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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jo SwaffieldORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
In a 2004 special issue of Geoforum, McCarthy and Prudham argued that the connections between neoliberalismand the environment had been underexplored in critical scholarship. In an attempt to addressthis gap, the special issue reflected on a number of different case studies and set the stage for a decadeof analysis and critique. This paper aims to contribute to the increasing body of literature by presenting adetailed theoretical analysis of neoliberal environmentalism and its role in modern society. Specifically,the paper focuses on one particular environmental issue – climate change – and uses it to categorise sixdiscourses that either conform to the principles of neoliberalism (reformist) or reject neoliberal ideas(revolutionary). Drawing on interviews with designated ‘climate champions’ (individuals who are givenresponsibility for promoting climate protecting behaviour) in large corporations, the paper then demonstrateshow this kind of typological framework might be applied to the analysis of neoliberal environmentalismin the ‘real world’. The paper finds that neoliberalism played a very influential role in thepromotion of climate protecting behaviour in the workplace. However, there was also some limited evidenceof resistance in the form of revolutionary discourses and ideas. Going forwards, the typologicalframework may provide a valuable analytical tool to assess the dominance and resistance of neoliberalenvironmentalism in the modern world.
Author(s): Swaffield J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Geoforum
Year: 2016
Volume: 70
Pages: 119-129
Print publication date: 01/03/2016
Online publication date: 27/02/2016
Acceptance date: 15/02/2016
Date deposited: 18/06/2018
ISSN (print): 0016-7185
ISSN (electronic): 1872-9398
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.02.014
DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.02.014
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