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Johannes Stripple

Johannes Stripple

Associate Professor | Senior Lecturer | Principal Investigator BECC

Johannes Stripple

Virtuous carbon

Author

  • Matthew Paterson
  • Johannes Stripple

Summary, in English

To provides an overall framework for thinking about the construction of carbon markets, we adopt James Der Derian's 'virtuous war' theory to develop an argument about carbon as a virtuous commodity. This refers to the close affinity between virtuality and virtue - the technological and the ethical - in the construction of carbon markets. The figure of virtuous carbon draws attention to both the fictitious character of carbon units (as imagined things, complex abstractions that exist only by way of agreement) and their virtue (how those units are only provisionally stabilised, and where their ethical contestation is part of their construction). We explore virtuality and virtue at five moments in the commodification of carbon (invention, proliferation, verification, and differentiation into two forms). Virtuous carbon thereby captures the emergence of a distinct sort of governmentality, which aims to neutralise resistance by imbuing the commodities of carbon markets with a self-evident moral quality.

Department/s

  • Department of Political Science
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

563-582

Publication/Series

Environmental Politics

Volume

21

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Political Science

Keywords

  • climate change
  • carbon markets
  • governmentality
  • virtue
  • virtuality
  • James Der Derian

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0964-4016