Graduation Year

2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Mass Communications

Major Professor

Gregory Perreault, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Adriana Carneiro, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Kelly Werder, Ph.D.

Keywords

Bourdieu, Circularity, Cultural Capital, Interviews, Social Practice Theory, Sustainability-oriented Brands

Abstract

In response to growing concerns about the way in which consumption practices negatively degrade the environment and contribute to climate change, this thesis explores the role in which brands may counteract this. There are two significant issues pertaining to environmental marketing: (1) current efforts to promote green consumerism, through which consumer brands market products as “eco-friendly” with only marginal reductions in climate impact and misleading labels, are insufficient in mitigating climate change. (2) Additionally, this kind of consumption is unjust, whereby it is marked up in price, limiting access to merely individuals in higher income brackets. Given the insufficiencies of predicting individuals’ consumption choices, this study takes an organizational level of analysis to understand ways in which habitual consumption is shaped by actors and their communication on the meso level. To answer the research inquiries, interviews with brand communicators at sustainability-oriented brands were conducted to inquire about their perceived role in structurally shaping consumption towards more sufficient and just forms of sustainability. Through the theoretical lens of social practice theory, this study has found significance in sustainability-oriented brands’ valuation of cultural capital. Instead of hoarding their cultural capital, it is viewed as a regenerative resource to be shared. Given their promotion of sustainability and environmental behavior, they operate in a contradictive environment whereby they are able to structurally shape the field – increasing its just and sufficient sustainability – by participating in it as elite, powerful, agents altering the rules of the field.

Download

Share

COinS