Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
movements seem increasingly involved in decision-making processes
within the political and, to a lesser extent, economic arenas. Legiti-
macy, accountability, transparency and participation are the new prin-
ciples and values that provide social movements and civil society the
resources for a more powerful position in environmental reform pro-
cesses. Within the environmental movement, this transformation goes
together with a bipolar or dualistic strategy of cooperation and con-
flict, and internal debates on the tensions that are a by-product of this
duality (Mol, 2000 ).
And, finally, ecological modernisation studies concentrate on chang-
ing discursive practices and the emergence of new ideologies in polit-
ical and societal arenas. Neither the fundamental counterpositioning
of economic and environmental interests nor a total disregard for the
importance of environmental considerations are accepted any longer
as legitimate positions. Intergenerational solidarity in the interest of
preserving the sustenance base seems to have emerged as the undis-
puted core and widely shared principle, although differences remain
on interpretations and translations into practices and strategies.
Hence, all in all, this gives a much wider agenda of environmental
reform studies compared to the 1970s and early 1980s, partly reflecting
the changing practices of environmental reform in and between OECD
countries.
Ecological modernisation and its critics
From various (theoretical) perspectives and from the first publications
onwards, the growing popularity of ecological modernisation studies
and ideas has met opposition and criticism. 6 Coming from subdisci-
plines that had been preoccupied with explaining the continuity of
environmental crises and deterioration, such a move to environmental
6
Cf. Mol and Spaargaren ( 2000 ). This growing importance of ecological
modernisation perspectives is even acknowledged by its critics, who often do
not challenge the analytical and descriptive qualities of this theory for West
European societies but, rather, its normative undertones. Although
contemporary environmental policies and reforms may indeed be 'based' on or
reflect ideas of ecological modernisation, they should be criticised for that, as
such attempts to solve the environmental crisis suffer from various problems,
according to these critics.
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