The performativity of sustainability: making a conduit a marketing device

Finch, J. , Horan, C. and Reid, E. (2015) The performativity of sustainability: making a conduit a marketing device. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(1-2), pp. 167-192. (doi: 10.1080/0267257X.2014.980752)

Abstract

This paper examines how a conduit, as a ‘working infrastructure’ with material and social qualities, shapes and connects the business and practices of sustainable waste management. Conduits have had a prominent but passive role in explanations of food leftovers within households. We show that a conduit, as an assemblage of investments and practices among interested actors, requires and allows for the further economisation and calculation of waste management. Conduits shape business-to-business exchanges and relationships, deriving demand across domains of exchange and managing risks to the continuation of industrial processes. They resist singular stewardship, instead allowing multiple actors to recognise their interdependence and contest the development of facilities and services. Marketing communications form an important dimension of the conduit, albeit distributed across different parts of the conduit, in aligning actors’ practices of sorting and ‘moving things along’ at and between locations.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Journal of Marketing Management on 14/11/2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0267257X.2014.980752.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Finch, Professor John
• Authors: Finch, J., Horan, C., and Reid, E.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Journal of Marketing Management
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 0267-257X
• ISSN (Online): 1472-1376
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2014 Westburn Publishers Ltd.
• First Published: First published in Journal of Marketing Management 31(1-2):167-192
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher