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Challenging a place myth: New Zealand's clean green image meets the biotechnology revolution
Author(s) -
Coyle Fiona,
Fairweather John
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2005.00617.x
Subject(s) - mythology , pride , green revolution , futures contract , government (linguistics) , utopia , sociology , law , environmental ethics , aesthetics , economics , political science , ecology , art , philosophy , biology , literature , agriculture , linguistics , financial economics
The ‘clean green image’ of New Zealand is a well‐known example of what has been called a ‘place myth’. But more recently, emerging alongside this place myth is an image that the government is trying to co‐create of New Zealand as an innovator in biotechnology. In nationwide focus groups, whilst a matter of pride, participants typically saw this clean green myth as a temporally distant utopia. However, when considered alongside the futures proposed by biotechnology, clean green New Zealand was mobilized into the present moment to defend a general reluctance to take up these practices. Alternately, some participants saw the possibility for co‐evolution of the place myths, with biotechnology enabling the re‐construction of a ‘picture‐perfect’, clean green country.