GREENING THE ECONOMY: Toward a New Political Economy
The climate crisis has caused significant damage to ecosystems and populations worldwide, making it the most pressing policy issue of our time. Governments around the world are taking steps towards transitioning to low-carbon economies, reducing the environmental impact of economic growth, and considering climate-related risks in discussions of socio-economic vulnerability. However, more research is needed to assess and compare different approaches, understand the factors influencing policy choices, and evaluate their respective outcomes. Despite international climate summits and agreements providing a platform for nations to unite around common objectives, substantial variations exist in how governments engage in greening their economies. The politics surrounding green economy initiatives often involve ideological divisions, competing interests, and institutional complexities.
Political economy research highlights the interactions between states and markets, as well as the dynamics of power, interests, and conflicts surrounding government policies, regulations, and ideologies in relation to the economy. Research within political economy has traditionally focused on questions of economic growth, distributional equity, and social welfare within both advanced capitalist and developing economies. While we possess a strong comparative understanding of different “varieties of capitalism,” political economy concepts and theories have not yet been systematically used to understand the ecological sustainability of these different socio-economic models, particularly in the context of climate change. This gap is particularly glaring considering that conceptual toolkit of political economy seems particularly well-suited to address the transformative challenges involved in greening of the economy. Therefore, it is high time for an integrative cross-disciplinary discussion of climate issues from a political economy perspective that considers the social and political foundations of the green economy.
Following a foundational conference that took place at Freie Universität Berlin in cooperation with Wesleyan University on June 2-4, 2023, we invite submissions for an upcoming special issue on this topic in Regulation & Governance. Papers will undergo a double-blinded review process based on the journal’s criteria. Please note that the length of the manuscript, including references and footnotes, should be approximately between 6,000 to 11,000 words, encompassing the abstract, references, endnotes, tables, and appendices.
The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2023. Author guidelines can be found here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/17485991/homepage/forauthors.html.
For any inquiries or further information regarding this special issue, please contact the Guest Editors: Basak Kus (bkus@wesleyan.edu) and Gregory Jackson (gregory.jackson@fu-berlin.de).
We welcome diverse theoretical approaches from within the broad field of political economy and related subfields, as well as quantitative, qualitative, comparative, historical and other research methodologies. We are particularly interested in articles addressing the following issues in single-case, cross-national, and cross-regional settings:
- State’s role in developing green economy initiatives: What kinds of policies have governments across the world embraced to support green economy initiatives? What are the major fault lines of variation, and what causes them? How does the government’s role in greening the economy compare to the other functions of the state? How has the climate crisis impacted the role of regulatory, welfare, developmentalist, or other forms of the state?
- The political economy of growth and sustainability: How are various types of growth models related to green economy initiatives? What is the relationship between economic growth and decarbonization?
- The role of corporations, institutional investors, banks, labor and civil society organizations in influencing of climate change and green economy initiatives: How do private sector actors exert influence over green economy policies? And how does the green economy transition re-shape the power dynamics and distributional consequences of economic activity at the level of firms or industrial sectors? To what extent are these challenges re-shaping existing models of corporate governance, finance, employment relations, innovation, production models, or CSR? How do such differences in economic institutions across countries shape the success or failure of green economic transition?
- The intersection of green economy initiatives with regulatory bodies and regulatory politics at large: To what extent do questions of sustainability feature in the work of agencies responsible for regulating economic activity?
- Climate justice and the Global South: The climate crisis is disproportionately affecting the countries of the Global South, who contribute far less to global carbon emissions and have yet to enjoy high levels of economic growth. Even within advanced economies, climate change often disproportionately impacts very poor communities, and communities of color. How do the green economy initiatives address issues of inequality between and/or within countries? To what extent and how do they address protection of those who are vulnerable?