AI fetishism and perverse climate disavowal: Why denying destructiveness facilitates our ecological collapse
Northern Michigan University; University of Tennessee, Knoxville
How they used Delve
Sociologists at Northern Michigan University and the University of Tennessee used Delve to run a deductive textual analysis of articles on AI and economic growth, coding for AI fetishism, generating code frequencies and co-occurrence matrices, and writing analytic memos that compared coded snippets with the theme of perverse climate disavowal.
“Delve computer software was used to support the coding process. The software allows the researcher to code the data, retrieve text based on keywords, rename, or [merge codes]. [...] Rank order frequency of codes and co-occurrence matrices for all categories and subcategories were generated using Delve. [...] Using Delve software, we made analytic memos for each snippet of text coded AI Fetishism”
- Field
- environmental sociology; critical theory; AI discourse
- Data
- Articles and texts on artificial intelligence and economic growth, coded for AI fetishism and climate disavowal
- Approach
- Deductive textual analysis (Kibiswa 2019) with manifest and latent content analysis; Krippendorff's alpha 0.81 between coders
- Data types
- Documents
Abstract
As ecological crises intensify, scholars and activists increasingly question the sustainability of economic growth. Yet, the dominant growth-oriented paradigm remains foundational to advanced capitalist societies and cannot be altered without significant social disruption. The resulting tension between ecological limits and the imperative for continuous growth generates “climate anxiety.” This article advances the concept of perverse climate disavowal : a mode of climate denial that acknowledges climate threats while maintaining faith in the illusion of infinite economic expansion. This disavowal functions as a psychological defense mechanism, enabling individuals and institutions to avoid confronting structural contradictions. The article examines the increasing use of artificial intelligence to address climate change as a key expression of this phenomenon. A directed qualitative content analysis was conducted on USA news articles (2020–2024) concerning AI and climate change. A complete description of the methodology, including rank order frequency of concept codes and representative quotes, is included.
Citation
Alexander M. Stoner, Anthony J. Knowles (2025). AI fetishism and perverse climate disavowal: Why denying destructiveness facilitates our ecological collapse. Critical Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205251383421