Women Go Shopping: Discussing the Behaviour of Generation Y and “Green Consumption” in Rio De Janeiro

This paper aims to discuss the buying behavior of the female segment with respect to the consumption of products with ecological appeals ("green products"), in the post-modernity, through the subject area of green consumption. The sample includes 100 surveyed women of Generation Y. For this study, we conducted a qualitative, exploratory research, with field survey using structured questionnaires. The interviews were held in January 2013, at the exit door of malls in Rio de Janeiro. The theoretical basis of this study are the concepts proposed by Bauman, Canclini and Lipovetsky. The data discussion reveals a women of Generation Y with a consumer behavior paradoxical, showing that the influence of fashion, media and academic information makes young people oscillate between  following fashion trends and practices resulting of a deeper understanding of environmental issues, according glances of environmental responsibilities and conscious citizen seized through education and through the Internet. The results also reveal the idea of consumption as a process of a hybrid culture (through the influence of global culture produced and widespread by the socio-technical networks) and local culture, with traces of belonging, social recognition, especially from the perspective of the consumer-citizen relationship. This ambivalent condition of this generation relies both from the perspective discussed by Bauman (dialogic relationship between the spectacle and the vacuum of consumption as a moral/social duty and the critical reflection of the consumption, through spaces as schools and universities), and by the vision of Canclini which emphasizes the logic of cultural hybridity and the idea that to be a citizen is required to carry a consumer identity. Complemented by Lipovetsky, both thoughts emphasize the consumption behavior of the social actor of female sex in the Generation Y  as a reflection of a society that expresses the concept of a individualistic and consumerist ethic.