Green Politics

Examining the 'demand' side of the market for political activism. Party and civil society grassroots activists in Spain

by Laura Morales

L. Ramiro & L. Morales

This article examines the ‘demand’ side of the market for political activism and analyses the extent to which... more This article examines the ‘demand’ side of the market for political activism and analyses the extent to which grassroots activists of political parties and politically oriented civil society organizations (CSOs) resemble or differ. With data from several surveys of CSO and Green party activists in Spain we evaluate how much the pool of members from all these organizations are part of what can be identified as a single market of activists. After describing the socio-economic, political socialization and recruitment backgrounds, as well as the internal and external engagement of activists, we conclude that – while sharing some common features – activists of CSOs and Green parties are less alike than frequently assumed and that the analogy of a single market of political activism may be more misleading than helpful in our understanding of the challenges that parties face to counteract declining membership trends.

From Czarnobyl to Żarnobyl: The impact of Chernobyl on the Polish green opposition until 1989 (and beyond)

by Kacper Szulecki

in: Arndt, Melanie (ed.) "After Chernobyl", ZZF/Böhlau Verlag, forthcoming in German in February 2012.

“Are you crazy? You wanna protest for the damn white mice, is that what you want?” – the prominent opposition leader... more “Are you crazy? You wanna protest for the damn white mice, is that what you want?” – the prominent opposition leader Jacek Kuroń supposedly exclaimed in 1981, when ap-proached by some young activists with the idea of the “Solidarity” trade union actions for environmental protection. One of the youngsters, since then and until this day an activist in Warsaw, Jarosław “Jarema” Dubiel, explains that “it was not yet the time for environmental concerns”. That time had come only after the Chernobyl catastrophe, and in Poland too, it was largely, although not exclusively, about nuclear energy and its dangers. The attitudes soon changed so that several thousand protesters were gathered at a march condemning the state’s notorious information policy on Chernobyl’s fallout risks in June of 1986. With time methods too changed and green activism became an example of the best and most spectacular non-violent actions that Polish dissent had to offer in the second half of the 1980s. To give a hint of the direction the protests took – in October 1987, in a manner as unbelievable as the spelling of the place where it took place – Gdańsk district of Wrzeszcz – four followers of the “Freedom and Peace” (Wolność i Pokój – WiP) Movement, climbed the rooftop of a local pharmacy dressed up as animals (a fox, a hare, a hedgehog and a fish). Following one of the key principles of the Movement’s non-violent strategy: “it takes only a single cop to arrest a standing protester, but up to four to arrest a sitting one” (and a whole platoon if you climb a rooftop and pull the ladder up), they remained atop the pharmacy for some time, displaying their banners and scattering fliers. Their colleagues on the same day in different points of the city distributed some ten thousand leaflets altogether. The human-animals were arrested eventually, but only once they stumbled down from the roof after peaceful negotiations and a long “performance” for quite a large audience of sympathetic bystanders.

The Green Party in the Czech Republic: Where They Are Now

by Ondrej Cisar

by O. Císař. Agenda: Heinrich Boell Stiftung Magazine for South-Eastern Europe, 2011, 6, pp. 7-8.

Towards a Green Republicanism: Constitutionalism, Political Economy, and the Green State

by John Barry

published in The Political Economy of the Good Society, 17:2

The range of threats to modern society ranging from growing
environmental stresses (water shortages,... more The range of threats to modern society ranging from growing
environmental stresses (water shortages, deforestation, soil
erosion to climate change), food and energy insecurity, peak
oil, rising poverty and inequalities within and between societies, increasing passivity of citizens within democracies and the inexorable rise of corporate power within and over the democratic state can be summed up as facets of ‘unsustainability’ or ‘unsustainable development’. Just as it is commonplace to declare that the 21 st century will be China’s century, equally the politics of the 21 st century are and will be the politics of sustainability. Taking it as given that the transition to sustainability will be the dominant challenge and opportunity facing all societies in the coming decades ahead; this article looks at two traditions of political thought—namely green political theory and civic republicanism—and seeks to conjoin them to outline a new political approach—‘green republicanism’—which may respond to and rise to this challenge.

Towards a model of green political economy: from ecological modernisation to economic security

by John Barry

published in International Journal of Green Economics, 2007

Abstract:
Perhaps the weakest aspect of the ‘triple bottom line’ understanding of sustainable development has... more Abstract:
Perhaps the weakest aspect of the ‘triple bottom line’ understanding of sustainable development has been the ‘economic’ dimension. Much of the thinking about the appropriate ‘political economy’ to underpin sustainable development has been either utopian (as in some ‘green’ political views) or ‘business as usual’ approaches. This article suggests that ‘ecological modernisation’ is the dominant conceptualisation of ‘sustainable development’ within the UK, and illustrates this by looking at some key ‘sustainable development’ policy documents from the UK Government. While critical of the reformist ‘policy telos’ of ecological modernisation, supporters of more radical versions of sustainable development need to also be aware of the strategic opportunities of this policy discourse. In particular, the article suggests that the discourse of ‘economic security’ ought to be used as a way of articulating a radical, robust and principled understanding of sustainable development, which offers a normatively compelling and policy-relevant path to outlining a ‘green political economy’ to underpin sustainable development.

Keywords: green political economy; sustainable development; economic security; ecological modernisation.

'Spires, plateaus and the infertile landscape of Education for Sustainable Development: re-invigorating the university through integrating community, campus and curriculum'

by John Barry

Education for and research on sustainable development are currently not well served by the modern university,... more Education for and research on sustainable development are currently not well served by the modern university, particularly in the UK. While there is rhetoric about supporting more interdisciplinary research and teaching the modern university system favours individual ‘spires of excellence’ within strict disciplinary boundaries. Interdisciplinary and multiple-authored work are viewed as ‘intellectual plateaus’ and of lesser value. However, there are examples of innovative models, such as the “community, campus and curriculum” one. This model is examined for its potential to re-orientate the modern university to produce and share knowledge that is ‘fit for purpose’ for the challenges and opportunities of sustainability.

Technonatures Introduction White Wilbert

by Damian White

An attempt to survey and think through the political implications of hybridity discourses such as Latour and Haraway for environmental politics. This is the introductory chapter from D.White and C.Wilbert (Eds) Technonatures: Environments, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-first CenturyISBN13: 978-1-55458-150-4, 2009.

Lots of other really interesting cuts in the book from Erik Swyngedouw, Sarah Whatmore, Mike Michael, Steve Hinchliffe and others ...check it out at Available from http://www.wlu.ca/press/Catalog/white-wilbert.shtml

Damian White A Green Industrial Revolution Sustainable Technological Innovation in a Global Age

by Damian White

Sympathetic critique of Natural Capitalism and Factor Four literatures......some initial attempts to formulate questions that a critical sociology of design should be asking......

Profiteering the Political Way

by Rodney Sims

Answer to a Discussion Board question

Most political campaigns and nuances to "change" involve some hidden agenda or cost that is not readily... more Most political campaigns and nuances to "change" involve some hidden agenda or cost that is not readily disclosed. It is ludicrous and systematic of government at the highest level as well as local to consider themselves "transparent" when this information has to be searched for. No one wants a government to act as sunshine but to do as it does. Turn the light on and put it out there for everyone to see.

‘Ready to get their hands dirty: The Dutch Socialist Party and GroenLinks’ in Left Parties in National Governments (Jonathan Olsen, Dan Hough and Michael Koss, eds.)

by Daniel Keith

'Choose Life' not Economic Growth: Critical Social Theory for People, Planet and Flourishing in a 'Age of Nature'

by John Barry

fortcoming in Current Perspectives in Social Theory, Volume 26, 93–113

Choose a fucking big television
Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin... more Choose a fucking big television
Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers.

Choose leisure wear and matching luggage.
Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics.
Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning.
Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing game shows
Stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth.

Choose your future. Choose life. (Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, 1996)

Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist (Kenneth Boulding)

In this article, I outline a theory of a viable and normatively attractive political alternative to a growth-orientated economy, based on the invaluable insights from ecofeminist political economy; the wealth of alternatives to a growth-orientated economy one can find in green politics and the sub-discipline of green political economy; and the wealth of evidence demonstrating the well-being and equality detrimental effects of a growth-focused economy.  This article will argue that we (in the industrialised North) need to abandon the cornucopian myth of endless ‘material goods and services’ central to which
is a radical and profound rejection of growth in the ‘minority’ world of advanced ‘affluenza-infected’ consumer capitalism and its redirection to the majority world where economic growth is needed. ‘One planet living’, as a shorthand for sustainability demands this from a biophysical point of view (in terms of limited resources and ecological sinks) while global and egalitarian justice demands nothing less if a sustainable world is to be a just one.

Discourses of transition to sustainability in Ireland: outlines of a green republican strategy

by John Barry

Uncorrected copy edited chapter, forthcoming in O'Mahony, P and Keohane, K (eds), Environmentalism in Ireland: The Communicative Turn (Manchester University Press) -forthcoming

This chapter will seek to explore the issues affecting the political and cultural impact and influence of the... more This chapter will seek to explore the issues affecting the political and cultural impact and influence of the environmental movement in Ireland through examining some of the discursive cultural resources available to it, specifically in relation to a ‘green republican discourse’. The idea of green republicanism is examined both normatively and practically with respect to its generative potential as a mobilising discourse in the transition towards sustainability in Ireland.

Review of Mary Mellor, The Future of Money, and Tony Hill and Rod Myatt, The Economics Anti-Textbook

by John Barry

These two books in different ways speak to the current global economic crisis – and contribute in different ways to... more These two books in different ways speak to the current global economic crisis – and contribute in different ways to our understanding of the causes and consequences of that crisis and what opportunities for transformation it presents. Rod Hill and Tony Myatt’’s book The Economics Anti-Text Book, offers a comprehensive and devastating critique of the dominant economic paradigm – namely neo-classical economics – which has so spectacularly failed. Mary Mellor’s The Future of Money focuses on the theory and practical dynamics of the financial system, the credit crisis and the relationship between the money and real economies. Both offer important insights into the ideological dimensions of the current crisis of capitalism and the importance of ideas, particularly around questioning hegemonic and authoritative capitalist understandings of ‘economics’ and ‘the economy’.

Party-building for Eco-Socialists: Lessons from the Failed Project of the German Greens

by Frieder Otto Wolf

India Knows how to avoid Collapse

by Daniel Taghioff

Popular Article Explaining Research Interests

India is a country that is set to face huge social tensions.
Not only will Climate Change make life more... more India is a country that is set to face huge social tensions.
Not only will Climate Change make life more precarious for the weather-dependent poor, but the suggested solutions to climate change will de- stabilise them yet further by bringing common resources into systems of international trade, especially via bio-fuel and carbon-trading regimes. However, India also contains the seeds to a solution to this, especially amongst its activist struggles, in the form of calls for "Natural Resource Democracy." The Forest Rights Act is one of the most realised forms of this call, on paper granting local control over natural resources to Indigenous Communities. 

However the implementation of the act is not straightforward, and my case study from a Tiger Reserve in Southern India shows that existing ecological funding regimes only serve to heighten the issues of dispossession that the Act is designed to address. NGOs working within international funding regimes tend to operate in a way that consolidates governmental control of natural resources, so the current Aid regime is not compatible with the forms of local Natural Resource democracy really required to get people through the double instability of liberalised economies combined with a de-stabilised climate. The experiences from implementing the act show that there are ways forward, but that they imply a major rethink in the ways in which development assistance works, away from a liberal-philanthropic or neo-liberal managed empowerment regime, towards more genuinely political forms of local participation and control.

The limits of the shallow and the deep: green politics, philosophy, and praxis

by John Barry

Ecofeminism: Ecofeminism and the Green Public Sphere

by Chaone Mallory

Ecofeminism and a Politics of Performative Affinity: Direct Action, Subaltern Voices, and the Green Public Sphere

by Chaone Mallory

EUROPEANIZATION OF GREEN PARTIES IN THE NEW MEMBER STATES: THE CASES OF POLAND AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC

by Anna Gora

MA Thesis

This thesis provides a descriptive study comparing the change, or lack thereof, in levels of Europeanization of the... more This thesis provides a descriptive study comparing the change, or lack thereof, in levels of Europeanization of the Czech and Polish Green parties between the 2004 and 2009 elections to the European Parliament.  The aim is not to explain, but to observe the extent to which Europeanization has occurred and assess what, if anything, this can teach us more broadly about democracy in the European Union with a particular focus on the second-order nature of European elections. Organizing Europeanization into cooperative and communicative varieties reveals a deficit in the communicative Europeanization among the two parties. It is suggested that further communicative Europeanization of national political parties may be the key to overcome the second-order nature of the European Parliament elections.