“I want to, but I lack desire”: The green energy transition caught between expectations and possibilities

Authors

  • Jana Tsoneva Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Keywords:

Green transition, Bulgaria, climate change, social justice, public attitudes, liberal democracy, Jacques Lacan, expectations, pessimism, survey

Abstract

In this article, I present results of a nationally representative survey on attitudes toward the Green transition in Bulgaria, which we conducted in 2023 as part of the project “Public Capacity for a Just Green Transition” (KП-06 Н55/13). The survey focuses on four groups of questions concerning climate change, social justice, expectations from the new transition, and the public agenda. Based on these, I draw predominantly pessimistic conclusions about both the Green transition and the transition to liberal democracy preceding it, showing how the experience of the latter inevitably colors the former. I analyze the gap between possibilities and expectations for the new transition with reference to Jacques Lacan’s theorizing about the difference between need/demand and desire.

 

Author Biography

Jana Tsoneva, Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Jana Tsoneva is a sociologist based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and an assistant professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her work focuses on political sociology, the sociology of labor, and the history of ideas, political economy, and ideology. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, where her dissertation explored the Bulgarian middle class and the 2013 protests in Bulgaria. Tsoneva is a founding member of KOI, an activist-research NGO specializing in radical publishing and leftist policy, and a member of the Collective for Social Interventions in Sofia. She is also involved with Social Center Xaspel and the New Left Perspectives collective. Additionally, Tsoneva co-authors Hysterical Parrhesia, a Lacanian-Marxist blog, and has contributed to publications like Jacobin, Al Jazeera, and Lefteast, covering topics such as protests, social justice, and political economy

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Published

2025-06-19

How to Cite

Tsoneva, J. (2025). “I want to, but I lack desire”: The green energy transition caught between expectations and possibilities. Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, 1-14. Retrieved from https://www.identitiesjournal.edu.mk/index.php/IJPGC/article/view/582

Issue

2025 Online First: Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture vol.21 No. 1-2 (2025)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture

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