Social theories of environmental reform - Environmental Reform in the Information Age - page 63

sensitising concept through which modern society orientates itself in
its future development. Environment/sustainability - or, rather, envi-
ronmental/sustainability considerations and interests - is then the lead-
ing notion, the structuring principle, the leitmotiv for a new round of
institutional transformations in what can be labelled (in a variation on
Hobsbawm; cf. Chapter 2 ) the 'Age of Environment'. That still needs
to be proven, but recent (2007) societal developments with respect to
climate change are for some further proof in this direction.
Ecological modernisation as environmental reform
Most ecological modernisation studies focus on actual environmental
reforms in specific social practices and institutions. As I have indi-
cated elsewhere (e.g. Mol, 1995 ; 2001 ), an ecological modernisation
perspective on environmental reform can be categorised in five themes.
First, there are studies on three new interpretations of the role of sci-
ence and technology in environmental reform. Science and technology
are no longer only analysed and judged for their contribution to envi-
ronmental problems (so dominant in the 1970s and early 1980s), but
also they are valued for their actual and potential role in bringing about
environmental reforms and preventing environmental crises. Second,
environmental reforms via traditional curative and repair technolo-
gies are replaced by more preventive sociotechnological approaches
that incorporate environmental considerations from the design stage
of technological and organisational innovations. Finally, the growing
uncertainties with regard to scientific and expert knowledge and com-
plex technological systems in bringing about environmental reforms do
not lead to a denigration of science and technology in environmental
reform, but, rather, in new environmental and institutional arrange-
ments.
A second theme covers studies focused on the increasing importance
and involvement of economic and market dynamics, institutions, and
agents in environmental reforms. Producers, customers, consumers,
credit institutions, insurance companies, utility sectors and business
associations, to name but a few, increasingly turn into social carriers
of ecological restructuring, innovation and reform (in addition to, and
not so much instead of, state agencies and new social movements;
cf. Mol and Spaargaren, 2000 ; Mol 2000 ). This goes together with a
focus on changing state-market relations in environmental governance,