Producing and Consuming Chemicals: The Moral Economy of the American Lawn
研究了美国居民草坪化学品使用增长的现象，发现尽管消费者意识到环境风险，但草坪化学品行业通过创新营销将社区、家庭与环境健康与密集草坪美学关联，推动了道德经济的形成。
Abstract: The burgeoning application of fertilizers and pesticides to residential lawns, which has begun to offset the gains made in reducing the use of chemicals in agriculture, represents a serious environmental hazard in the United States and elsewhere. Increased use and purchase occur specifically among a sector of consumers who explicitly and disproportionately acknowledge the risks associated with chemical deposition, moreover, and who express concern about the quality of water and human health. What drives the production of monocultural lawns in a period when environmental consciousness has encouraged “green” household action (e.g., recycling)? And why does the production of chemical externalities occur among individuals who claim to be concerned about community, family, and environment? In this article, we explore the interactions that condition and characterize the growth of intensive residential yard management in the United States. We argue that the peculiar growth and expansion of the moral economy of the lawn is the product of a threefold process in which (1) the lawn‐chemical industry has implemented new and innovative styles of marketing that (2) help to produce an association of community, family, and environmental health with intensive turf‐grass aesthetics and (3) reflect an increasing local demand by consumers for authentic experiences of community, family, and connection to the nonhuman biological world through meaningful work.