Ecological Modernisation – A Reformist review

The aim of this essay is to explain the nature of what can be called the ecological modernisation (EM) discourse, or vocabulary, and to evaluate the extent to which the discourse can also serve as a model with which it is useful to analyse ecological developments at the turn of the millennium. I make a distinction between these two ways of looking at EM. The first involves description and explanation; the second involves analytical judgements. I shall begin the review with a description of the development and main elements of the EM discourse. I shall then move on to discuss some criticisms of EM as a policy paradigm, first from what might be called radical greens and then from what might be called a postmodernist perspective. A further section of criticism is grouped under a heading called the 'mainstream' critique; this refers to attempts to reformulate the nature and scope of ecological modernisation rather than entirely dismiss its usefulness as a mode of analysis. I shall finish with some concluding comments.