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Wim Carton

Wim Carton

Senior Lecturer, Docent

Wim Carton

Environmental protection as market pathology?: carbon trading and the dialectics of the ‘double movement’.

Author

  • Wim Carton

Summary, in English

Polanyi’s concept of the ‘double movement’ is frequently interpreted as the opposition between the problematic and unsustainable dynamics of the market and the benign and normatively desirable reaction against this by ‘society’. This paper questions this dualistic interpretation of the double movement and undertakes a problematization of the Polanyian idea of social and environmental protection. It does this by revisiting the concept of the double movement in light of the recent proliferation of market-based mechanisms for environmental regulation. Through an exploration of the different interpretations of Polanyi’s work, the paper presents a dialectical reading of the double movement that conceptualizes the idea of social protection within a broader capitalist framework. This is then illustrated with the case of emissions trading as a particular form of environmental protection. Carbon trading as a mitigation strategy, it is argued, corresponds to the Polanyian idea of ‘social protection’ in that its protective potential to reduce emissions is itself constrained by the socioeconomic framework within which it operates. This in turn points to the need for a critique of climate mitigation efforts that goes beyond a focus on current problems with emissions trading schemes.

Department/s

  • LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
  • Department of Human Geography

Publishing year

2014

Language

English

Pages

1002-1018

Publication/Series

Environment & Planning. D, Society and Space

Volume

32

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Pion Ltd

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
  • Human Geography

Keywords

  • EU Emissions Trading Scheme
  • Karl Polanyi
  • climate change
  • countermovement

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1472-3433