Greenwashing Culture

Greenwashing Culture examines culture's complicity with our environmental crisis, arguing that first, culture creates its own carbon footprint and second, it provides the gas and petroleum industries with social licenses to operate by accepting sponsorship that imbues corporations from these sectors with a pro-social image. Using BP, Chevron and Shell as case studies, Miller argues that oil companies make cynical use of culture as a means of 'greenwashing' their public image, while also considering the work of activists who resist such complicity, such as dissident artists and non-governmental organizations.

Greenwashing Culture examines the complicity of culture with our environmental crisis. Through its own carbon footprint, the promotion of image-friendly environmental credentials for celebrities, and the mutually beneficial engagement with big industry polluters, Toby Miller argues that culture has become an enabler of environmental criminals to win over local, national, and international communities.

Topics include:

• the environmental liabilities involved in digital and print technologies used by cultural institutions and their consumers;
• Hollywood's 'green celebrities' and the immense ecological impact of their jet-setting lifestyles and filmmaking itself;
• high profile sponsorship deals between museums and oil and gas companies, such as BP's sponsorship of Tate Britain;

• radical environmental reform, via citizenship and public policy, illustrated by the actions of Greenpeace against Shell's sponsorship of Lego. This is a thought-provoking introduction to the harmful impact of greenwashing. It is essential reading for students of cultural studies and environmental studies, and those with an interest in environmental activism.

  'Arts and cultural institutions are often presented as the good guys in the climate change debate - the alternative to all those nasty oil companies and airlines. The reality, as Toby Miller makes clear with characteristic wit and erudition, is rather more complex. Read it and prepare to be enlightened.' Kate Oakley, Professor of Cultural Policy, University of Leeds, UK 'Miller takes no prisoners in this wide-ranging and persuasive indictment of eco-hoodwinkery. Laying bare the high environmental costs of cultural production, he also weighs its institutional complicity with the black art of greenwashing. Required reading for anyone following the material turn in Cultural Studies.' Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University, USA

  Autorentext

  　 Toby Miller is Research Professor, University of California, Riverside; Sir Walter Murdoch Professor of Cultural Policy Studies, Murdoch University; Profesor Invitado, Escuela de Comunicación Social, Universidad del Norte; Professor of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University/Prifysgol Caerdydd; and Director of the Institute for Media and Creative Industries, Loughborough University London.

  Klappentext

  Greenwashing Culture examines culture's complicity with our environmental crisis, arguing that first, culture creates its own carbon footprint and second, it provides the gas and petroleum industries with social licenses to operate by accepting sponsorship that imbues corporations from these sectors with a pro-social image. Using BP, Chevron and Shell as case studies, Miller argues that oil companies make cynical use of culture as a means of 'greenwashing' their public image, while also considering the work of activists who resist such complicity, such as dissident artists and non-governmental organizations.

  Zusammenfassung

Greenwashing Culture examines the complicity of culture with our environmental crisis. Through its own carbon footprint, the promotion of image-friendly environmental credentials for celebrities, and the mutually beneficial engagement with big industry polluters, Toby Miller argues that culture has become an enabler of environmental criminals to win over local, national, and international communities.

Topics include:

• the environmental liabilities involved in digital and print technologies used by cultural institutions and their consumers;
• Hollywood's 'green celebrities' and the immense ecological impact of their jet-setting lifestyles and filmmaking itself;
• high profile sponsorship deals between museums and oil and gas companies, such as BP's sponsorship of Tate Britain;

• radical environmental reform, via citizenship and public policy, illustrated by the actions of Greenpeace against Shell's sponsorship of Lego. This is a thought-provoking introduction to the harmful impact of greenwashing. It is essential reading for students of cultural studies and environmental studies, and those with an interest in environmental activism.

  Inhalt

List of figures, Acknowledgments, 1. Introducing greenwashing, 2. Introducing culture with Richard Maxwell, **3. Museums, 4. Citizenship, regulation, and resistance, 5. Conclusion, Bibliography