Climate Change and the Politics of System-Level Change: The Challenges of Moving beyond Incremental Transformation

Achieving system-level change for climate transitions is needed, and incremental efforts are widely considered insufficient. Drawing on neo-Schumpeterian, cultural-institutionalist, and post-structuralist theories, this Point-Counterpoint debate explores the systemic barriers including neoliberal policies, corporate hegemony, and growth-driven cultural logics which inhibit the kind of change that is needed to mitigate increasingly devastating climatic conditions. Our contributors propose a range of potential solutions which may break these barriers and deliver the required radical system-level change. These include further and better democratization, quixotic institutional work so as to undermine dominant cultural templates, the use of various counter-hegemonic practices, and the development of alternative forms of organizing. In this introduction, we explore contact and departure points between the three positions and offer some critical reflections and future research questions on the idea of system-level change.