Governing through engagement : European climate pact ambassadors and the postpolitical green transition

Banjac, Marinko (author)

The article critically examines European Climate Pact Ambassadors as a concrete mechanism launched by the European Commission as part of the European Green Deal framework. Through an analytical Foucauldian eco-governmentality approach and discursive analysis of 839 ambassador profiles, the study investigates two key aspects. First, it demonstrates how the ambassadorship does not merely function as a support tool, but as a mechanism of power that exercises governance through a post-political form. Second, the research reveals how the Ambassadors construct environmental and climate problem-solution frameworks that reinforce neoliberal economic rationalities, depoliticise the green transition, and systematically constrain alternative possibilities for ecological action

• Language: English
• Keywords: European climate pact, ambassadors, eco-govenmentality, discourse, post-politics
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 387-410
• Numbering: Letn. 62, št. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-171074
• UDC: 32:504.7
• ISSN on article: 0040-3598
• DOI: 10.51936/tip.62.2.387
• COBISS.SI-ID: 243930627
• Publication date in RUL: 01.08.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Teorija in praksa
• Shortened title: Teor. praksa
• Publisher: Fakulteta za sociologijo, politične vede in novinarstvo, Fakulteta za družbene vede
• ISSN: 0040-3598
• COBISS.SI-ID: 763652

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Upravljanje prek angažiranja

Abstract

Članek kritično obravnava ambasadorje Evropskega podnebnega pakta kot konkretnega mehanizma oblasti, ki ga je Evropska komisija uvedla v okviru Evropskega zelenega dogovora. Z analitičnim foucaultovskim pristopom ekovladnosti in diskurzivno analizo 839 profilov ambasadorjev preučuje in interpretira dva ključna vidika. Prvič, pokaže, kako ambasadorstvo ne deluje zgolj kot podporno orodje, temveč kot oblastni mehanizem, ki omogoča upravljanje glede okoljskih in podnebnih vprašanj v postpolitični formi. Drugič, razkriva, kako ambasadorji konstruirajo okvire mišljenja o okoljskih in podnebnih problemih in njihovih rešitvah, ki krepijo neoliberalno ekonomsko racionalnost, depolitizirajo zeleni prehod in sistematično omejujejo alternativne možnosti ekološkega delovanja

• Keywords: Evropski podnebni pakt, ambasadorji, ekovladnost, diskurz, postpolitika