Planetary Improvement: Cleantech Entrepreneurship and the Contradictions of Green Capitalism

Join the Urban Salon for a discussion of the politics of environmental and technological change.

In his recent MIT Press book, 'Planetary Improvement: Cleantech Entrepreneurship and the Contradictions of Green Capitalism', author Jesse Goldstein explores the role that clean technologies, in particular those associated with renewable energy generation, play within mainstream environmentalism, and specifically calls for a Green New Deal. With a focus on strategies that he terms planetary improvement, the unfolding climate crisis is often framed as first and foremost an energy crisis, to be solved by the rapid deployment of renewable energy systems that will help "save the planet" without fundamentally altering prevailing patterns of sociotechnical life and material culture.

Can the innovation and deployment of clean technologies, such as renewable energy systems, adequately address the global climate crisis? Are these approaches to environmentalism limited by entrepreneurial, colonial and extractive logics? Are they necessary and pragmatic short term objectives in the face of an increasingly dire climate forecasts?

Join us for a discussion of ways to make sense of the complicated intersections of environmental, social and technological politics. Jesse will be joined by Professor Andrew Barry (UCL Geography) and Dr Rory Rowan (QMUL Geography).

Contact: Dr Pushpa Arabindoo for further details; no booking needed.