Greening the poor: the trap of moralization

Abstract

This article uses ethnographic data to engage a critical reflection on the tension between individual responsibility for the environment and inequality. While research has shown that the majority of sustainable consumers are middle and upper class, educated and white individuals, the study explores how the ethical injunction to ecological sustainability is being introduced to lower‐income neighbourhoods in France. It draws on the observation of a national programme which aims at supporting inhabitants of public housing estates in the process of greening their lifestyle in order to fight climate change and fuel poverty. The paper analyses how environmental responsibilization is specific in that it calls upon a responsibility towards others, towards the common good. Using the Foucauldian concept of ‘subjectivation’, it describes and analyses the moral work implied by such behaviour change programmes. It demonstrates that a negative representation of poor households and a moral framing of the responsibility for the environment lead to a moralization of their lifestyle under the heading of ‘eco‐friendly behaviours’. A paradoxical result of such endeavours is that the social group with the least impactful lifestyle on the environment is the one which is moralized in the most intrusive and resolute manner. The article shows, however, that the tenants manage to resist the normalizing discourse on sustainable living, for reasons which are not anti‐environmentalist. This piece thus provides interesting results for sustainability studies as well as for the sociology of the regulation of underprivileged neighbourhoods.

No (sociological) excuses for not going green: How do environmental activists make sense of social inequalities and relate to the working class?

“…First, due to their socially restricted sociability and to the groups’ social homogeneity, the activists were not used to spending much time with working-class people and their representations betrayed classist prejudices. Their othering comments reproduced, from an environmentalist standpoint, the well-worn discourse on the poor’s incapacity to spend well (Colombi, 2020) and reinforced the deep-seated stigma representing urban poor households as less environmentally concerned (Malier, 2019).…”

“…In France, numerous media campaigns (Comby, 2015) and public policies (Rumpala, 2011) have institutionalised a consumerist framing of the responsibility for the climate. They have flourished on the same moral conviction that individual consumers should personally take care of the planet through their daily behaviours (on the moral dimensions of such behaviour change policies, see Malier, 2019). In the realm of social sciences, both behaviour change policies and sustainable consumption activism have received significant scholarly attention, notably from the perspective of Social Practice Theory (see Evans, 2019, for a critical review).…”

Morals and climate decision-making: insights from social and behavioural sciences

“…This emphasis on multiple rationalities has highlighted the interactions between environmental and climate governance strategies and the subjects of those strategies (e.g. McGregor et al, 2015;Malier, 2019), and has helped to investigate and interpret the gaps between the visions of climate decision-makers and the implementation of decisions on the ground (Collins, 2020;Fletcher and Cortes-Vazquez, 2020). In their discussion of REDD+ in Nigeria, for example, Asiyanbi et al, (2019) describe how it aimed to normalise particular moral values about forest protection but were countered by local discourses of morality centred around entitlements to forests.…”

Ilmasto-oikeudenmukaisuus suomalaisessa hyvinvointi- ja terveyspolitiikassa-Suuntaviivoja tutkimukselle

“…Myös eri sosioekonomiset ryhmät ponnistavat käytäntöjen muutoksiin eri lähtökohdista. Pienituloisten arki on usein melko ympäristöystävällistä vähäisen kuluttamisen, tehokkaiden asumisratkaisujen ja liikkumisen vuoksi (36,37). Sen sijaan moniin hyvin toimeentulevien ja keskiluokkaisten arjen käytäntöihin heijastuu vaatimuksia arjen sujuvuudesta, helposta liikkumisesta ja tilavasta asumisesta, mikä on usein ristiriidassa ilmastonmuutoksen hillinnän kanssa (38,39).…”