Pragmatic sociology as political ecology: On the many worths of nature(s)

TY - JOUR

T1 - Pragmatic sociology as political ecology: On the many worths of nature(s)

AU - Blok, Anders

PY - 2013/11

Y1 - 2013/11

N2 - This article engages the French pragmatism of Laurent Thévenot, Luc Boltanski and Bruno Latour in debates on how to forge a moral-political sociology of ecological valuation, justification and critique. Picking up the debate initiated by Thévenot on the possible emergence of a novel 'green' order of worth, the article juxtaposes the sociology of critical capacity of Boltanski and Thévenot with the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour. In doing so, the article suggests that each of these three pragmatic sociologists succeeds, in characteristically different ways, in theoretically articulating an important but partial socio-political grammar of ecological worth. This claim is substantiated by invoking three case studies into environmental critique and compromise, on transnational carbon markets, urban sustainability projects, and Japanese whaling, respectively. Against this backdrop, the article concludes that - when read together as grammarians of the ecological bond - pragmatic sociology provides important insights into the bounded multiplicity of nature's worth in political modernity.

AB - This article engages the French pragmatism of Laurent Thévenot, Luc Boltanski and Bruno Latour in debates on how to forge a moral-political sociology of ecological valuation, justification and critique. Picking up the debate initiated by Thévenot on the possible emergence of a novel 'green' order of worth, the article juxtaposes the sociology of critical capacity of Boltanski and Thévenot with the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour. In doing so, the article suggests that each of these three pragmatic sociologists succeeds, in characteristically different ways, in theoretically articulating an important but partial socio-political grammar of ecological worth. This claim is substantiated by invoking three case studies into environmental critique and compromise, on transnational carbon markets, urban sustainability projects, and Japanese whaling, respectively. Against this backdrop, the article concludes that - when read together as grammarians of the ecological bond - pragmatic sociology provides important insights into the bounded multiplicity of nature's worth in political modernity.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1368-4310

VL - 16

SP - 492

EP - 510

JO - European Journal of Social Theory

JF - European Journal of Social Theory

IS - 4

ER -