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Sustainability as a cultural transformation: the role of deliberative democracy

Journal Paper by Marit Hammond
Environmental Politics
November 2019

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Abstract

What might break the ‘glass ceiling’ that has so far prevented a deep sustainability transformation? In this paper, Marit Hammond considers the cultural dimension of such a transformation. Cultural meanings not only provide the building blocks of individuals’ life stories, but collectively construct social reality, powerfully shaping how people think and act. Any glass ceiling to societal transformation is partly cultural, and can be reproduced by a society’s ‘political grammar’, which constrains what can be perceived and politically advanced.

Contesting these limits is vital for making glass ceilings visible and opening up new transformative potentials. Consequently, overcoming the glass ceiling of the environmental state must be understood as a cultural transformation: a process of ‘meaning-making’ that re-orientates people’s fundamental norms and outlooks. This adds nuance to the debate around democracy and sustainability; it is not democracy in general, but only a particularly vibrant and critical deliberative sphere that can provide the necessary political foundation.

Link

The article can be accessed via the Environmental Politics website. Should you have difficulties accessing the paper, please try your local library or email us.

Citation

Hammond, M 2019. Sustainability as a cultural transformation: the role of deliberative democracy, Environmental Politics. DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2019.1684731.

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