GLOBALISATION OF HOMO ECONOMICUS AND PLASTIC BAG REGULATIONS

Yıl 2023, Sayı: 25, 31 - 50, 15.01.2023

Mehmet Özyürek

Öz

Globalisation creates some negative and positive outcomes. Environmental problems that stem from plastic waste can be one of the examples of these negative outcomes. Governments all around the world look for strategies to reduce plastic waste. In this way, neoliberal policies and regulations based upon market actors in reducing the use of plastics can be seen as strategies popularly used by governments. Such policies and regulations are favoured by free-market economists as letting people make their own free choices without any interference by the government. Environmental governance strategies based upon consumer choices can be good examples in this regard. In fact, one of these strategies, plastic bag charges/taxes, has become globalised in recent years. This study specifically explores such regulations evident in steering the individuals’ behaviour by highlighting the concept of homo economicus. Rather than focusing on whether these strategies are efficient or not, the study emphasises that homo economicus oriented plastic bag charges/taxes are away from to target the real cause of the global pollution stemming from use of plastics by criticising the neoliberal philosophy of plastic bag charges/taxes from a normative and qualitative perspective.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Globalisation, Environmental Law, Neoliberalism, Homo Economicus, Law and Economics

Küreselleşen Homo Economicus ve Plastik Poşet Düzenlemeleri

Öz

Küreselleşme birçok olumlu ve olumsuz sonucu beraberinde getirmektedir. Plastik atıklar sonucu ortaya çıkan çevre kirliliği küreselleşmenin yarattığı olumsuz sonuçlardan biri olarak görülebilir. Dünyanın farklı yerlerindeki hükümetler plastik atık sorununa çözüm stratejileri aramaktadır. Bu hususta piyasa aktörlerinin tercihleriyle şekillenen neoliberal politikalar ve düzenlemeler birçok hükümet tarafından kullanılan uygulamalar haline gelmiştir. Bu politikalar ve düzenlemeler serbest piyasa ekonomistlerinin ateşli bir şekilde savundukları devlet müdahalesi yerine özgür birey tercihlerinden yana olan bir bakış açısını öne çıkartmaktadır. Tüketici tercihleri üzerine kurulu çevresel yönetişim düzenlemeleri bunların en güzel örneği olabilir. Bu çalışma söz konusu düzenlemelerden olan ve son yıllarda küresel bir boyuta ulaşan plastik poşetleri ücretli hale getiren/vergilendiren yasal düzenlemeleri incelemektedir. Bu inceleme ekonomik insan anlamına gelen homo economicus kavramına odaklanmaktadır. Çalışma söz konusu hukuki düzenlemelerin başarılı olup olmadığıyla ilgilenmekten ziyade bu uygulamaların normatif ve nitel bir bakış açısı ile eleştirisini hedeflemektedir. Çalışmanın amacı bireylerin özgür tercihleri üzerine kurulu olduğu iddia edilen söz konusu düzenlemelerin sınırlarına dikkat çekmek ve bu düzenlemelerin plastik atık sorununun küresel yönetişiminde kullandığı neoliberal yaklaşımın ne ölçüde sorunlu olduğunu irdelemektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Küreselleşme, Çevre Hukuku, Neoliberalizm, Homo Economicus, Hukuk ve Ekonomi

Kaynakça

• Bakker K, ‘The Limits of ‘Neoliberal Natures’: Debating Green Neoliberalism’ (2010) 34 (6) Progress in Human Geography 715
• Brown W, Edgework: Critical Essays on Knowledge and Politics (Princeton University Press 2009)
• Brown W, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (MIT Press 2015)
• Chellel K and Moskwa W, ‘A Plastic Bag’s 2,000-Mile Journey Shows the Messy Truth About Recycling’ Bloomberg (29 March 2022) <https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-tesco-recycle-plastic-waste-pledge-falls-short/> accessed 21 July 2022
• Clapp J and Swanston L, ‘Doing Away with Plastic Shopping Bags: International Patterns of Norm Emergence and Policy Implementation’ (2009) 18(3) Environmental Politics 315
• Edwards C and Fry JM, Life Cycle Assessment of Supermarket Carrier Bags: Draft Report (Great Britain Environment Agency 2010)
• Ergocun G, ‘Turkey: Plastic Bag Use Down 50 pct with New Regulation’ Anadolu Agency (4 January 2019) <https://www.aa.com.tr/en/economy/turkey-plastic-bag-use-down-50-pct-with-new-regulation/1355806#:~:text=Plastic%20bag%20usage%20in%20Turkey,urbanization%20minister%20said%20on%20Friday.> accessed 21 July 2022
• Eschner K, ‘Reusable Grocery Bags aren’t as Environmentally Friendly as you Might Think’ Popular Science (28 October 2020) <https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/single-use-plastic-misconceptions/> accessed 22 July 2022
• European Commission (EC), Environment, Environmental Economics (EC) <https://ec.europa.eu/environment/enveco/mbi.htm> accessed 5 August 2022
• Excell C, ‘127 Countries Now Regulate Plastic Bags. Why Aren’t We Seeing Less Pollution?’ World Resources Institute (11 March 2019) <https://www.wri.org/insights/127-countries-now-regulate-plastic-bags-why-arent-we-seeing-less-pollution> accessed 3 July 2022
• Fleming P, The Death of Homo Economicus: Work, Debt and the Myth of Endless Accumulation (Pluto Press 2017)
• Foucault M, the Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-79 (Graham Burchell tr, François Ewald and Alessandro Fontana ed, Palgrave Macmillan 2008)
• Gogus SS, ‘Can ‘‘Homo Economicus’’ Help Save the Environment?’ Climate Exchange (20 September 2014) <https://climate-exchange.org/2014/08/20/can-homo-economicus-help-save-the-environment/> accessed 21 July 2022
• Gordon C, ‘Governmental Rationality: An Introduction’ in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality: with two Lectures by and an Interview with Michel Foucault (Harvester Wheatsheaf 1991)
• Greenpeace, ‘Data from the Global Plastics Waste Trade 2016-2018 and the Offshore Impact of China’s Foreign Waste Import Ban’ (23 April 2019) <https://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/publication/5907/data-from-the-global-plastics-waste-trade-2016-2018-and-the-offshore-impact-of-chinas-foreign-waste-import-ban/> accessed 21 July 2022
• Harvey D, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press 2007)
• Heywood A, Politics (5th edn, Palgrave Macmillan 2013)
• Interpol, ‘Emerging Criminal Trends in the Global Plastic Waste Market since January 2018’ (Interpol 2018) <https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2020/INTERPOL-report-alerts-to-sharp-rise-in-plastic-waste-crime> accessed 21 July 2022
• Jahan S, Mahmud A and Papageorgiou C, ‘What is Keynesian Economics’ in J M Rowe (ed), Finance and Development: Back to Basics: Economic Concepts Explained, 4-5 (IMF 2017)
• Kwoon J, ‘South Korea’s Plastic Problem is a Literal Trash Fire’ CNN (3 March 2019) <https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/02/asia/south-korea-trash-ships-intl/index.html> accessed 16 August 2022
• Lagasnerie GD, Foucault Against Neoliberalism? (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2020)
• Lavelle-Hill R and others, ‘Psychological and Demographic Predictors of Plastic Bag Consumption in Transaction Data’ (2020) 72 Journal of Environmental Psychology 101473
• Leggett W, ‘The Politics of Behaviour Change: Nudge, Neoliberalism and the State’ (2014) 42(1) Policy & Politics 3
• Lemke T, Foucault’s Analysis of Modern Governmentality: A Critique of Political Reason (Verso Books 2019)
• — — ‘Foucault, Governmentality, and Critique’ (Rethinking Marxism Conference, University of Amherst, 21-24 September 2002)
• <http://www.thomaslemkeweb.de/publikationen/Foucault,%20Governmentality,%20and%20Critique%20IV-2.pdf> accessed 18 July 2022
• Lin K, ‘Why Plastic Pollution is an Environmental Justice Issue’ Greenpeace (23 April 2019) <https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/21792/plastic-waste-environmental-justice/> accessed 15 August 2022
• Locke J and Laslett P, Two treatises of government: A Critical Edition with an Introduction and Apparatus Criticus by Peter Laslett (Cambridge University Press 1970)
• May T, The Philosophy of Foucault (Acumen Press 2006)
• Michel Foucault, the Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-79 (Graham Burchell tr, François Ewald and Alessandro Fontana ed, Palgrave Macmillan 2008)
• Miller RM, ‘Plastic Shopping Bags: An Analysis of Policy Instruments for Plastic Bag Reduction’ (MSc Thesis, Universiteit Utrecht 2012)
• Nadesan MH, Governmentality, Biopower, and Everyday Life (Routledge 2010)
• Nancy Fraser, ‘From Discipline to Flexibilization? Rereading Foucault in the Shadow of Globalization’ (2003) 10(2) Constellations 160
• Ng ICL and Tseng L, ‘Learning to be Sociable: The Evolution of Homo Economicus’ (2008) 67(2) American Journal of Economics and Sociology 265
• Parker L, ‘Plastic Bag Bans are Spreading. But are They Truly Effective?’ National Geographic (17 April 2019) <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-bag-bans-kenya-to-us-reduce-pollution> accessed 5 July 2022
• Read J, ‘A Genealogy of Homo-Economicus: Neoliberalism and the Production of Subjectivity’ (2009) 6 Foucault Studies 25
• Saad-Filho A and Johnston D (eds), Neoliberalism: A Critical Reader (Pluto Press 2005)
• Scherer AG and Palazzo G, ‘The New Political role of Business in a Globalized World: A
• Review of a New Perspective on CSR and its Implications for the Firm, Governance, and Democracy’ (2011) 48 (4) Journal of Management Studies 899
• Scientist Action and Advocacy Network (ScAAN), ‘Effectiveness of Plastic Regulation Around the World’ (2019) <https://plasticpollutioncoalitionresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Effectiveness_of_plastic_regulation_around_the_world_4_pages.pdf> accessed 18 July 2022
• Smith A, On the Division of Labour: The Wealth of Nations, Books I–III (Penguin Classics 1986)
• Smithers R, 2020, ‘Use of Plastic Bags in England Drops by 59 % in a Year’ The Guardian (30 July 2020) <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/30/use-of-plastic-bags-in-england-drops-by-59-in-a-year > accessed 3 July 2022
• Snowdon K, ‘UK Plastic Waste being Dumped and Burned in Turkey, Says Greenpeace’ BBC News (17 May 2021) <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57139474> accessed 21 July 2022
• — —,‘Plastics-still Young, but having a Mature Impact’ (2008) 28 Waste Management 473
• Steger MB and Roy RK, Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2010)
• Ugurtas S, ‘Why Turkey became Europe’s Garbage Dump’ Politico (18 September 2020)<https://www.politico.eu/article/why-turkey-became-europes-garbage-dump/> accessed 21 July 2022
• UNEP, ‘Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability (rev. 2)’ (UNEP 2018) <http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11822/25496> accessed 3 July 2022
• United Nations Environment Assembly of the UNEP, ‘End Plastic Pollution: Towards an International Legally Binding Instrument’ (7 March 2022) UNEP/EA.5/Res.14
• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), ‘Legal Limits on Single-Use Plastics and Microplastics: A Global Review of National Laws and Regulations’ (UNEP 2018) <https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/report/legal-limits-single-use-plastics-and-microplastics> accessed 5 August 2022
• Urbina DA and Villaverde AR, ‘A Critical Review of Homo Economicus from Five Approaches’ (2019) 78(1) American Journal of Economics and Sociology 63
• Wakunuma K, ‘Plastic Waste is Hurting Women in Developing Countries – but there are Ways to Stop it’ The Conversation (22 October 2021) <https://theconversation.com/plastic-waste-is-hurting-women-in-developing-countries-but-there-are-ways-to-stop-it-166596#:~:text=Developing%20countries%20are%20likely%20to,into%20extreme%20poverty%20during%202021> accessed 3 July 2022
• World Commission on Environment and Development, ‘Our Common Future’ (Oxford University Press 1987)
• Zerk JA, Multinationals and Corporate Social Responsibility: Limitations and Opportunities in International Law (Cambridge University Press 2006)