İklim Krizi ve Politik Olanın Merkezileşmesi

The Climate Crisis and the Re-Centering of the Political

Abstract

This article aims to examine how the environment has been positioned as a philosophical field of inquiry within a rights-based framework, while also analyzing Erik Swyngedouw’s interpretation of contemporary policies on climate change through the concept of “climate populism,” in dialogue with philosophy. Swyngedouw places the concept of “the political,” which entered philosophical thought in the 1960s through struggles for rights, at the center of his work and employs it as a theoretical framework for analyzing climate politics. Within this framework, he draws upon the ideas of thinkers such as Jacques Rancière, Slavoj Žižek, and Jacques Lacan as theoretical mediators. In doing so, Swyngedouw critically discusses the depoliticizing and technocratic character of current climate policies. Furthermore, in order to gain a deeper understanding of Swyngedouw’s philosophical approach, this article also engages with Claude Lefort’s reflections on democracy, the political, and power. Ultimately, the aim of this study is to elucidate Swyngedouw’s proposition that, within his critique of climate populism, the solution lies in the re-centering of the political as a philosophical and practical response to the current crisis.