Liberalism and the Challenge of Climate Change. London: Routledge 2023
The language and symbolism we use to make sense of climate change arose in the post-World War II liberal institutions of the West. This language and symbolism, in neutralising the philosophical and ideological challenge climate change poses to the legitimacy of free market liberalism, has also closed off the possibility of imagining a different kind of future for humanity. The book is structured around a repurposing of the ‘guardrail’ concept, commonly used in climate science narratives to communicate the boundary between safe and dangerous climate change. Five discursive ‘guardrails’ are identified, which define a boundary between safe and dangerous ideas about how to respond to climate change. The theoretical treatment of these issues is complemented with data from interviews with opinion-formers, decision-makers and campaigners, exploring what models of human nature and political possibilities guide their approach to the politics of climate change governance.
This X/Twitter thread summarises the books arguments https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1690760307172372481.html
Follow this link for a free copy of the Introduction to the book https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429463488/liberalism-challenge-climate-change-christopher-shaw
“Chris Shaw’s essential and urgent book addresses the failure and fundamental inadequacy of current attempts to address the climate crisis. With disquieting clarity, he demonstrates how even well-intentioned participants in projects for preserving a livable planet are trapped within conceptual frameworks or paradigms that a priori prevent the emergence of meaningful strategies for averting catastrophe.” Jonathan Crary, Meyer Schapiro Professor of Modern Art and Theory, Columbia University, New York
“In Liberalism and the Challenge of Climate Change, Chris Shaw effectively, provocatively but accessibly, demolishes the cosy consensus that political and economic liberalism is capable of responding to the existential threat of climate change.” Peter Newell, Professor of International Relations, University of Sussex
“This book should be read by anybody interested in understanding the climate change impasse in which the world finds itself. Understanding it is a precondition to moving beyond it.” Brigitte Nerlich, Emeritus Professor of Science, Language and Society, University of Nottingham
“Chris Shaw is steeped in the sociology and politics of climate change. In this book he argues elegantly and powerfully across a range of areas that climate change is intertwined with liberalism and that this blocks any solution to the climate crisis.” Author of ‘Alternative Societies: For a Pluralist Socialism’