Economic Imaginaries and Environmental Regulation

Abstract

While literature has explored the influence of imagination and economic thought on (environmental) law, less attention has been paid to the influence of the economic imagination – specifically economic imaginaries – and their capacity to shape environmental regulation. Taking EU pesticides policy and regulation as a case study and drawing on theory regarding the performative power of imaginaries, this piece identifies economic imaginaries expressed in EU policy and demonstrates how those imaginaries have shaped that policy to pursue economic growth and competitiveness. It examines the evolution of a key piece of pesticides legislation and charts how establishing measures to pursue those economic goals gradually prevails, while providing for transparency – a crucial principle for supporting environmental protection – is deprioritised. It argues that these developments were driven by the EU's economic imaginaries and shows how economic considerations can subtly and indirectly undermine environmental protection.