Eco-Social Innovations: The Potential of Individuals

The paper deals with the personal relevance of individuals in global environmental politics. Since the debate on political leadership in international regime formation between Young and Moravcsik in the 1990s, individuals have gained new power in global politics. Philanthropists leading global foundations are the most apparent example. Sometimes also ‘green’ celebrities and social entrepreneurs push forward eco-social innovations. The paper carves out the characteristics of these three actor types and discusses their actual relevance for eco-social transitions. The aim is to show that only at first glance trends to pluralizing and individualizing global environmental politics implement a new normative basis of citizen equality. The more concrete goals and measures are, the more clearly we see that any transition implies decisions about alternatives. We hence need to develop procedural norms beyond the nation-state that address the trend to a global power concentration on few individuals.