Climate Leviathan

Abstract

While there is much justifiable attention to the ecological implications of global climate change, the political implications are just as important for human well‐being and social justice. We posit a basic framework by which to understand the range of political possibilities, in light of the response of global elites to climate warming and the challenges it poses to hegemonic institutional and conceptual modes of governance and accumulation. The framework also suggests some possible means through which these responses might be thwarted, and political stakes in that construction of a new hegemony—which, to avoid suggesting we know or can yet determine the form it will take, we call “climate X”.

Constructing climate capitalism: corporate power and the global climate policy‐planning network

“…3. In fact, a diversity of projects compete in the field of climate politics, including proposals for a 'green new deal', de-growth toward a steady-state economy, and eco-socialism (Candeias 2013;Wainwright and Mann 2013). Climate capitalism developed within this contested field as much as an alternative to carboniferous capitalism as a response to such potentially counter-hegemonic projects.…”

Imagining socioecological transformation: An analysis of the Welsh Government’s policy innovations and orientations to the future

“…Harvey (2000) and Levitas (2013), for example, have written at length about a dearth of collective imagination that has resulted in a feeling that "there is no alternative" (Harvey, 2000 p. 17) to social, political and economic conditions. More specifically, Wapner (2016), uses the idea of "Climate Inc." to describe a situation in which responses to climate change seem to be marked by a distinct lack of imagination, revolving only around narrow, hegemonic scientific and economic explanations about what is possible (see also Wainwright and Mann, 2013). Such hegemony closes down the imaginative space necessary to think otherwise about environmental crises, and to create alternative ways of organizing (Harris 2017b).…”

“…Anderson, 2010;Wainwright and Mann, 2013;Braun, 2014;Wakefield and Braun, 2014). While several studies address the diffusion and implications of emerging environmental legislation (e.g.…”

Urban Energy Transitions: Places, Processes and Politics of Socio-technical Change

“…And work on the politics of climate change (Mason, 2013;Wainwright and Mann, 2013) and indeed the post-politics of some climate and wider ecological discourses (Swyngedouw, 2007) provides useful directions which have been taken up by some researchers in studies of the urban politics of low carbon transitions (While et al, 2009;Jonas et al, 2011).…”