The myth of sustainability: An ecology of fictions
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Date
2024
Department
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Mcode
Degree programme
Marketing
Language
en
Pages
37
Series
Abstract
In the face of an impending socio-ecological disaster that threatens the existence of the consumer society, stories about possible solutions are more prevalent than ever. While the seemingly inexorable trajectories of capital and commodification are recognised as being inherently opposed to any notion of true sustainability, such critique rarely punctures the narratives theorising or mobilising the destructive reality of consumption. This persistent problem of sustainability is discovered in extant research as an opportunity for consumption. It is narrativised as a reality where a future of sustainable capitalism is not only achievable via consumption but also already exists, consequently overseeing the reconstruction of the present according to its accumulative promises. In this thesis I argue that such narrativisation amounts to a myth of sustainability, that makes itself fictiously real in consumer culture. Using the concept of hyperstition coined by the controversial Cybernetic Culture Research Unit to dissect this convoluted relationship between fiction and reality, this thesis discusses how such fictions, consisting of narratives and semiotic productions come to temporally (in)form reality in a sedimentation of capitalist realism. Following the recent pessimistic theoretical attitude discovered in Terminal Marketing, I propose a darker alternative that challenges the agentic ontology of sustainability theorising found in existing research.Description
Thesis advisor
Tikkanen, HenrikkiKeywords
sustainability, Fisher, CCRU, hyperstition, capitalist realism