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Abstract

A range of green practices is emerging in the streets, homes and gardens of suburban neighbourhoods around the world. From community gardens and permablitzing to the rise of ‘sustainability streets’ and ‘voluntary simplicity’ networks, individuals and community groups in advanced consumer societies are looking for innovative approaches to living more ethically and sustainably. In this article I examine the way that such trends are starting to make their way onto our TV screens, and in particular into the life-changing narratives of lifestyle programming. While traditionally seen as vehicles for the promotion of the latest consumer products and services, lifestyle shows are also increasingly concerned with teaching audiences how to adopt ‘ethical’ ways of living. This article examines a range of ‘eco-lifestyle’ formats as sites of creative experimentation around green living, citizenship and the question of how to live ‘the good life’ today.

Keywords

green citizenship lifestyle politics reality TV romanticism and everyday life suburbia and sustainability

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‘There grows the neighbourhood’: Green citizenship,creativity and life politics on eco-TV

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