Abstract
Since the early 1970s sociologists have been attempting to incorporate environmental questions into social theory. The main objective of these efforts has been to gain a better understanding of the birth and development of environmental issues in society and the way society changes in dealing with them. During the 1970s and early 1980s the debate between distinct schools of thought in what we would now label environmental sociology focused on the main institutional dimensions of modern society that should be held responsible for the environmental crisis. To some extent this phase of intellectual development can be interpreted as the environmental ‘application’ of a more general sociological debate dating back to the 1960s that concentrated on questions relating to whether industrialism, capitalism, or surveillance was the common denominator characterizing modern Western societies.1
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Notes
For a more extensive discussion of these theoretical issues in environmental sociology, see A. Mol, The Refinement of Production: Ecological Modernization Theory and the Chemical Industry ( Utrecht: Jan van Arkel/ International Books, 1995 )
G. Spaargaren, The Ecological Modernization of Production and Consumption: Essays in Environmental Sociology ( Wageningen: Wageningen Agricultural University, 1997 ).
A. Giddens, Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics ( Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994 ).
U. Beck, Risk Society: Toward a New Modernity ( London: Sage, 1992 ).
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M. Douglas, Risk Acceptability According to the Social Sciences ( New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1985 );
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For a broad analysis of this issue see A. Irwin, Citizen Science: A Study of People, Expertise, and Sustainable Development ( London: Routledge, 1995 ).
E. Van Hengel and B. Gremmen ‘Milieugebruiksruimte: Tussen Natuurwet en Conventie,’ Kennis en Methode, 11 (3) (1995): 277–303.
U. Beck, Ecological Politics in an Age of Risk ( Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995 ).
P. Dickens, Reconstructing Nature: Alienation, Emancipation, and the Division of Labour ( London: Routledge, 1996 ).
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M. Jänicke, ‘Ober ökologische and politische Modernisierungen,’ Zeitschrift für Umweltpolitik and Umweltrecht 16(2) (1993): 159–75. See also Mol, The Refinement of Production and Spaargaren, The Ecological Modernization of Production and Consumption.
R. Paehlke and D. Torgerson, eds, Managing Leviathan: Environmental Politics and the Administrative State ( London: Belhaven, 1990 ).
K. LeBlansch, Mi.lieuzorg in bedrijven: Overheidssturing in het perspectief van de verinnerlijkingsbeleidslijn ( Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers, 1996 ).
A. Mol, V. Lauber, M. Enevoldsen, and J. Landman, Joint Environmental Policy-Making in Comparative Perspective, paper presented at the Greening of Industry Conference, Heidelberg, November 1996.
C. Bosso, ‘Transforming Adversaries into Collaborators: Interest Groups and the Regulation of Chemical Pesticides,’ Policy Sciences, 21 (1) (1988): 3–22
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A. Mol and G. Spaargaren, ‘Environment, Modernity, and the Risk Society: The Apocalyptic Horizon of Environmental Reform,’ International Sociology, 8 (4) (1993): 431–59.
Beck, Risk Society and J. Huber, Die Regenbogengesellschaft: Ökologie und Sozialpolitik ( Frankfurt am Main: Fisher Verlag, 1985 ).
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Hogenboom, J., Mol, A.P.J., Spaargaren, G. (2000). Dealing with Environmental Risks in Reflexive Modernity. In: Cohen, M.J. (eds) Risk in the Modern Age. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62201-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62201-6_4
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