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The paper examines the role of these key concepts in studying green policies aimed at achieving a more sustainable pattern of development. Contemporary capitalism has achieved a significant increase of well-being through a sophisticated division of labour and a systematic substitution of energy for labour. However, this progress has come at the cost of disregarding waste and environmental degradation. Many consider humanity to be in a lock-in situation regarding the transition to an ecological-friendly economy.
Lock-in is an ideal-typical figure pointing to an inefficient behaviour due to habituation and costs of transition to a better solution (Goldstein et al. 2023). This concept is based on a rationalistic interpretation of the actor-structure relationship, leading to inadequate solutions such as nudging.
Institutionalism, starting from the idea of «ceremonial values», has proposed the principle of «ceremonial encapsulation» to highlight unfit institutions that deprive a community of higher levels of instrumental efficiency (Bush, 1989). However, this approach also assumes the existence of some superior technology.
The paper explores the relationship between individual agency and structural change in socio-technical systems starting from the notion of environmental awareness and technical encapsulation. It emphasizes the change of values needed to induce a systemic change of capitalism.
