THE PARADOX OF SHOWCASE SUSTAINABILITY: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF GREENWASHING AND THE ETHICS OF CONSUMPTION IN LIQUID MODERNITY

Abstract

The acceleration of contemporary environmental crises highlights the tension between corporate discourse on ecological responsibility and actual production and consumption practices. Greenwashing, understood as the rhetorical instrumentalization of sustainability for marketing purposes, represents one of the most problematic manifestations of this tension in the context of liquid modernity. This study analyzes the paradox of showcase sustainability, examining how greenwashing operates as a corporate communication strategy that distorts consumption ethics and weakens the mechanisms of regulation and conscious consumer choice. The research adopts a qualitative approach, of basic nature and exploratory character, developed through systematic bibliographic review in Qualis A1 and A2 journals indexed by CAPES, published between 2021 and 2024. The results indicate that the liquidity of ethical bonds in contemporary consumer society creates favorable conditions for the proliferation of greenwashing practices, whose confrontation requires robust normative regulation, critical environmental education, and conscious consumer protagonism. The study contributes to the field of consumption ethics by articulating sociological, legal, and communicational perspectives on the phenomenon. The findings reinforce that sustainability, when treated as a rhetorical artifact rather than an operational commitment, undermines collective trust in corporate institutions and erodes the foundations of genuinely responsible consumption. The articulation between legal frameworks, communicational transparency, and consumer education emerges as the most consistent path toward an ethical and ecologically grounded consumption culture.