From hegemony-reinforcing to hegemony-transcending transformations: horizons of possibility and strategies of escape

Abstract

In the face of ever escalating global socioecological crises, the necessity of radical systemic transformations has gained increasing political and academic traction over the last decade, among others in the context of ‘green’ and bio-based economies. We draw on the works of political philosophers Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith Butler to develop a typology of transformational dynamics. In this typology, the word transformation implies political agendas, processes and outcomes that involve the total structural reordering of a social field, which we juxtapose with ‘inclusion’, which implies cases in which pre-existing logics are further entrenched or extended. Drawing on the theoretical framework of hegemony, inclusions and transformations, we develop an analytical lens that focuses on the relations between hegemony and transformative dynamics. This analytical lens is developed and exemplified by discussing the transformative potentials of multiple socioecological and political agendas, including those associated with eco-modernism, Marxism, decoloniality, eco-feminism, degrowth and eco-anarchism. Depending on the transformative dynamics in relation to hegemony and the dominant political logics, we distinguish between hegemony-reinforcing, hegemony-replacing, and hegemony-transcending transformations. The provided lens and the typologies of transformations should be useful to those seeking to conceptualize, differentiate, analyse, and tactically strategize the realization of an array of socio-ecological agendas.

The more things change, the more they stay the same: promises of bioeconomy and the economy of promises

“…Drawing on the work of political philosophers Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe and Judith Butler, Hamilton and Ramcilovic-Suominen (2023) develop an analytical lens on the concept of 'transformations', by exploring relations between hegemony and transformative dynamics. Deploying a heuristic that characterizes concepts of change as inclusionary vs. transformational and process-vs. outcome-oriented, they distinguish between hegemony-reinforcing, hegemony-replacing and hegemony-transcending types of transformations.…”