Ecological Modernization

Debate over Origin

The origins of ecological modernization are debated. Some authors say that it is an idea that originated in the corporate sector in the United States in the 1980s, spread to Europe following the 1987 publication of Our Common Future (also known as the Brundtland report), and had a significant impact on national environmental planning in countries such as the Netherlands. Other authors claim that the German sociologist Joseph Huber should be credited as its founder and that the theory was first developed in a small number of western European countries, notably Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

The theory emerged as a critique of both neoMalthusian approaches and neo-Marxism (which was popularly represented in debates with ecological modernists through the “treadmill of production” thesis). The ecological modernization approach does not reject industrial production and consumption processes, but accepts their inevitability and instead considers it desirable to focus on the changing character of these processes using ecological criteria as a measure of quality.

Ecological modernization is a perpetuation of the modernist values of rational thinking and the application of knowledge to problem solving. It recognizes that modern states can, if they are willing, incorporate environmental concerns into their regular activities. That is, the environment can be institutionalized and accorded similar treatment to social and economic issues. Since the mid-1990s, this [Page 514]approach has been increasingly challenged by multilateral trade agreements that make it more difficult for states to regulate environmental issues within their boundaries. The formation of trade blocs has also meant that the focus of ecological modernization research is no longer on national economies, but increasingly considers how environmental regulation may contribute to trade advantages for a country. The global nature of some important environmental issues and their policy responses, for example the issue of climate change, has also enabled ecological modernization to develop more of an international perspective in recent years.

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