Why, by whom and how is digitalisation and sustainability twinning presently being driven? The paper asks how political, economic and civil society actors are working to legitimise a digital-green modernisation of the economy. It argues that the nexus amounts to revitalising both digital and green modernisation, which are both facing crises of legitimacy. On the one side green modernisation has been criticised for its market-based strategies that create new inequalities and ecological problems while failing to adequately address pre-existing ecological problems. Global digital capitalism, on the other side faces criticism not only for increasing surveillance, but also for the negative impacts that digital technologies have on natural and social environments (consider the rising energy use by data centres and extractivism in the Global South). Documents, speeches, conferences and policy papers of the European Union as well as an Action Plan for Sustainability in the Digital Age worked out by civil society groups, non-profit organisations and business associations serve as an empirical basis. By using the conceptional background of the sociology of justification and situational analysis mapping strategies the paper shows that digitalisation, both on a moral and common good level, on an economic level and on the level of individual self-realisation, endows green modernisation with new action-guiding structures of meaning and thus turn it into a worthwhile, meaningful and “exciting” capitalist endeavor.
author: - first_name: Sarah full_name: Lenz, Sarah last_name: Lenz citation: ama: Lenz S. The digital spirit of green capitalism. How the European Union tries to save ecological modernisation. Culture, Practice & Europeanization. 2022;7(2):166-191. doi:10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-166 apa: Lenz, S. (2022). The digital spirit of green capitalism. How the European Union tries to save ecological modernisation. Culture, Practice & Europeanization, 7(2), 166–191. https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-166 bibtex: '@article{Lenz_2022, title={The digital spirit of green capitalism. How the European Union tries to save ecological modernisation}, volume={7}, DOI={10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-166}, number={2}, journal={Culture, Practice & Europeanization}, publisher={Nomos Verlag}, author={Lenz, Sarah}, year={2022}, pages={166–191} }' chicago: 'Lenz, Sarah. “The Digital Spirit of Green Capitalism. How the European Union Tries to Save Ecological Modernisation.” Culture, Practice & Europeanization 7, no. 2 (2022): 166–91. https://doi.org/10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-166.' ieee: 'S. Lenz, “The digital spirit of green capitalism. How the European Union tries to save ecological modernisation,” Culture, Practice & Europeanization, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 166–191, 2022, doi: 10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-166.' mla: Lenz, Sarah. “The Digital Spirit of Green Capitalism. How the European Union Tries to Save Ecological Modernisation.” Culture, Practice & Europeanization, vol. 7, no. 2, Nomos Verlag, 2022, pp. 166–91, doi:10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-166. short: S. Lenz, Culture, Practice & Europeanization 7 (2022) 166–191. date_created: 2025-04-29T12:46:21Z date_updated: 2025-04-29T12:57:55Z doi: 10.5771/2566-7742-2022-2-166 intvolume: ' 7' issue: '2' language: - iso: eng page: 166-191 publication: Culture, Practice & Europeanization publication_identifier: issn: - 2566-7742 publication_status: published publisher: Nomos Verlag status: public title: The digital spirit of green capitalism. How the European Union tries to save ecological modernisation type: journal_article user_id: '116246' volume: 7 year: '2022' ...