CfP AAG 2019, Washington DC, April 3-7. Realising transformative climate economies? The place(s) of green finance in the Anthropocene
Organizers: Bregje van Veelen (Durham University), Mark Cooper (University of California, Davis), Richard Lane (Utrecht University) Discussant: Sabine Dörry (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research) Sponsorship: Economic Geography Specialty Group, Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group This session aims to explore the cultural and political economy of green finance and its place in social and environmental transformations. We seek papers that examine the place of finance in the construction of diverse or transformative climate economies and the ways in which finance and its governance might contribute to – or hinder – a “new economic ethics for the Anthropocene” (Gibson-Graham and Roelvink 2010, 343). The Paris Agreement prioritizes finance as a core component of the global response to climate change. This focus on making finance work for climate change has contributed to the emergence of a range of new green finance initiatives, yet the role finance might play in social and environmental transitions and the emergence of diverse or transformative economies remains unclear. The existing literature on the cultural and political economy of green finance remains modest relative to the scale of the speed at which the issue has developed, and the transformative potential of remaking finance. Similarly, there is significant diversity within the forms of green finance and the places through which its flows, which is underexplored. In this session we seek to bring critical cultural and political economy approaches to bear on these emergent forms of finance. We are particularly interested in works that seek to “dislocate the hegemonic framing of capitalism” (Gibson-Graham 2008) to understand the role(s) of green finance in fostering diverse or transformative economies (see also Dörry and Schulz 2018). This includes work from the diverse economies approach, which challenges assumptions that the economy is inherently capitalist, a determining force rather than a site for transformation, and is separable from ecology (Gibson-Graham 2008; Gibson-Graham and Roelvink 2010). At the same time, we welcome papers that draw on critical approaches (e.g. Polanyian, performativity, pragmatics) that consider or critique the potential of the diverse economies concept for understanding emerging configurations of green finance. We therefore invite both conceptual and empirical contributions that seek to analyse the intersection between green finance and transformative/diverse economies to understand emerging climate economies. Questions could include, but are not limited to: - How does green finance contribute to the establishment of diverse relations – or complicate existing diverse relations – of production, labour and exchange? - How do the diverse debt relations of green finance manifest themselves in different places? - What role do metrics, indices, standards, and expertise play in supporting or obscuring difference/diversity in new financial relations? - What actors are at the heart of establishing new financial relations that can contribute to the establishment of diverse economies? - What financial struggles are taking place in particular places that are (re)defining what our economy is and who it is for, in a climate-challenged world? - How is finance engaged in the materialisation of new forms of ‘the economy’ (Mitchell 2008) through technologies of calculation and representation? We also welcome reflective contributions that consider for example the following questions: - How can our research open up new possibilities? What role can different theoretical approaches play? - Is a diverse economies lens a suitable approach to build a political research agenda for climate finance? What are its limitations? - What transformative potentials are present in finance not explicitly labelled green? How does finance in housing, transportation, food, mining, and energy contribute to new climate economies? References: Dörry and Schulz 2018 Green financing, interrupted. Potential directions for sustainable finance in Luxembourg. Local Environment. 23(7), 717-733 Gibson-Graham 2008 Diverse economies: performative practices for `other worlds'. Progress in Human Geography. 32(5), 613-632 Gibson-Graham and Roelvink 2010 An Economic Ethics for the Anthropocene. Antipode. 41(s1), 320-346. Mitchell 2008 Rethinking Economy. Geoforum. 39(3), 1116-1121. __________________________________________________________________________________ Multiple sessions with an additional discussant may be organized if there is sufficient interest. To aid the discussant(s) for this session, presenters will be asked to submit a written paper several weeks before the conference. We welcome expressions of interest of questions at any time. Abstracts (250 words maximum) should be sent to Bregje van Veelen (bregje.van-vee...@durham.ac.uk<mailto:vee...@durham.ac.uk>). Those accepted must complete the abstract submission and conference registration process before October 25.
