In 2019 the idea of a Green New Deal (GND) emerged as a framework aiming at combatting both the climate crisis and the crisis of social justice (Aronoff, Battistoni, & Cohen, 2019; Klein, 2019; Pettifor, 2019). The GND became prominent when the initial campaign by youth social movements became a prominent topic in the US electoral campaign. While some critics have argued that the GNDs follow technocratic, (post)colonial and extractivist schemes (Ajl, 2018; Kolinjivadi & Kothari, 2020), proposals for similar programs were brought forward by a wide range of actors in many countries worldwide, on different scales (The Pact for a Green New Deal 2019; GNDE 2019), and adressing, among others, racial, Indigenous, and gender injustices (Coleman, 2019; Feminist Green New Deal, 2019; Red Nation, 2019). They were supported by “arts of the Green New Deal” inspired by this ‘positive’ vision of the future, in design, film, poetry, and fiction.
In this contribution I am tracing the emergence of and the debates around the GND, asking if and how the imaginaries and narratives of a Green New Deal supported political practices and actions. How did the idea of a GND travel through different political and societal arenas, which questions did the different proposals address, how and by which actors were they taken up, negotiated and appropriated? How did different groups of actors – p.e. movements, politicians, scientists or artists – cooperate and negotiate the different versions of a GND? And finally: What were the trajectories and outcomes of the proposal in different places like the US, the EU, South Korea and South Africa, which concrete effects did the vision of a GND have (or have not)?
