Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

This study critically examines how green governmentality and responsibilization shape consumer awareness and perceptions of green consumption in Sri Lanka. Through qualitative research spanning five urban and five rural districts, the study reveals significant disparities in how green consumption is conceptualized, practiced, and governed across socioeconomic and geographical contexts. Urban consumers increasingly adopt globalized green consumption narratives promoted through media and corporate marketing, while rural populations engage with environmental responsibility through cultural frameworks that predate formal green governance mechanisms. The research uncovers a paradoxical phenomenon where absence of formal green governance in rural areas coincides with more environmentally sustainable practices, challenging dominant market-based approaches to green consumption. Economic constraints emerge as the most significant barrier to green consumption, creating fundamental limitations for lower and middle-income participants despite environmental awareness. Trust deficits toward institutional environmental claims further complicate consumer engagement with green initiatives. By documenting how consumers strategically navigate, negotiate, and sometimes resist their assigned environmental roles, the study advances theoretical understanding of green governmentality in developing contexts characterized by structural inequalities. These findings challenge reductionist assumptions that position consumer awareness as a direct trigger of pro-environmental behavior, highlighting instead the need for governance approaches that address structural barriers while leveraging existing cultural frameworks that already align with green consumption principles. The research contributes to environmental governance scholarship by revealing how alternative green practices operate extensively in rural areas, often unrecognized within formal green consumption frameworks.