Germany’s Climate Governmentality. How Mechanisms of Governmentality and Discipline Govern Carbon Conduct

Abstract

Today, the environment is everywhere. For less than ten years, it goes without saying that all individuals, the population and the State are obliged to minimize their impact on the environment, even if they would not be affected themselves by potential consequences. For almost every action, concern for its environmental impact is present. That obligation manifests itself in a myriad of ways that affect individual behavior - what Foucault identifies as power. This paper seeks to understand how, through which forms and technologies, we are subject to power in the name of climate protection in Germany. Or, if turned on its head, it analyses how the climate is governed in Germany.