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SUMMARY:The Climate Deadlock and The Unbearable Lightness of Climate Popul
 ism - Erik Swyngedouw
DTSTART:20260218T170000Z
DTEND:20260218T180000Z
UID:TALK244873@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Over the past two decades\, the environmental issue has become
  mainstream\, and climate change\, in particular\, has become the central 
 focus of the problematic environmental condition the Earth faces. Neverthe
 less\, despite scientific concern and alarmist rhetoric\, climate paramete
 rs continue to worsen. We find ourselves in a paradoxical situation where 
 ‘despite knowing the truth about climate change\, we act as if we do not
 ’. This form of denial indicates that access to knowledge and facts does
  not guarantee effective action. This presentation will argue that the dom
 inant depoliticised form of climate populism can explain the current clima
 te deadlock and propose ways to transcend it.\n\nMy presentation focuses o
 n what I refer to as Climate Populism. We argue that climate populism is n
 ot just the prerogative of right-winged\, xenophobic\, and autocratic elit
 e and their supporters\, but will insist on how climate populism also stru
 ctures not only many radical climate movements but also the liberal climat
 e consensus. I argue that the architecture of most mainstream as well as m
 ore radical climate discourses\, practices\, and policies is similar to th
 at of populist discourses\, and should be understood as an integral part o
 f a pervasive and deepening process of post-politicization. Mobilising a p
 rocess that psychoanalysts call ‘fetishistic disavowal’\, the climate 
 discourse produces a particular form of populism that obscures the power r
 elations responsible for the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. I shall m
 obilise a broadly Lacanian-Marxist theoretical perspective that permits ac
 counting for this apparently paradoxical condition of both acknowledging a
 nd denying the truth of the climate situation\, and the discourses/practic
 es that sustain this.\n\nErik Swyngedouw is a human geographer who has con
 tributed greatly to political economy\, political ecology\, and urban geog
 raphies. He has published several books and over a hundred papers in top j
 ournals. He earned his MSc from the Catholic University of Leuven\, before
  completing his PhD at Johns Hopkins under David Harvey. Swyngedouw has ta
 ught at Oxford as Professor of Geography and is now Professor of Human geo
 graphy at the University of Manchester.
LOCATION:Small Lecture Theatre\, Department of Geography\, Cambridge
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