Planetary emergency, fossil-authoritarian hope and the dilemma of social theory: An introduction

This article introduces a Special Issue entitled Beyond the Eco-emancipatory Project: Socio-ecological Crisis and the Metamorphosis of Modernity . As a preliminary exercise, we look at the triangular relationship between eco-activist thinking, critical social theory and the difficult task to make sense of the current transformation of Western societies. We first sketch the late-modern coincidence of eco-activist despair about the anticipated ecological collapse – prospectively further accelerated by populist problem denial – and far-right promises to take back control and reopen the future beyond the green diagnoses and policy agendas. Next, we point to the limits of the activist, eco-emancipatory perspective on this paradoxical constellation and to the reasons why social theory is essential for understanding this constellation. Yet, social theory has its own limitations, as it finds itself trapped between a backward-looking normativity increasingly turning into wishful thinking and a fatalist view of the present as the endpoint of a trajectory of decline and regression. Hence, we argue for a renewed approach to social theory that makes the eco-emancipatory project itself the object of critical sociological investigation and might help to defuse rather than further reinforce societal polarization and conflict.