Shades of technocratic solutionism: A discursive-material political ecology approach to the analysis of the Swedish TV series Hållbart näringsliv (‘Sustainable business’) | Intellect Skip to content
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Volume 13, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1757-1952
  • E-ISSN: 1757-1960

Abstract

This article analyses the Swedish TV series () to study hegemonic discursive formations over the meaning of the climate crisis. Combining new materialist approaches in discourse studies with a political ecology understanding of the socio-ecological entanglement, we propose the concept of technocratic solutionism to understand how the neo-liberal green economy secures instrumentalist discourses on nature in the Swedish context. The discourse-theoretical analysis of nine episodes identifies four nodal points which articulate the technocratic solutionist discourse: capital’s leading role, Nordic exceptionalism, substitutionalism and long-termism. We argue that the climate crisis can be understood as a materiality that dislocates capitalist assemblages, which then, in response, deploy a techno-solutionism discourse to protect the core principles of economic growth and profitability while marginalizing potential radical alternatives.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Mistra, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research, through the research programme Mistra Environmental Communication
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2022-12-23
2024-04-27
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): climate crisis; discourse theory; dislocation; economic discourse; green economy; materiality; media

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