The Origins and Theoretical Foundations of Ecological Modernisation Theory
A.P.J. Mol, Martin Jänicke
Abstract
In the maturation and further theoretical foundation, several Dutch environmental social scientists played a crucial role, followed later by UK and Scandinavian scholars. This chapter contains a number of key texts that can be seen as path-breaking in the coming of age of ecological modernisation theory. It focuses on the new relations between state and market that proved to be foundational in developing ecological modernisation ideas in the 1980s. The chapter also focuses on the conceptualisation of technology within ecological modernisation ideas, arguably one of its most criticised features. It is especially devoted to the formulation of ecological modernisation as a social theory, which took oil in the early 1990s but continues until today. The chapter deals with the various debates that have contributed to the further maturation of ecological modernisation, especially those with deep ecologists and neo-Marxists. Together then, it aims to provide a better understanding of the foundational contributions to and debates on ecological modernisation.