PREFACE AND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book asks what it takes to create the multiple ‘green transformations’ required
if humanity is to live sustainably on planet earth. It focuses on the politics of
transformations and the diverse directions of pathways that can be taken.
Different chapters examine what we mean by ‘green’ and the discursive contests
about limits, boundaries and what this implies for clarifying what transformations
are required. It examines the role of science in this debate and the way that science
frames what is most effective and suitable according to different perspectives. It
also debates the contrasts between a more technical focus on transitions and the
more political emphasis of transformations.
Recalling past transformations, the book examines what makes the current
challenge different, especially around questions of urgency and time-frames. It
examines how green transformations must take place in the context of particular
moments of capitalist development and driven by particular alliances. The role of
the state is emphasized, both in terms of the type of incentives required to make
green transformations politically feasible and the way states must take a develop -
mental role in financing innovations and technologies for green transformations.
The book also highlights the role of citizens, as innovators, entrepreneurs, green
consumers and members of social movements.
Green transformations must be both ‘top-down’, involving elite alliances
between states and business, but also ‘bottom-up’, pushed by grassroots innovators
and entrepreneurs, and part of wider mobilizations among civil society. Each of
these forms, styles and sites of politics combine and play out in different ways in
different places. The chapters draw on examples from across the globe, emphasizing
how contexts matter in shaping pathways to sustainability.
The book emerged during 2013–2014 from discussions at the University of
Sussex, convened by the ESRC STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environ -
mental Pathways to Sustainability). These brought together researchers working
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book asks what it takes to create the multiple ‘green transformations’ required
if humanity is to live sustainably on planet earth. It focuses on the politics of
transformations and the diverse directions of pathways that can be taken.
Different chapters examine what we mean by ‘green’ and the discursive contests
about limits, boundaries and what this implies for clarifying what transformations
are required. It examines the role of science in this debate and the way that science
frames what is most effective and suitable according to different perspectives. It
also debates the contrasts between a more technical focus on transitions and the
more political emphasis of transformations.
Recalling past transformations, the book examines what makes the current
challenge different, especially around questions of urgency and time-frames. It
examines how green transformations must take place in the context of particular
moments of capitalist development and driven by particular alliances. The role of
the state is emphasized, both in terms of the type of incentives required to make
green transformations politically feasible and the way states must take a develop -
mental role in financing innovations and technologies for green transformations.
The book also highlights the role of citizens, as innovators, entrepreneurs, green
consumers and members of social movements.
Green transformations must be both ‘top-down’, involving elite alliances
between states and business, but also ‘bottom-up’, pushed by grassroots innovators
and entrepreneurs, and part of wider mobilizations among civil society. Each of
these forms, styles and sites of politics combine and play out in different ways in
different places. The chapters draw on examples from across the globe, emphasizing
how contexts matter in shaping pathways to sustainability.
The book emerged during 2013–2014 from discussions at the University of
Sussex, convened by the ESRC STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environ -
mental Pathways to Sustainability). These brought together researchers working