Commodifying Green living: Discourses of class and sustainability in housing estates

Abstract

With the call to care for the environment becoming more urgent, the notion of what it means to be Green, in light of consumption culture, is explored. In conceptualizing Greenness as a continuous variable rather than an absolute quality, this linguistic landscape study examines the role that language plays in communicating Greenness across place-making discourses of luxury and mass/everyday housing. Despite the criticisms leveled at consumption culture for co-opting the Green movement, the study shows there are no easy assumptions to be made due to the multiple facets of Greenness as it interacts in complex ways with class-oriented discourse.