Market Economies and Green Ideals (Templeton Grant No 63382) explores the relationship between different constructions – practical and ideational – of market economies with environmental or sustainability objectives. It aims to engage a constructive dialogue between proponents of liberal models of market economies and those who advocate the principles of ‘missionary government’ and ‘stakeholder governance,’ as well as those from political traditions that favour a reliance on non-market institutions. Where liberal models give greater latitude to ‘invisible hand’ or ‘spontaneous ordering’ arrangements that do not seek to guide markets in any specific direction, missionary and stakeholder models propose governance modes through which markets might be ‘steered’ by a directional intelligence to keep them within sustainability constraints. The notion of ‘ecological steering’ is also central to political economic traditions that question the compatibility of market institutions with planetary health.
The grant will engage questions about how these different constructions of market economies address the following questions: What are the relationships between economic growth objectives and environmental protection? Do market economies of various kinds give undue weight to economic growth? How do different models of market economies construct the meaning of ‘sustainability’? How useful are neo-classical economic concepts such as ‘externalities’, ‘public goods’ and ‘common pool resources’ in understanding environmental challenges in market economies? How useful are concepts derived from ‘ecological economics’ – such as ‘systemic ecological risk’ and ‘ecological tipping points’ when devising sustainable governance institutions for market economies? In complex and non-linear socio-ecological systems is it possible to assign responsibility for environmental outcomes to specific actions or actors whether private, civil or public? What is the ethical status of environmental boycotts? Do Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) procedures provide tools that can combine individual and enterprise freedom with environmental and social justice objectives, or do they represent a freedom threatening extension of surveillance and social control mechanisms on a potentially unprecedented scale?
The project will address these and other questions through the sponsorship of research at King’s College London and other higher education institutions in the UK and worldwide. It will host a visiting scholars programme and will recruit several post-doctoral researchers engaged in conversations over the requirements of sustainability. It will host public events such as lectures, seminars and workshops with representatives from different perspectives on the political economy of market governance and sustainability. It will commission over forty new academic papers engaging the project themes. Finally, it will support the creation of a new text on Market Economies and Green Ideals for the higher education market.