Consuming Nature: Paradoxes of “Green” Development in the Rural Southern Appalachian Mountains

Abstract

Environmentally conscious consumers have led marketers to brand products, automobiles, and even real estate development as “green.” Simultaneously, many consumers, who want their lifestyles to reflect their environmental values, strive to reconnect with nature through the places in which they live. Desiring to live in close proximity to natural amenities, many emigrate from urban centers for decentralized rural living. Seeking seclusion, solitude, and connections to the natural environment, many environmentally conscious urban émigrés purchase primary and secondary homes within the Southern Appalachian Mountains. This article evaluates the depiction of human-nature relationships in promotional materials for five self-identified “green” residential communities in the rural Southern Appalachian Mountains and compares these depictions with the character of the built projects. The collective case study uses a grounded theory methodology to examine each projects’ printed promotional materials and their physical built environment. This analysis describes how human interactions with nature are depicted within the social, economic, and physical context of the rural Southern Appalachian Mountains region. Findings reveal that although the depicted narrative of sustainable development may be compatible with the values of green consumers, its compatibility with current understandings of sustainable development literature is questionable. Landscape architecture’s contributions to this sustainability narrative provoke questions for the discipline as it seeks to balance sustainability across scales of the built environment.