Negotiating Climate Change

Amanda Machin is a lecturer at the Department of Politics and IR, University of Westminster. After being awarded a PhD for her thesis in political theory, she worked as a research fellow to develop ideas on political responsibility and climate change. Her other research interests include political identification, politics and psychoanalysis, cohesion and citizenship, and embodied political protest.

• Introduction: Where are the Politics of Climate Change?1. Magic and Markets: The Techno-Economic Approach2. Good Consciences: The Ethical-Individual Approach3. Responsible Citizens: The Green Republican Approach4. Beyond Conflict? The Green Deliberative Democratic Approach5. Celebrating Disagreement: The Radical Democratic Approach6. Political Identity and Climate Change: Being GreenConclusion: Beyond the Not-Plastic

The issue of climate change is characterised by both scientific and political disagreement. The usual antidote to this is a drive towards consensus underpinned by a common ethic and deliberative democracy. In this highly original treatment, Amanda Machin invites us to overturn these terms of debate and to organise our response to climate change around local disagreement rather than an impossible and undesirable global agreement. "Radical" democracy, she argues, requires us to embrace rather than to shun disagreement - only then will the foundations for decisive action be laid.