AAG 2014 Panel Proposal:
Urgency - yes, but of what kind? State theory, climate change, and the left
In 2013, geography saw two fairly grand proclamations concerning the state and the climate crisis. Christian Parenti, at the Antipode AAG lecture, argued that the threat posed by climate change will undoubtedly force a “return” of the state. The question being: what kind of state? He argued strongly that in the face of climate crisis, the left must work to wield the tremendous power of the state in order to force the necessary radical shifts away from fossil-fuelled capitalism, and then worry about creating alternative forms of social and political organization – a seeming endorsement of the early/orthodox Marxist position whereby the state must be seized to create socialism, and then be actively withered away.
While there is some analytical overlap concerning the role of the state vis-à-vis climate change, Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann’s “Climate Leviathan” (appearing in Antipode), emerges in a decidedly different political register. Wainwright and Mann argue that in the context of the climate crisis, three competing, yet interconnected social forces are vying to become the “planetary sovereign” that can decide the state of exception and direct the overarching, global political response to climate change. They argue that a fourth political possibility remains, and this possibility – a political formation that seeks to transcend (undermine, destroy, circumvent?) both capital and sovereignty – is by far the most desirable in terms of creating a just and equitable social order. From this fourth, radical position an alternative way of confronting the climate crisis can be created.
This panel seeks to think through the role of the state, and of politics more generally, in the climate crisis. Crisis, not catastrophe. We recognize the enormity of the facts, as well as the dire realities unfolding on the ground across the world, yet fear that a politics of catastrophism leads in at best unproductive and at worst fascist directions. So, what kind of politics for the over-used but often apt phrase “the fierce urgency of now”? We are particularly interested in exploring this through the lens of commons theory. Primarily how organizing around commons – through practices like participatory democracy – can help us think through socializing the state and thereby potentially disrupting or subverting false public/private, and state/non-state discourses.
Some questions that emerge:
• Is the crisis so urgent that the left should focus on “taking back the state” in order to use it? If so, how might this be possible?
• In light of the above question, what might one make of Alain Badiou’s Maoist injunction: “dare to win!” In other words, what might it mean to “take back the state” in order to shift to a non-carbon intensive (and non-capitalist) mode of production?
• Should the focus be elsewhere, concerned with the thousands of ongoing projects working to create new political orders outside of/beyond capital and the state?
• Is it possible to transform the state through ideas of commons-based social organization (socialization) of energy, water and other resources?
• Where do we see potential possibilities for such alternatives that move beyond capital and the state, but can still measure up to the material realities of the planetary-ecological crisis?
• Are these even the right frameworks or questions?
Let’s discuss.
We are looking for 3-4 more participants for this panel. Please E-mail Kevin Surprise [log in to unmask] (Clark University) or Michelle Wenderlich [log in to unmask] (Clark University) with a short statement of interest (including research interests and how you might approach some of the themes/questions listed above) by noon on November 30. We will get back to you in a day or so and ask for your AAG registration pin in order to register the session by the Dec. 3rd deadline.
References:
Parenti, C. 2013. The Environmental State: Territoriality, violence , and value. Antipode AAG Lecture. Available at: http://antipodefoundation.org/2013/06/13/the-environmental-state/
Wainwright, J. and Mann, G. 2013. Climate Leviathan. Antipode, 45: 1-22.
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