Divided Societies: the Ecological Dimension
© Tatiana I. KHAYNATSKAYA, 2023
Received 29.06.2023.
Revised 16.08.2023.
Accepted 22.08.2023.
Tatiana I. Khaynatskaya (tkhaynatskaya@gmail.com), ORCID: 0000-0002-6364-4765,
Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO), 23, Profsoyuznaya Str., Moscow 117997, Russian Federation.
The environmental crisis has become a major global challenge, prompting political action and initiatives at various levels. However, the development and implementation of green policies reveal problems that lie beyond their agenda. Contradictions arising from divergent interests and priorities of different stakeholders affect the outcomes of ongoing transformations and contribute to the polarization of society.
This study examines the environmental dimension through the prism of socio-political divisions. The author examines the key factors contributing to such divisions in modern societies (mainly based on the example of the European Union), including differences in socio-economic status, values and geographical characteristics of their constituents. Based on the study of the ‘green’ political trend, the conclusion was made about the ‘ambiguity’ of the promoted model of transformation and differences in its perception by different social groups.
The results of the study show that socio-political divisions caused by the EU environmental policy manifest in the form of worldview conflicts, disagreements over the prioritization of environmental issues and tensions between different levels of eco-governance. The dichotomy of ‘fairness-unfairness’ has become acute both in the international dimension and within nation-states. These contradictions largely characterize the gap between the interests of individual states and supranational environmental goals, making it difficult to develop effective practical policies. The main divisions are along geographical, age, gender and value axes. At the same time, the presence of certain configurations of divisions contributes to maintaining a balance in the environmental agenda and maneuvering between extremes – full and sharp ‘green’ transformation with unpredictable consequences for social and economic development and inaction with predictable negative consequences. The assessment of the conflict and consolidation potentials of environmental divisions and their correlations is important for understanding the opportunities and limitations of the EU ‘green course’ implementation.
Keywords
About the author: Tatiana I. KHAYNATSKAYA, Junior Researcher, Center for Comparative Socio-Economic and Political Studies.
Competing interests: no potential competing financial or non-financial interest was reported by the author.
Funding: no funding was received for conducting this study.
For citation:
Khaynatskaya T. Divided Societies: the Ecological Dimension. Analysis & Forecasting. IMEMO Journal, 2023, no 2, pp. 84-99. https://doi.org/10.20542/afij-2023-2-84-99
