Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies
Nowadays, companies who want to engage environment-friendly consumers increasingly rely on green-economy oriented campaigns. Such categories of (ethical) consumers are numerically increasing, and expressions evoking environmental friendliness are becoming particularly trendy. In this vein, words suc...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
2017-12-01
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| Series: | Russian journal of linguistics: Vestnik RUDN |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/15407 |
| _version_ | 1818145922509438976 |
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| author | Lucia Abbamonte Flavia Cavaliere |
| author_facet | Lucia Abbamonte Flavia Cavaliere |
| author_sort | Lucia Abbamonte |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Nowadays, companies who want to engage environment-friendly consumers increasingly rely on green-economy oriented campaigns. Such categories of (ethical) consumers are numerically increasing, and expressions evoking environmental friendliness are becoming particularly trendy. In this vein, words such as ‘sustainability’ have been variously recontextualized/reframed and have become an ‘ought to’ for media-savvy companies ‘with a vision’ - Walmart, the American multinational retail corporation, being a relevant case in point. It is no accident that, on the first Google page for ‘sustainability’, ‘Walmart’ proudly surfaces:http://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/sustainability. The company has made an explicit commitment not just to expand the business but also to improve communities and enhance the sustainability of the products they sell, by encouraging more responsible production practices, while at the same time making product choices more affordable for customers, as reported on its website. However, as the world’s largest company, Walmart is an easy target for attack mainly by environmentalists. Sometimes, Walmart gives its critics grounds for some legitimate criticism in a variety of fields ranging from the supply chain emissions to renewable energy and preserving habitat. Such criticism resonates across the media, owing to their ‘lack of closure’ (Laclau and Mouffe 1985), finalized to offer an unbiased perspective. Against this ‘complexified’ (Macgilchrist 2007) background, our study aims to examine, from a broadly Multimodal and Positive Discourse Analysis perspective, the Walmart website ‘sustainability’ pages with their variety of communicative strategies, advertising ‘responsible’ Walmart positive attitudes to fundamental issues like Energy, Waste, Products and Responsible Sourcing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:11:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d596a7ab1dae4b0bb53c9a45a7a6b497 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2312-9182 2312-9212 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T12:11:09Z |
| publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
| publisher | Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Russian journal of linguistics: Vestnik RUDN |
| spelling | doaj.art-d596a7ab1dae4b0bb53c9a45a7a6b4972022-12-22T01:07:47ZengPeoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)Russian journal of linguistics: Vestnik RUDN2312-91822312-92122017-12-0121110512510.22363/2312-9182-2017-21-1-105-12514797Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability PoliciesLucia Abbamonte0Flavia Cavaliere1Второй Университет НеаполяНеаполитанский университет имени Фридриха IINowadays, companies who want to engage environment-friendly consumers increasingly rely on green-economy oriented campaigns. Such categories of (ethical) consumers are numerically increasing, and expressions evoking environmental friendliness are becoming particularly trendy. In this vein, words such as ‘sustainability’ have been variously recontextualized/reframed and have become an ‘ought to’ for media-savvy companies ‘with a vision’ - Walmart, the American multinational retail corporation, being a relevant case in point. It is no accident that, on the first Google page for ‘sustainability’, ‘Walmart’ proudly surfaces:http://corporate.walmart.com/global-responsibility/sustainability. The company has made an explicit commitment not just to expand the business but also to improve communities and enhance the sustainability of the products they sell, by encouraging more responsible production practices, while at the same time making product choices more affordable for customers, as reported on its website. However, as the world’s largest company, Walmart is an easy target for attack mainly by environmentalists. Sometimes, Walmart gives its critics grounds for some legitimate criticism in a variety of fields ranging from the supply chain emissions to renewable energy and preserving habitat. Such criticism resonates across the media, owing to their ‘lack of closure’ (Laclau and Mouffe 1985), finalized to offer an unbiased perspective. Against this ‘complexified’ (Macgilchrist 2007) background, our study aims to examine, from a broadly Multimodal and Positive Discourse Analysis perspective, the Walmart website ‘sustainability’ pages with their variety of communicative strategies, advertising ‘responsible’ Walmart positive attitudes to fundamental issues like Energy, Waste, Products and Responsible Sourcing.http://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/15407экологичная экономикамультимодальные средствакритический дискурс-анализкоммуникативные стратегии |
| spellingShingle | Lucia Abbamonte Flavia Cavaliere Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies Russian journal of linguistics: Vestnik RUDN экологичная экономика мультимодальные средства критический дискурс-анализ коммуникативные стратегии |
| title | Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies |
| title_full | Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies |
| title_fullStr | Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies |
| title_short | Shopping as ‘Best Practice’ - Analyzing Walmart’s Debated Sustainability Policies |
| title_sort | shopping as best practice analyzing walmart s debated sustainability policies |
| topic | экологичная экономика мультимодальные средства критический дискурс-анализ коммуникативные стратегии |
| url | http://journals.rudn.ru/linguistics/article/view/15407 |
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