This socio-philosophical subproject teases out the significance of voluntariness in relation to the social and political challenges of climate change. We first probe the preconditions for voluntary participation in a democratic climate policy. Second, we scrutinize the way in which conceptions of voluntariness central to Western societies, along with the theories of freedom that underpin them, are partly responsible for climate change and obstruct collective democratic efforts to get to grips with it. The subproject takes up the praxeological proposition explored in the first funding phase: that the conditions for the emergence of voluntary participation in democratic politics can be located in social practices that lie prior to the political process. The three key structural features of these practices are autotelism, contingency, and spontaneity.

The subproject examines the specific practices vital to facilitating voluntary participation with respect to climate policy. In a critical vein, this takes the subproject beyond “liberal society” approaches, which locate the underpinnings of voluntariness mainly in the legal, material, and institutional prerequisites for democratic participation. The second research objective is to reconstruct the connection between conceptions of the relationship between voluntariness and freedom, climate change, and environmental degradation from a critical perspective. We aim to examine both the role that such conceptions play in relation to the exploitation and destruction of nature as well as their part in obstructing collective coping strategies. The subproject takes the contemporary debate on freedom as its starting point, foregrounding both negative and positive concepts of freedom, and examining, through a praxeological lens, the specific practices associated with the various concepts of freedom.

In a constructive mode, we also seek to identify elements of a sustainable understanding of voluntariness and its theory-of-freedom underpinnings. This subproject makes an indispensable conceptual contribution to the overall project. With its focus on climate policy, it helps expand the thematic spectrum of voluntariness within the research group, adding a sociopolitical aspect of tremendous topicality. The subproject thus pursues the overarching goal of advancing the debate on how to deal with climate change through the fine-grained exploration of voluntary willingness and political participation, as well as concepts and practices of freedom.