Walking a few blocks in Veitsbronn, Germany, I was struck by the sight of three consecutive ads promoting environmental awareness. It made me question whether it was sorcery, coincidence, or conspiracy that led me to encounter these ads, or if it was simply my own confirmation bias at work, given the direction of my research in the field of vigilance studies. However, one thing was clear – signs encouraging ecological thinking seemed to be everywhere I turned.
But as these ads caught my attention, I couldn’t help but wonder: were they simply capitalizing on the trendiness of being green? Or was it a sign that the collective efforts of ordinary people and intellectuals to promote sustainable living were finally paying off? Perhaps this growing ecological vigilance among consumers signals that there is no one-way street where an “economic totality”1 dictates consumer choices, but rather that consumers are increasingly concerned about their environmental impact.
Ecological Vigilance on the Rise: Exploring the Role of Academia, the Streets, and Social Media weiterlesen- Huehls, Mitchell. “Four Theses on Economic Totality.” Oxford UP, vol. 30, no. 4, Winter 2018, pp. 836–847. [↩]