Dear Reed, As someone who has been engaged in such things for 40 years, I can assure you that there is nothing new in your observations (for political science as well as the larger American academy). And in the current environment of revived Red-baiting, I cannot imagine this changing in the future.
Yours cynically, Ronnie Lipschutz On Thu, Aug 1, 2019 at 10:42 AM Reed M. Kurtz <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > Jessica and Stacy, first of all, thank you for sharing this. This is > really great to see at Duck of Minerva! > > If I may, I would like to briefly add my thoughts - and I will preface > this by saying that I just submitted my dissertation to my committee for > review, so I've had a lot of this bottled up for a while! :) > > The first thing to note is that I absolutely agree with the authors that > “Climate change is arguably the most urgent problem facing humankind. It is > not a single policy problem, but rather pervades all aspects of state and > society – affecting everything from geopolitics to local planning. Yet, one > is hard pressed to reach this conclusion given the current landscape of > political science… Excellent work appears occasionally in premier journals > on the variety of political questions that climate change raises. But > given the centrality of politics in contributing and responding to the > climate change problem, there is not enough of this work and — critically — > much of it occurs outside the central discourses and journals of our > discipline.” > > And yet, as someone who is just now finishing my dissertation on the > politics of climate change - for a PhD in political science - after > spending the better part of 5+ years working on this, I have come to the > realization that this is symptomatic of a bigger issues/problems in our > discipline - that is, the relative absence and/or marginalization of > perspectives that emphasize the critique of capitalist political economy at > the heart of our politics. That is, our discipline is failing to grapple > with the legacy of Marxism. (For just one recent example of this, I will > highlight my colleagues and comrades Kevin Funk and Sebastian Sclofsky’s > 2017 piece “The Specter That Haunts Political Science: The Neglect and > Misreading of Marx in International Relations and Comparative Politics”). > > Now, that is not to say that political scientists and IR scholars have not > been aware of this - Peter Newell and Matthew Paterson, for example, as > early as the late 1990s were among the most prominent to highlight the > central role that capitalism is playing in organizing our international > political economy and climate politics. However, to be blunt, at least with > the release of their latest book (”Climate Capitalism”) they have all but > abandoned Marxist critique: I apologize for the brief/paraphrasing, but > IIRC they basically argue that capitalism is here to stay, for the > foreseeable future at least, and thus it’s necessary to consider what needs > to be done *within* the constraints of the capitalist system to make > “progress” on this issue. (Again, please excuse the truncated review!) > > Suffice it to say, as someone just beginning to work on this issue, and as > a “young person” who will ultimately likely see most of the worst that is > yet to come, over the next 40+ years (ie far beyond the point that the IPCC > tells us we need a “rapid transition” away from fossil fuels), this is > *not* an acceptable response. > > If you go to the frontlines of the climate justice movement, or even just > read their greatest texts (e.g. “This Changes Everything”), you will see > that the frontline communities (especially in the Global South) take > capitalism and Marxism very seriously. You don’t have to go very far, > reading between the lines to find a critique of capitalism and its politics > (including the capitalist nation-state system, UNFCCC, etc.). It’s right > there at the core: “System Change, Not Climate Change!” Or to put it > another way: “Ecosocialism or barbarism!” > > There’s a lot more to say about this, but please excuse my brevity (and > I’ll also add that at the authors’ behest, I would be more than happy to > write a more extended and detailed response!). But I would encourage us to > think deeply and critically and reflexively about our own roles here! > > With warmest regards, > -Reed > > On Thu, Aug 1, 2019 at 10:35 AM Jessica Green <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hi Gep-Ed colleagues, >> >> >> >> Just a minor correction: it’s in the Duck of Minerva! Thanks to Josh >> Busby for agreeing to publish it. It might be a useful overview for grad >> students (with lots of citations!). >> >> >> >> Regards, >> >> Jessica >> >> >> >> -- >> >> Jessica F. Green >> >> Associate Professor, Political Science >> >> Author, *Rethinking Private Authority >> <https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10148.html>* >> >> [email protected] >> >> @greenprofgreen >> >> https://green.faculty.politics.utoronto.ca >> >> 416.978.6758 >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> *From: *<[email protected]> on behalf of Stacy VanDeveer < >> [email protected]> >> *Reply-To: *"[email protected]" <[email protected]> >> *Date: *Thursday, August 1, 2019 at 10:32 AM >> *To: *Gep-Ed <[email protected]> >> *Subject: *[gep-ed] PoliSci & Climate Change >> >> >> >> Gep-ed Colleagues, >> >> With the tireless leadership of Prof. Jessica Green, our co-authored >> piece on Political Science & Climate Change >> <https://duckofminerva.com/2019/08/changing-the-atmosphere-in-political-science-ten-key-political-questions-about-climate-change.html> >> was published on the MonkeyCage today. >> >> --sv >> >> -- >> >> Stacy D. VanDeveer >> >> Professor & Graduate Program Director >> >> Global Governance and Human Security >> >> McCormack Graduate School of Policy & Global Studies >> >> www.global.umb.edu >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "gep-ed" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/EEBA395B-498D-49B4-A0AE-8E7F06ADDC0D%40umb.edu >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/EEBA395B-498D-49B4-A0AE-8E7F06ADDC0D%40umb.edu?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "gep-ed" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/54C10E1F-139C-4BEF-B039-216F28252939%40utoronto.ca >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/54C10E1F-139C-4BEF-B039-216F28252939%40utoronto.ca?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "gep-ed" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CADeiq%3DFchdJDRkDu8Y-MVGhKkS9bBTAgXQqUHCd%3DgYbZiY6psw%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CADeiq%3DFchdJDRkDu8Y-MVGhKkS9bBTAgXQqUHCd%3DgYbZiY6psw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- *Alas! Sabbatical over.* Ronnie D. Lipschutz, Professor of Politics UC Santa Cruz,1156 High St. Santa Cruz, CA 95064 e-mail: [email protected]; <[email protected]>phone: 831-459-3275; web site: http://tinyurl.com/zeatctr *"I have to die. If it is now, well, then, I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived — and dying I will tend to later.” * --Epictetus-- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CAOGWZTUaRc6Xp3iRciQ1RqTCDRQLLPP9icQL-9VKU8NsoDBS-Q%40mail.gmail.com.
