CALL FOR PAPERS
AAG 2014 – Paper Session
*** Apologies for cross-posting
Critical Geographies of ‘Climate Fixes’ and ‘Green Infrastructure’:
Neoliberalization, Global Warming, and Ecological Modernization
… Paper Session to be held at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (April 8th – 12th, 2014, in Tampa, Florida).
Organized by Ryan Katz-Rosene (Carleton University)
“It’s the equivalent of taking X cars of the road”… is an increasingly common adage used by political leaders and corporate marketing departments to sell the development of various new efficient technologies and ‘green’ infrastructures: Nuclear power; high-speed trains; pipelines; carbon capture and sequestration; communications information technology; carbon markets; geoengineering; and renewable energy – these are but a few examples of green technologies and infrastructures proposed as a means to “address climate change” without necessarily having to undergo significant changes in production or consumption relations.
Critical geographers, ever wary of the way eco-technologies are limited by the underlying political economic structure in which they are situated, have developed a discussion about ‘ecological fixes’ as a means of identifying the temporal and/or spatial displacement of the ‘costs’ (broadly defined) of green technologies, and the role they play in the reification of neoliberal capitalism (Bakker 2009, p.1782; see also Castree 2008). As Swyngedouw has recently added to the discussion, “an extraordinary techno-managerial apparatus is under way, ranging from new eco-technologies of a variety of kinds to unruly complex managerial and institutional configurations, with a view to producing a socio-ecological fix to make sure nothing really changes. Stabilizing the climate seems to be a condition for capitalist life as we know it to continue” (Swyngedouw 2010, p.222).
This paper session seeks to explore the various dimensions and implications of contemporary ‘climate fixes’ and their role in consolidating neoliberalism. The onward march of ‘neoliberalization’ (in its variegated forms… see Harvey 2005; Brenner et al. 2010) has dramatically reshaped the way green technologies and infrastructures are conceived, financed, owned, operated, regulated, accessed and ‘experienced’. For critical geographers, this raises a host of questions about how various processes of neoliberalization have impacted social vulnerabilities to climate change or the possibilities of adapting to (or even mitigating) climate change in transformative ways. For instance:
• Have entrepreneurialism, privatization and marketization resulted in an overemphasis of the potential of green technologies to address climate change?
• How have contemporary political economic relations served to hide or ‘displace’ the true costs and externalities of developing new technologies or infrastructures from public view?
• What are the impacts for society-nature relations when decisions about infrastructure and new technologies are increasingly in the hands of the ‘free market’ or private actors?
• How have neoliberal beliefs on public spending and taxation influenced the ability of governments to finance or repair ‘green’ infrastructure?
• How has the entrenchment of neo-classical economics within governments redefined the meaning and purpose of ‘green’ infrastructure?
• How has rising inequality impacted the public’s ability to access technologies and infrastructure?
• How have different manifestations of neoliberalization resulted in different types of ‘climate fixes’?
• What does it mean to expose green technology or infrastructure as a ‘climate fix’, and what are the implications?
This Paper Session seeks contributions that consider these types of questions from a critical geographical or political economy perspective, as informed by empirical (or case study) examples. Papers will be presented within 20 minute presentations at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG). Please send your proposal, including an abstract or statement of interest of no more than 250 words to session organizer, Ryan Katz-Rosene ([log in to unmask]), by October 18th. Decisions on proposals will be communicated by October 21st (two days before the AAG’s early registration deadline). Presenters of accepted papers will need to register for the Annual Meeting (see http://www.aag.org/cs/annualmeeting/register), submit their abstract online, and provide their PIN to the session organizer by October 22, 2013. Please direct any questions to the session organizer.
References
Bakker, K., 2009. Neoliberal nature, ecological fixes, and the pitfalls of comparative research. Environment and Planning A, 41, pp.1781–1787.
Brenner, N., Peck, J. & Theodore, N., 2010. Variegated Neoliberalization: Geographies, Modalities, Pathways. Global Networks, 10(2), pp.182–222.
Castree, N., 2008. Neoliberalising nature: the logics of deregulation and reregulation. Environment and Planning A, 40, pp.131–152.
Harvey, D., 2005. Spaces of Neoliberalization: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Swyngedouw, E., 2010. Apocalypse Forever?: Post-political Populism and the Spectre of Climate Change. Theory, Culture & Society, 27(2-3), pp.213–232.
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