A passive revolution?: constructing a municipal alternative to carbon markets in British Columbia.

• Main Author: Greeno, Matthew
• Other Authors: Boyd, Susan C.
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Carbon Neutrality; British Columbia; District of Saanich; Gramsci; Passive Revolution; Municipality; Foucault
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4171

Using a Foucault-inspired critical analysis of discourse within a Gramscian framework of hegemony, this thesis analyzes how patterns of international climate change policy relate to climate policy in British Columbia (BC), Canada, and explores the patterns of resistance to carbon neutrality in a single municipality. The BC Carbon Neutral Government Strategy and the Provincial Crown Corporation responsible for stimulating the growth of the BC carbon-offset market are characterized by neo-liberalism ideology and dispossession. The District of Saanich’s policy, which establishes a local and public form of carbon offset alternative, is characterized as a form of resistance. Saanich’s policy represents a passive revolution. This thesis suggests that the discourse of ecological modernization exists within both the hegemonic climate policy structure as well as the alternative found in Saanich. This thesis also suggests that municipalities represent a political space in which a Gramscian war of position may be waged. === Graduate