Ecological modernization ? origins, dilemmas and future directions

Environment and Modernity in Transitional China: Frontiers of Ecological Modernization

“…Within ecological modernization theory these processes have been conceptualized at an analytical level as the growing autonomy, independence or 'differentiation' of an ecological perspective and ecological rationality vis-a`-vis other perspectives and rationalities (cf. Andersen and Massa, 2000;Mol, 1995;Seippel, 2000;Spaargaren, 1997). In the domains of policies, politics and ideologies, the ecological perspective began to emerge as an independent force in the 1970s and early 1980s in most Western societies: the construction of governmental organizations, departments, legal institutions and monitoring and reporting programmes set up specifially to deal with environmental issues dates from that era, followed later by the emergence of green parties in the political systems of many OECD countries (Carter, 2000).…”

How Neoliberalism and Ecological Modernization Shaped Environmental Policy in Australia

“…Ecological modernization is an attempt at operationalizing sustainable development (Weale, 1992;Hajer, 1995;Mol, 1996;Mol & Spaargaren, 2000;Skou-Andersen & Massa, 2000;Young, 2000). At its simplest, ecological modernization represents a new politics of pollution (Weale, 1992), that seeks to address the limitations of reactive, ad hoc, and end-of-pipe approaches to environmental regulation.…”

Linking physical, economic and institutional constraints of land use change and forest conservation in the hills of Nepal

“…For example, increasing road access leads to deforestation due to increasing commodity prices (Rudel, 1995) and increasing consumption of forest products (Bhattarai et al, 2002;Gautam et al, 2003). Some authors (Andersen and Massa, 2000) consider ecological modernization theory only makes sense for a reference to more radical structural changes that promote ecological consistence rather than ordinary efficiency. However, Ehrhardt-Martinez et al (2002) argue that EMT might help to design a specific type of forwardlooking and preventive environmental policy based on the long-term structural change of patterns of production and consumption.…”