The dominant approach in (trans/sub)national governance of ecological crises, mostnotably climate change, is ecological modernisation. As a framing of collectiveaction, ecological modernisation assumes that the structure of economic growth canbe made sustainable by deploying market instruments to drive the sociotechnicaltransition away from the present fossil-fueled technological base. However, scientistsare warning that such a market-driven technology-frst approach, ensconced inthe UNFCCC since at least the Kyoto Protocol, might not be comprehensive andrapid enough to prevent global warming beyond 2°C above the pre-industrial levelsand thus a signifcant breakdown of ecosystems, rendering vulnerable indigenous,low-income, and working-class communities across the world.This thesis analyses how organisations that are operating in the “middle ground,”between the policymaking arena and their social constituencies, are seeking todisrupt the hegemony of technology-frst policies, while at the same time proposingalternative pathways to transition away from the extractivist and capitalist socialmetabolism to a plurality of environmentally livable and socially just futures for all.Taking an iterative theory-building approach, the thesis frst conceptualises thestrategic agency of these social actors: against the historical trajectory of industrialcapitalist social metabolism; within the power-diferentiated social structures of thecapitalist state; and through the framing and distributive struggles sited betweenthe climate action arena and the social feld. By drawing on a set of complementarytheories — ecological Marxism, environmental humanities, science and technology studies, the critical theory of technology, strategic-relational approach, andinstitutional logics theory — it proposes two analytical frameworks to indicatestrategic openings for “middle-ground” organisations to impact sociotechnical andsociometabolic transitions.In a second step, the thesis provides two case studies contrasting two organisations and two environmentalisms: a degrowth-oriented Institute for Political Ecology,hailing from the periphery of European capitalism; and a green new deal-orientedindustrial trade union Unite the Union, hailing from one of the centres of Europeancapitalism. Drawing on interviews, analysis of documents, and joint research withthe two organisations, it argues that they engage the governance terrain as epistemicactors and work with diferent social constituencies to instil distributive justice into climate action. These actors are disrupting the dominant market-driven technologyfrst approach and are thereby re-politicising and re-democratising the environmentalgovernance. In a fnal step, the thesis analyses and speculates on the prospects oftheir counter-proposals in the present political and environmental conjuncture.<br/
