Understanding the Role of Economic Imagination for Advancing Decarbonization in Europe

Description du projet

Concevoir une économie décarbonée

La transition vers une économie décarbonée se heurte à des obstacles de taille, souvent alimentés par des préoccupations économiques qui entravent le progrès. Si la nécessité d’agir pour le climat est largement reconnue, la connaissance systématique de la manière dont la décarbonisation est considérée comme un changement socio-économique reste limitée. Les symboles économiques, les récits et les hypothèses qui sous-tendent ces visions de l’avenir sont particulièrement mal compris. REIMAGINE entend combler cette lacune en analysant la manière dont l’imagination économique façonne les conflits et les défis de la décarbonisation en Europe. Par le biais d’un cadre innovant axé sur les imaginaires sociaux, le projet compare les visions de la décarbonisation dans cinq pays de l’UE, en explorant le discours des médias, les entretiens et l’analyse transnationale pour découvrir les fractures économiques et les coalitions inattendues qui ont un impact sur la politique climatique.

Objectif

How do we imagine the decarbonized economy of the future? While research suggests that opposition to climate mitigation is often driven by economic concerns, we have little systematic knowledge of how decarbonization is actually imagined as a socio-economic transition, nor do we know about the economic images, symbols, narratives and assumptions underlying such visions and fears.
REIMAGINE brings economic sociology’s recent interest in economic imaginaries and imagined futures to the study of climate (in)action. Its overall aim is to comparatively analyze and theorize how economic imagination fuels conflicts, frictions and impasses of decarbonization in Europe.
A novel theoretical framework centers on social imaginaries of the economy, a concept describing shared representations of what the economy is and ought to be. It allows capturing and comparing economic imagination related to decarbonization, but can also explain enduring contestation with reference to dissonant economic imagination: visions of decarbonization that convey contrasting understandings of the economy restrict resonance between positions, make it hard to form coalitions or even recognize mutual interests.
Substantiating this framework, an ambitious mixed method analysis explores decarbonization controversies within and across five EU societies (Ireland, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Spain). We will a) analyze media discourses and imagery to understand national frictions and develop a typology of decarbonization imaginaries; b) guided by visual prompts, interview local and national representatives from business, administration and climate initiatives to understand how economic imagination plays into conflicts of implementing decarbonization; c) apply correspondence analysis to interview results to chart major European fault lines and surprising coalitions.
Overall, the project advances our interdisciplinary understanding of decarbonization and reveals challenges to a common European mitigation strategy.