A power-centered approach to the capitalization of climate change in property sector and strategic limitation

The capitalization of ‘certified’ sustainable building sector will be investigated over the power theory of value approach of Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler. The study will be initiated by questioning why the environment problems are one of the first items on the agenda and by sharing the ideas of scholars who approaches the subject skeptically, because the predominant literature underlying the necessity and prominence of the topic is already well-known and adapted by the majority. Over the theory developed by Nitzan and Bichler, the concepts of capitalization, strategic sabotage, power, legitimacy, and obedience will be discussed. The hypothesis of “the absentee owners of the construction sector, holding the whip hand and capitalizing the ecology, control the growth and the creativity of green building production and make it carbon-dependent, in order to increase their profit margin” will be questioned. To strengthen the arguments in the hypothesis, the factors, the institutional arrangements, value measurement methods, which affect directly the net present value, will be investigated both in corporation and in building scale in detail, because net present value/ capitalization is asserted as the most important criteria by Nitzan and Bichler to make the investment decisions in the capitalist economic system. To trace the implications of power and the strategic sabotage that power caused, as the empirical dimension of this dissertation, an interface exploring the correlational ties between the climate responsive architecture and the ever changing political, economical, and social contexts and building economics praxis by decades will be developed and the expert interviews will be conducted with the design teams and the appraisers.