A Foucauldian Trap? Transnational Climate Governance and the Neo-liberal Turn

• In Event: Climate Change, Science, and Theory

Abstract

This paper examines the uncanny resemblance between Foucault’s initial embrace of the politics of neoliberalism and current interest in Transnational Climate Governance (TCG). We show in the paper how TCG dovetails closely with several elements of the Foucauldian neoliberal framework, from attempts to decenter the state as an essential political actor in global efforts towards climate change mitigation to the designation of non-state actors are key catalysts of climate governance and a preference for “bottom-up” processes to take climate action. Just like Foucault might have failed to appreciate hidden mechanisms of power in governance through markets, we argue that there has been insufficient attention to the potential for regressive political consequences of TCG, particularly in the developing world. Exploring the parallels between Foucault, neoliberalism and TCG, the paper brings debates in global climate governance into dialogue with broader trends in global political economy and opens new theoretical approaches to global climate governance that resonate with declining enthusiasm for globalization amongst developed countries as well as growing interest in the developmental state model in the developing world.

Authors

• Mark Purdon, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

• Olivier Ruchet, University of Zurich