Planetary boundaries, societal boundaries, and collective self-limitation: moving beyond the post-Marxist comfort zone

Abstract

Issues of boundaries, limits, and restriction have shifted, once again, into the center of eco-political debates. An article recently published in this journal by Ulrich Brand and colleagues made the case that supposedly objective planetary boundaries, as specified by Earth-system scientists, always remain contingent on social norms. Hence, the debate on planetary boundaries needs to be supplemented, they argue, by a debate on societal boundaries. Addressing the critical social sciences, in particular, they seek to open a dialogue on collectively defined self-limitation, which they regard as a promising means for setting such boundaries. This article aims to contribute to, and help shape, this dialogue. Taking the intervention by Brand and his co-authors as a prompt, and focusing on so-called advanced modern societies in the Global North, this article flags up important parameters that condition the success or failure of any attempt at collective self-limitation. Calling to mind the dual commitment of eco-critical social science not only to transforming contemporary society but, no less importantly, to providing a nuanced diagnosis and analysis of its present condition, the article calls on critical social science to move beyond the established claims, hopes, and beliefs of post-Marxist analysis, conceptualized here as the post-Marxist comfort zone. In particular, the article draws attention to the dilemma that the logic and dynamic of emancipation, which (eco-)critical social theorists and sociologists commonly present as the centerpiece of their transformative agenda, can itself negatively impact the prospects for collective self-limitation.