MWP Workshop - Investigating Green Business: Informational, Material and Financial Overflows

• Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies

This workshop aims to address the relation between obfuscated knowledge (information that businesses or administrations obscure or ignore) and obfuscating knowledge (terms by which official communications frame the environmental crisis, sidelining competing visions.

In this workshop, we will focus on uncovering the tracks of green business by describing and analysing the various informational, material and financial flows that underpin it. We advance the hypothesis that the rise of green claims, sustainability pledges and transparency standards may have contributed to obfuscating the public debate on climate change. The profusion of information resulting from ESG frameworks and disclosure reports fails to enhance our understanding of how businesses operate. Through our interdisciplinary approach, we seek to focus on materially grounded interdependencies to excavate the infrastructure of ‘green capitalism’.

Anyone with an interest in these themes is most welcome to join us!