Envisioning an Environmentally Just Transition: A Case Study of the Democracy in Europe 2025’s Green New Deal Campaign for Societal Transformation

Sammanfattning: The continued increase of greenhouse gas emissions and the growing danger this poses has led to the emergence of several strategies to guide society away from further environmental degradation. Green growth is the pertinent global strategy, it calls for continued growth with the hopes to advance toward technocratic solutions. Conversely, the degrowth movement has emerged as a counter-hegemonic critique of growth and calls for a democratic downscaling; however, it has not yet been embraced by any powerful political institution. A third alternative, the Democracy in Europe 2025’s Green New Deal, offers a consolidated policy plan for reform of the EU and its member states toward an environmentally just society, and is one of the first campaigns to be developed in conjunction with degrowth intellects. Applying Gramscian and Gorzian theories of change and reform, this thesis analyses the Democracy in Europe 2025’s Green New Deal campaign according to its actors, demands, audience, and the transformation envisaged. The thesis concludes that the Green New Deal’s proposed societal transformation aims to emerge from within capitalist institutions but has the potential to develop into a more transformative and potentially counter-hegemonic reform at a later stage, in this sense resembling a non-reformist reform.