Verkaufte Zukunft: New MPIfG Book by Jens Beckert

In his new book, Verkaufte Zukunft: Warum der Kampf gegen den Klimawandel zu scheitern droht, MPIfG director Jens Beckert turns his attention to the failure of society and politics to address climate change. Central to understanding that failure and to the book is Beckert’s analysis of the power and incentive structures that influence how firms, politicians, voters, and consumers act: Capitalist modernity, with its institutional and cultural structures, is almost predestined to fail on the “wicked problem” of climate change because short-term interests overshadow long-term necessities. As temperatures continue to rise and social and political conflicts intensify, it will take adaptability, resilience, and solidarity to create realistic climate policies. The book will be published by Suhrkamp Verlag on March 11 and has been nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2024 in the non-fiction category.