seekers as other consumers. The paper contributes with new insight into status games and consumption counter-cultures