How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change
Decarbonization efforts and sustainability transformations represent highly contested socio-political projects. Yet, they often encounter various forms of depoliticization. This article illuminates how a grand socio-ecological challenge like the energy transition gets depoliticized by an unusual sus...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Political Science |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2023.1301734/full |
| _version_ | 1797356968330919936 |
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| author | Jens Marquardt |
| author_facet | Jens Marquardt |
| author_sort | Jens Marquardt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Decarbonization efforts and sustainability transformations represent highly contested socio-political projects. Yet, they often encounter various forms of depoliticization. This article illuminates how a grand socio-ecological challenge like the energy transition gets depoliticized by an unusual suspect, namely Germany's Green Party. Based on a qualitative content analysis of Green Party programs, party conventions, and additional documents published between 1980 and 2021, this article traces how the Green Party has depoliticized the energy transition over time, emphasizing a shift from radical societal change to ecological modernization. The changing stance of the German Greens on the country's energy transition reflects more profound changes of a future society the party collectively envisions through their energy and climate change agenda. These changes result from a struggle between moderates advocating incremental political reforms and radicals aiming for more fundamental and systemic societal change. By merging sustainability transition research with science and technology studies, this article makes a twofold contribution: First, it proposes a conceptual framework to investigate social and political futures envisioned through energy and climate politics. Second, the article empirically demonstrates the long process of depoliticization for an unusual but critical case. Germany's Green Party has embraced a technocentric vision of the energy transition, thereby suppressing earlier notions of broader societal change, such as anti-capitalism and energy democracy. This article spells out implications for the wider field of energy and climate politics and concludes with suggestions for future research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T14:36:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-aa49d0bff8f543e3a34e7d787c1de4c3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2673-3145 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T14:36:27Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Political Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-aa49d0bff8f543e3a34e7d787c1de4c32024-01-12T04:45:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Political Science2673-31452024-01-01510.3389/fpos.2023.13017341301734How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate changeJens MarquardtDecarbonization efforts and sustainability transformations represent highly contested socio-political projects. Yet, they often encounter various forms of depoliticization. This article illuminates how a grand socio-ecological challenge like the energy transition gets depoliticized by an unusual suspect, namely Germany's Green Party. Based on a qualitative content analysis of Green Party programs, party conventions, and additional documents published between 1980 and 2021, this article traces how the Green Party has depoliticized the energy transition over time, emphasizing a shift from radical societal change to ecological modernization. The changing stance of the German Greens on the country's energy transition reflects more profound changes of a future society the party collectively envisions through their energy and climate change agenda. These changes result from a struggle between moderates advocating incremental political reforms and radicals aiming for more fundamental and systemic societal change. By merging sustainability transition research with science and technology studies, this article makes a twofold contribution: First, it proposes a conceptual framework to investigate social and political futures envisioned through energy and climate politics. Second, the article empirically demonstrates the long process of depoliticization for an unusual but critical case. Germany's Green Party has embraced a technocentric vision of the energy transition, thereby suppressing earlier notions of broader societal change, such as anti-capitalism and energy democracy. This article spells out implications for the wider field of energy and climate politics and concludes with suggestions for future research.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2023.1301734/fullclimate changeconflictsenergy transitionGreen Partypoliticizationsociotechnical imaginaries |
| spellingShingle | Jens Marquardt How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change Frontiers in Political Science climate change conflicts energy transition Green Party politicization sociotechnical imaginaries |
| title | How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change |
| title_full | How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change |
| title_fullStr | How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change |
| title_full_unstemmed | How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change |
| title_short | How Greens turn gray: Green Party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change |
| title_sort | how greens turn gray green party politics and the depoliticization of energy and climate change |
| topic | climate change conflicts energy transition Green Party politicization sociotechnical imaginaries |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2023.1301734/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jensmarquardt howgreensturngraygreenpartypoliticsandthedepoliticizationofenergyandclimatechange |