The People” and Climate Justice

Reconceptualizing Populism and Pluralism within Climate Politics

Bibliographic Data

ID6357082
AuthorsJohn M Meyer (0000-0003-3565-7435, Cal Poly Humboldt, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume56
Issue2
Pages252-274
Publication date2024-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolity (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3497 • E-ISSN: 1744-1684
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/729277
OpenAlexW4392154132
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited27

Today, populism is widely understood to entail an exclusionary conception of "the people" that threatens climate change action. While this threat is real, I argue that populism itself can be understood as a response to perceived exclusion and marginalization, making it possible to conceptualize a more heterogeneous conception of populism's "people." Examining two approaches to climate change action rooted in contrasting conceptions of the people and the elite, I argue that climate justice organizing offers a promising effort to construct a heterogeneous people and offers a powerful critique of the elite representation of climate change action in which "we are all in this together." Yet along with this promise, climate justice organizing must navigate tensions that are inescapable within any populist formation. One neglected thread of populist history and theory offers resources for doing so; in the final section of this paper, I explore its relevance to climate justice today

Climate change · Climate justice · Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Pluralism (philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Sociology · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Populism, Right-Wing Movements