Living in Harmony with Nature: a Post-Human Analysis Of
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! LIVING IN HARMONY WITH NATURE: A POST-HUMAN ANALYSIS OF CONSUMERS’ RELATIONSHIPS WITH NATURE ! By ! Joachim Scholz ! ! A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in Management - School of Business in conformity with the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy ! Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada January, 2014 ! Copyright © Joachim Scholz, 2014 ! Abstract ! Living in harmony with nature is a pervasive ideology, or cultural blueprint, of how a "sus- tainable future,” a "good society,” and a "fulfilled life" would look like. However, this notion of harmony with nature is highly paradoxical, as consumers often want and even must dominate and control nature. The current thesis explores consumers’ desires of living in harmony with na- ture through a post-human analysis of how backcountry hikers negotiate tensions between utili- tarian and romantic discourses of nature vis-à-vis their experience of material forces of nature. Through conceptualizing nature as an active actor in a symmetric assemblage of material and cultural entities (i.e., nature agency), this thesis contributes to our understanding of the human/ nature relationship, materialism, and sustainable consumption. Findings are presenting through three interrelated themes. The first theme highlights how hikers appropriate romantic discourses by seeking harmony in a nature that is perceived as exter- nal to civilization. Noting the contradiction that hikers’ quest for being in harmony with a “ro- mantic nature” oftentimes exposes them to higher physical dangers in material nature, the subse- quent themes explore how harmony can arise when hikers have to struggle with physical dangers of nature. Focusing on physical dangers that are experienced in material nature, theme 2 finds that hikers’ relationship with nature is highly ambivalent: They strive to experience “more nature and less civilization”, but also “more civilization and less nature.” The third theme explores how meanings of nature and technology emerge from fluidly shifting assemblages, finding that the same technological resources can both distract from and enable feelings of harmony with nature. !ii These findings contribute to consumer research by broadening our understanding of the human/nature relationship and by challenging previous notions (Canniford and Shankar 2013) that technology and civilization must always betray consumers’ experiences of “romantic nature.” Furthermore, the notions of nature agency and that no single actor can unilaterally shape the assemblage of heterogeneous entities contribute to the emerging material turn in consumer research. Finally, this post-human analysis of consumers’ relationships with nature offers theoret- ical and practical implications for sustainable consumption and sustainable marketing. ! !iii ! Acknowledgements ! I would like to extend my utmost gratitude to Dr. Jay Handelman, who has supported me throughout my PhD as an advisor and friend. Thank you, Jay, for being a companion on this journey, for encouraging me to find my own way, and for being my guide through the thick vege- tation of theoretical constructs and the sometimes barren landscape of writing a thesis. Whatever obstacles I have encountered on my way, no matter whether in research or in private life, I was always certain that you would lend me your ear and offer a helping hand. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the members of my committee, Dr. Peter Dacin, Dr. Tandy Thomas, Dr. Michael Smith, and Dr. Jeff Murray. Your advice during the vari- ous stages of my thesis has been invaluable, and I have cherished every debate and encouraging word along the way. I also want to thank all members of Queen’s University Outdoors Club, es- pecially the brave individuals who went on hiking trips with me and shared their deepest thoughts and feelings during interviews. Keep it wild! I am indebted to my mother Anke Scholz and father Dr. Uwe Scholz. Seeing your son leav- ing his home to beat his own path in a country far away has not been easy, but you supported and encouraged me on every step. Thank you for being curious about my work and for being patient when I was lacking the words to explain it. Please never stop asking. I wish to thank Jana Mare"ková for bringing me back to hiking and for being a companion for many years. I am grateful for knowing you and for all the nice moments we had together, and I do hope that there will be more to come on the horizon. Finlay, I love you. Without saying a !iv single intelligible word, you put a smile on my face every time I see you. Finally, I can never re- pay the kindness of my friends who held my hand while I was stumbling through the darkest of caves: Ashley Vanstone, Hanjo Runde, Chris Bavle, Andrew Smith, Alex Mitchell, Carsten Voß, Janina Nehls, and Bryn Savage: Thank you for your love. ! ! ! ! ! !v ! Table of Contents ! Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................................viii List of Figures .................................................................................................................................ix Chapter 1: Introduction – The Harmony Paradox ....................................................................1 1.1 Mapping Out this Thesis ..............................................................................................10 Chapter 2: Humanist Accounts of Consumers’ Relationships with Nature ..........................18 2.1 Cultural Discourses of Nature ......................................................................................18 2.1.1 Utilitarian Discourse of Nature ........................................................................19 2.1.2 Romantic Discourse of Nature .........................................................................25 2.2 Structuralist Accounts of Nature and Consumption ....................................................31 2.2.1 The Utilitarian Discourse of Nature in Corporate Environmentalism .............32 2.2.2 The Romantic Discourse of Nature in Paradigm-Shifting Ecologism .............35 2.2.3 Structuralist Oversimplifications .....................................................................38 2.3 Post-Structuralist Accounts of Nature and Consumption .............................................42 2.3.1 The Absence of Nature in Consumer Resistance Research .............................44 2.3.2 The Absence of Nature in Citizen-Consumer Research ...................................48 2.3.3 “Easy Straddling” Between Conflicting Discourses of Nature? ......................49 2.4 Nature/Culture Dualism in Humanist Accounts of Nature and Consumption .............55 Chapter 3: Constructing a Post-Human Lens ..........................................................................59 3.1 Material Forces of Nature .............................................................................................60 3.2 Theories of Assemblage ...............................................................................................62 3.2.1 Basic Tenets of Assemblage Theory ................................................................64 3.2.2 Applications of Assemblage Theory .................................................................68 3.2.3 A Turn Towards Nature? ..................................................................................72 3.3 Nature Agency ..............................................................................................................76 3.3.1 Nature as a Coding Trickster With Whom We Must Learn to Converse .........77 3.3.2 A Distributed Theory of Agency ......................................................................78 !vi 3.3.3 Engaging with Nature in a Dance of Agency ...................................................80 3.3.4 Post-Humanizing the Human/Nature Relationship ..........................................84 Chapter 4: Methodology .............................................................................................................87 4.1 A Material-Semiotic Methodology ...............................................................................87 4.2 Back-Country Hiking as Context .................................................................................91 4.3 Methods and Data Sources ...........................................................................................97 Chapter 5: Findings ..................................................................................................................102 5.1 Theme 1: Escaping Civilization to Easily Find Harmony in Nature .........................104 5.1.1 ”Real” Nature is External to Civilization .......................................................106 5.1.2 Harmony is Easily Found in a Benevolent Nature .........................................113 5.2 Theme 2: Dealing with Material Dangers in the Pursuit of Harmony .......................120 5.2.1 Material Dangers Support Romantic Discourses of Nature ...........................126 5.2.2 Material Dangers Prompt Utilitarian Discourses of Nature ...........................133