What kind of political agency can foster radical transformation towards ecological sustainability?

Abstract

What kind of political agency is necessary to foster radical political-economic transformations towards ecological sustainability? Focusing on the radical ecopolitical project of degrowth, this article starts from the observation that a prerequisite for degrowth policies to materialise is political agency that is bold and visionary yet pragmatic; agency that seeks radical change yet does so based on what is already in existence. To capture the nature of the ideal-typical political agent that could exercise this sort of agency, this article builds on scholarship on policy entrepreneurship to develop the concept of the radical bricoleur. It proposes that an important key to ‘radicalising’ the bricoleur lies in putting greater emphasis on Levi-Strauss’ (1966) pre-modern, holistic understanding of what kind of order it is that the bricoleur is seeking to rebuild. Doing so opens the way for redefining the goal of the bricoleur from being the reinstatement of the current capitalist and non-sustainable societal order, to being the reinstatement of an order defined by a logic of balance and harmony between and within humans, as well as humans and nature.