‘Daring to Care’: Challenging Corporate Environmentalism

Mary Phillips, University of Bristol

‘The capacity to weep and then do something is worth everything. We want to remember that

emotions are things we value’(Gaard, 1993: 3)

Corporate Environmentalism

‘The organization-wide recognition of the legitimacy and importance of the biophysical environment in the formulation of organization strategy and the integration of environmental issues into the strategic planning process’ (Banerjee, 2002: 181)

Corporate EnvironmentalismCorporations frame the issue in terms of:1. Technological innovation and eco-

efficiency– Doing more with less

2. Opportunities for growth3. Expanding the role of the market– Encouraging ‘sustainable’ consumption– ‘Greener’ products in response to

consumer demand– Monetising resources

Neoliberalism

The interests of society are best served by:• the individual maximisation of self-interest …• … which is most effectively achieved through the

operation of the market and …• the devolution of regulatory authority

The moral logic of neoliberalism

• The pursuit of individual interest serves the common good

• Counters ‘threats’ to individual rights and freedom from state intervention

• There is a congruence between a moral, responsible individual and an economic-rational actor

Neoliberalism and the environment

• ‘Ecological modernism’ claims to overcome tensions between economic growth and the environment

• Does not rely on state protection but the privatisation and marketisation of the natural world

• Through technological innovation• And macroeconomic restructuring

It hasn’t worked• Minimal mitigation of environmental damage and

increasing flows of assets, wealth and income to elites

• Böhm et al’s work on carbon trading– ‘an extension of power by capital; they entail an

empowerment of dominant countries and elite groups … and an exacerbation of global inequalities’ (Böhm et al, 2012: 1624).

• Even supporters of ecological modernisation can see problems

Nature is “natural capital”. Ecological processes are ecosystem services, because their only purpose is to serve us. Hills, forests and rivers are described in government reports as “green infrastructure”. Wildlife and habitats are “asset classes” in an “ecosystems market”. Fish populations are invariably described as “stocks” as if they exist only as moveable assets from which wealth can be extracted.Monbiot (2014: 33)

We need a different moral response

Ecofeminist care ethics

Ecofeminism seeks to expose and challenge systems of domination that justify colonialism, racism, ableism as well as sexism and the subordination of nature. These systems are interrelated and cross-cutting and cannot be overcome in an atomistic way.

The genuinely human self‘The account draws on the familiar view of reason and emotion as sharply separated and opposed, and of ‘desire,’ caring, and love as merely ‘personal’ and ‘particular’ as opposed to the universality and impartiality of understanding and of ‘feminine’ emotions as essentially unreliable, untrustworthy, and morally irrelevant, an inferior domain to be dominated by a superior, disinterested (and of course masculine) reason.’ (Plumwood,1991:5)

A commitment to transformative change

Ecofeminists strive to find means to move from ‘unhealthy, life-denying systems and relationships to healthy, life-affirming ones’ (Warren, 2000:200)

An ecofeminist ethics of care

• Grounded in regard for the feelings, needs and desires of all nature, including humans.

• Care and justice intertwined.• An ecocentric philosophy that incorporates care

and respect for the fundamental connectedness of all life.

• But which respects the boundaries of the other.

Challenging disconnection

• We are emotionally and physically disconnected from the impacts of our actions– We need to recognise ‘the fleshy, damp immediacy of our

own embodied experiences (Neimanis & Walker, 2013:2)• We are of nature and our vulnerability is shared• We need to reaffirm the visceral sensations and

emotions experienced through our bodies

Embodied care• The body and embodied experience, learning and imagination

empowers us to develop care practices and motivate political action.• Embodied capacity for care moves us from the particular to the

general – and vice versa.• This is a form of knowing and meaning creation that extends beyond

the rational and involves a responsive, emotional engagement with nature which values what ‘cannot be fully articulated according to the demands of objectivity … knowledge guided by and responsive to the physical environment in which it is practiced’ (Glazebrook 2005:80).

• Indirect experiences also challenge us to engage with difference and see the familiar from a radical perspective.

Care as a form of resistance‘Caring, selflessness, anti-cruelty, anti-greed, anti-instrumentalism, loyalty, against injustice, were all values practiced and expressed by our research participants. These values were generated in opposition to the logic of capital, against an instrumental “dog eat dog world” ‘ (Skeggs, 2014:14, emphasis in original).

Care should be seen as ‘an attempt to obtain a new human and new social identity in relation to nature’ (Plumwood, 1993:186) that ‘recognises and accommodates the denied relationships of dependency and enables us to acknowledge our debt to the sustaining others of the earth’ (Plumwood, 1993:196)

Daring to care

Care will not provide us with neat solutions, it will be conflicting and ambiguous.But it is above all a ‘practice of hope’ which environmental feminist Ynestra King explains thus: ‘to have hope ... is to believe that [the] future can be created by intentional human beings who now take responsibility [for it]’. It is a resource on which to draw against the hopelessness, disenchantment and alienation promoted by neoliberalism and corporate environmentalism.