The (im)possible and (un)desirable climate politics

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to examine how the European Green Deal shapes and constrains what is considered possible and desirable in order to tackle the climate crisis. More specifically, the objective is to expose its underlying assumptions, interrogate what is taken for granted and left unproblematic. In order to examine how established knowledge shapes and constrains political action the study takes inspiration from a Foucauldian discourse analysis. While the theoretical framework is composed by a critical governmentality approach the methodology has elements of Bacchi’s WPR approach and Foucault’s genealogy. The study shows that the European Green Deal could be understood as an expression of a neoliberal rationality. It is presented as a new growth strategy with focus on competitive markets, cost-efficiency as well as consumers’ behavior and choice. By analysing the socio-historical conditions of the European Green Deal the study demonstrates how a neoliberal rationality has become a hegemonic discourse in economic theory as well as in policy making, and therefore shaped how we respond to the climate crisis. Realizing how particular climate politics only exists as long as an institutional framework provides conditions of possibilities opens up for alternative political actions.