Against Ecological Sovereignty: Agamben, Politics And Globalisation

摘要

Several recent texts have argued that, given the ecologically destructive effects of unfettered economic globalisation, there are good pragmatic arguments for environmentalists to advocate and support a form of green state sovereignty. However, the key question concerning this strategy is not necessarily the plausibility or implausibility of 'greening' state institutions but rather the dangers to ecology and politics that sovereignty itself represents. Schmitt argues that the principle of sovereignty rests in the self-awarded power to declare a state of emergency (exception) that suspends all political activity, a condition Agamben argues is now becoming a global biopolitical norm. Unfortunately, both norm and exception threaten the very existence of ecological politics.