What is seen and unseen: the System of Invisibility and the politics of climate inaction
(2026) Social Science Information : information sur les sciences sociales — (2026)
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- Abstract
- Faced with persistent climate inaction, this article proposes a critical framework to analyze the “invisibility” that characterizes our relationship to the phenomenon. We argue that this invisibility is not a simple information deficit, but a systemic disconnection organized by capitalist modernity. Our “System of Invisibility” is theorized across three interdependent dimensions: a material dimension that occults metabolic flows and infrastructures; an embodied dimension that produces sensory privilege and affective distance; and a cognitive dimension characterized by derealizing hypervisibility and the active production of ignorance. Synthesizing literature from STS, agnotology, and environmental justice, the framework clarifies the micro-foundations of macro-structural power. In dialogue with other major theories of inaction, we show how the System resocializes psychological barriers and explains the origins of real helplessness. The article thus provides an integrated framework for understanding the social production of non-perception, concluding with a call for a “politics of re-visibilization.”
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Draelants, H. (2026). What is seen and unseen: the System of Invisibility and the politics of climate inaction. Social Science Information : information sur les sciences sociales. Submitted. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/266705 (Original work published 2026)