GREENWASHING, AN ENGINEERING OF CONSENT EXAMPLE

Year 2021, Issue: 31, 413 - 433, 12.05.2021

Ömer Ersin Kahraman

Abstract

Environmentalism has developed in reaction to the extensive production regime emerged after the Industrial Revolution and following the 1992 Kyoto Protocol and 2015 Paris Agreement, it has become one of the key topics in the political debates and geo-power relations due to the extensive exploitation of resources and the anticipated global climate change disaster. However, although the fear which the environmentalism consciousness is founded on has scientific basis and, similar to the Cold War Era, the neglect of the problem has the potential to lead to a human made catastrophe, some political and economic circles exploit the ecologic problem for their agendas in order to increase profits and manufacture consent. This phenomenon especially in green advertising and green marketing debates is coined as “greenwashing” in literature. This article aims to initiate a debate about how the collective consciousness of environmentalism is transformed in greenwashing like other public relations spins exploiting the fear through sociopsychological processes and how it is used to manufacture consent.

Keywords

Environmentalism, Greenwashing, Engineering of Consent, Manufacturing Consent, Social Psychology

YEŞİL AKLAMA, BİR RIZA MÜHENDİSLİĞİ ÖRNEĞİ

Abstract

Çevrecilik, Sanayi Devrimi sonrası süreçte ortaya çıkan yoğun üretim rejiminin yarattığı ekolojik sorunlara tepki olarak gelişti ve bugün kaynakların tüketimi ve küresel iklim değişikliği felaketi beklentisiyle özellikle 1992 Kyoto Protokolü ve 2015 Paris Anlaşması sonrasında siyasal tartışmalarda ve küresel iktidar ilişkilerinde en önemli gündem maddeleri arasında yerini aldı. Ancak, her ne kadar çevrecilik bilincinin dayandığı korku, bilimsel temellere dayanıyor ve önlem alınmamasının Soğuk Savaş dönemindekine benzer, insan eliyle üretilmiş bir felaketle sonuçlanması ihtimali de olsa kimi politik ve ekonomik aktörler çevrecilik sorununu başka ajandalar için rıza üretiminde kullanmaktalar. Bu olgu, özellikle reklamcılık ve yeşil pazarlama alanında literatüre yeşil aklama (greenwashing) olarak girdi. Bu makale, çevreciliğin ortak bilincinin halkla ilişkiler propagandalarında olduğu gibi ortak korkunun kullanılması yoluyla sosyo-psikolojik süreçlerde nasıl yeşil aklamaya dönüştürüldüğü ve bu yolla nasıl rıza üretiminde kullanıldığı konusunda bir tartışma başlatmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Keywords

Çevrecilik, Yeşil Aklama, Rıza Mühendisliği, Rıza İmalatı, Sosyal Psikoloji

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