Towards eco-social politics: a case study of transformative strategies to overcome forms-of-life crises

Bärnthaler, Richard

doi:10.1080/09644016.2023.2180910

Cited by 8 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 28 publications

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“…It facilitates the democratic development of forms of collective self-limitation within the bounds of scientifically informed biophysical realities, guided by approaches like DLS, which also encompass a global justice dimension. Importantly, the outcomes of these deliberations must be translated into general rules, enforced by states as a form of coercion (Bärnthaler 2024 ; see also Haderer 2023 ). This necessitates another “double strategy” (Poulantzas 1978 ).…”

Section: Who Decides How Much Is Enough—and How?mentioning

confidence: 99%

When enough is enough: Introducing sufficiency corridors to put techno-economism in its place

Bärnthaler

2024

Ambio

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Today's ecological crises are entwined with inequality dynamics, yet prevailing techno-economic approaches in climate research and policy fall short in addressing the ecological crisis as distributional crisis. Recognising the limitations of techno-economism, focused on markets (price adjustments) and technology (efficiency gains), this contribution introduces sufficiency corridors as a concept, research field, and policy approach. Sufficiency corridors represent the space between a floor of meeting needs and a ceiling of ungeneralisable excess, i.e. within the sufficiency corridor everyone has enough (to satisfy needs) while no one has too much (to endanger planetary boundaries and need satisfaction). Establishing such corridors entails a process over time that continuously narrows the gap between floors and ceilings, lifting the former and pushing down the latter by strengthening forms of consumption and production that contribute to need satisfaction while shrinking those that do not. The article discusses the profound implications of this approach for how societal reality is reproduced and/or changed, highlighting the need for decisions that eliminate options between and within sectors and in the realms of consumption and production. After addressing questions of decision-making and the potential to realise corridors, the contribution concludes that the growing scientific consensus to complement techno-economic approaches with sufficiency measures remains inadequate. Instead, the possibility of a transformation by design hinges on embedding techno-economism within and subordinating it to a sufficiency framework.

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Section: Who Decides How Much Is Enough—and How?mentioning

confidence: 99%

When enough is enough: Introducing sufficiency corridors to put techno-economism in its place

Bärnthaler

2024

Ambio

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Problematising degrowth strategising: On the role of compromise, material interests, and coercion

Bärnthaler

2024

Ecological Economics

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The power to transform structures: power complexes and the challenges for realising a wellbeing economy

Bärnthaler,

Novy,

Arzberger

et al. 2024

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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This article draws on different strands of existing scholarship to provide an analytical framework for understanding the barriers to achieving a well-being economy. It explores the interplay between agential and structural power, where some actor-coalitions can reproduce or transform pre-existing structures. Conversely, these structures are strategically selective, favouring some actors, interests, and strategies over others. Making sense of this interplay between agential and structural power, the article introduces the notion of power complexes—time-space-specific actor-coalitions with common industry-related interests and the power to reproduce or transform structures in a given conjuncture. To understand the historical “becoming” of today’s political-economic terrain, the article provides a regulationist-inspired history of the rise, fall, and re-emergence of four power complexes: the financial, fossil, livestock-agribusiness, and digital. They pose significant threats to pillars of a wellbeing economy such as ecological sustainability, equ(al)ity, and democracy. Subsequently, today’s structural context is scrutinised in more detail to understand why certain actors dominate strategic calculations in contemporary power complexes. This reveals strategic selectivities that favour multi- and transnational corporate actors over civil society, labour movements, and public bureaucracies. The article then examines firm-to-state lobbying as a strategy employed by corporate actors within today’s structural context to assert their interests. It presents illustrative cases of Blackstone, BP, Bayer, and Alphabet. Finally, it explores implications and challenges for realising a wellbeing economy based on post-/degrowth visions. It emphasises the double challenge faced by such a wellbeing-economy actor-coalition. On one hand, it has to navigate within contemporary modes of regulation that favour corporate strategies of capital accumulation while, on the other, it must confront the self-expanding and extractive logic of capital. In this context, three key challenges are outlined: the need to form unconventional strategic alliances, operate on various spatial dimensions simultaneously, and institutionalise alternatives to firm-to-state lobbying to influence policymaking.

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Towards eco-social politics: a case study of transformative strategies to overcome forms-of-life crises

Cited by 8 publications

References 28 publications

When enough is enough: Introducing sufficiency corridors to put techno-economism in its place

When enough is enough: Introducing sufficiency corridors to put techno-economism in its place

Problematising degrowth strategising: On the role of compromise, material interests, and coercion

The power to transform structures: power complexes and the challenges for realising a wellbeing economy

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