Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ther of these theories
7
. Rather, I aim at
illustrating
a possibility to problematise
Julian's construction of the recycling network.
22.3.1 The Green Lenses of Ecological Modernisation Theory
Julian's job, greening an organisation, is normally considered by sociologists as
within the paradigm of Ecological Modernisation. Ecological Modernisation is
conceptualised by sociology as Ecological Modernisation Theory
8
- and EMT
prevails
9
. Here goes the story-line:
Modern industrial societies created and experience ecological crises. The idea
that 'greening' the institutions of industrial society can solve the global ecological
crisis
10
has been called Ecological Modernisation (EM). The theorists Arthur Mol,
Gert Spaargaren, Martin Jänicke and Joseph Huber
11
suggest(ed) that industrial
societies provide a
role model
for mitigating and preventing further deepening of
the crisis. Their approach became widely known as Ecological Modernisation
Theory (EMT). EM claims that industrialised societies can reach a balanced rela-
tionship with nature by engaging with the latter
more techno-scientifically and in
ways more mediated by the market economy
.
This claim, however, is also the focus of fundamental critique. According to
critics the claim can be categorised as ideological because it is sustained by
techno-corporate élites without taking into account well-known critiques which
convincingly point out that the ecological crisis has been created systematically
and inherently by those structures which EM aims to modernise. Thus, a slight
'greening' of the economic order, i.e. capitalism, cannot constitute a suitable sub-
stitute for abolishing this economic order as it also fundamentally constitutes an
ecological order in which profit is always more important than nature
12
.
Nevertheless, EM as a rationality, i.e. people believing in and practising it, ex-
ists. Julian provides a case of someone who believes that EM is part of solving the
environmental crisis. Opponents of EM, however, recognise that EM fails to un-
derstand what is necessary for the realisation of 'green' goals for all. Therefore,
7
For a more detailed discussion of the theories in relation to the case see Lippert (2010).
8
Cf. York and Rosa (2003).
9
Cf. e.g. Blühdorn and Welsh (2007), Jänicke (2008).
10
Summaries of the ecological crisis can be found e.g. in Carvalho (2001, p. 70), Haque
(2000, pp. 5-8) and Dingler (2003, p. 4).
11
Sonnenfeld and Mol (2006), Mol (2006), Jänicke (2004), Mol (2001), Mol and Son-
nenfeld (2000a), Mol (2000)
12
This has been shown by many academics, i.e. Benton (2001) and Pepper (1984). More
specifically, see the critique known as the Treadmill of Production thesis (e.g.
Schnaiberg, Pellow, and Weinberg 2000), the concept of Passive Revolutions by Gramsci
(as in Li and Hersh 2002) and the theory of Metabolic Rift (von Liebig, Marx and Foster)
together with the Jevons Paradox (as in Clark and York 2005).
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