The war on ‘woke’: anti-ESG investing and research directions in financial geography

Summary, in English

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing has become a site of struggle,
around which a range of actors at multiple scales and in different legal, political and
financial spheres are mobilising. We delve into four dynamics that characterise this
quickly changing landscape and propose a set of conceptual avenues to analyse
them. Gramscian political economy, legal geographies and science and technology
studies (STS)-inspired approaches provide tools for grasping the changing ESG
landscape across scales and illuminate its legal, material, and organisational effects
within and beyond the US.

• Author: Jens Christiansen; Dan Cohen; Melissa García-Lamarca; Emily Rosenman; Bregje van Veelen
• Department/s: LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
• Publishing year: 2025-12-05
• Language: English
• Pages: 474-482
• Publication/Series: Finance and Space
• Volume: 2
• Issue: 1
• Full text: - 739 kB; Download statistics
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2833115X.2025.2588137
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Topic: Economic Geography; Human Geography; Environmental Studies in Social Sciences
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2833-115X