Eco-Capitalism: Turning Social Change into a Commodity

A dominant discourse advocates for the central involvement of private sector actors in driving the ecological transition, often sidelining public and community-led initiatives. For a while, rising consumer demand for environmentally responsible products has led many big corporations to highlight their green credentials, often masking superficial efforts as substantive change. Recently, shifts in the political landscape have led key private actors to downplay their green initiatives.

The efforts of big corporations to influence the terms of debate around the ecological transition have raised significant concerns, drawing increased attention from normative and critical political theorists. Capitalist forces’ fluctuating commitments have tangible effects on how resources are allocated across policy areas. They contribute to the depoliticization of the ecological transition, paving the way for elite capture of democratic processes. They also fuel negative eco-emotions, such as individual guilt over climate crisis, and reinforce individualizing narratives, overemphasizing the significance of individual consumption choices in addressing systemic issues.

This workshop aims to bring together scholars across subfields in political theory, social theory, and philosophy to explore the intersection between environmental discourse and market dynamics from critical and normative perspectives.

Invited speakers: Valentin Beck (Global Value Inquiry), Rossella De Bernardi (Genoa), Fergus Green (UCL), Maeve McKeown (Groningen), Mihaela Mihai (Edinburgh), Enzo Rossi (Amsterdam)

Organizing committee: Rossella De Bernardi, Corrado Fumagalli, Alberto Giordano, Valeria Ottonelli

This workshop is part of the research project Rethinking the Theory and Practice of Greenwashing, which is funded through the PRIN 2022 PNRR Programme of the Italian Ministry of University and Research (grant number P2022ALLMW).