CONFLICTS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY
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Robert Misik in conversation with Sighard Neckel
Conflicts over sustainability
Sustainability, i.e. the shift towards decarbonisation and the fight against climate change, is opening up countless new areas of conflict. Who bears the main burden, who has to pay, who has to do without? This involves social disputes and ideological patterns, just think of the demand that „responsible consumers“ should solve ecological problems as far as possible through their purchasing decisions. But it is also about very tangible economic and distribution policy issues, such as how measures can be put in place that require the wealthy in particular to make sacrifices without making life more difficult for lower-income sections of the population. What are the right forms here? A CO-2 tax? How should it be structured so that it is primarily those with a larger ecological footprint who pay? Or is „steering through taxes“ the wrong approach anyway and we simply need to operate with rules and bans? Socio-ecological transformation must not be a project of self-righteous ethics; on the contrary, sustainability must be thought of as a collective good that must benefit the weakest and poorest. Any sacrifices should be imposed on the wealthy and rich, and the transformation must not primarily focus on individual consumption, but on massive investment in infrastructure, technology, etc.
Sighard Neckel, born in Gifhorn in 1956, is Professor of Social Analysis at the University of Hamburg. After studying sociology, law and philosophy in Bielefeld and at the Free University of Berlin, he held professorships in Siegen, Wuppertal, Giessen, Vienna and Frankfurt.
His most recent books include the 2020 co-edited volumes „Gesellschaftstheorie im Anthropozän“ and „Imaginationen von Nachhaltigkeit. Catastrophe. Crisis. Normalisation“ (both published by Campus).
Robert Misik, Author and journalist