Publication Type:
Book ChapterSource:
Environmental Sociology: European Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Challenges, Springer Verlag, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York, p.19–38 (2010)Keywords:
Ecological Modernisation, environmental governance, Environmental protests, Globalisation, Networks and flowsAbstract:
For quite some time environmental sociology has been preoccupied with understanding the fundamental causes of environmental crises. It is only since the 1990s that attention has shifted stronger to understanding environmental reform. This contribution reviews three generations of environmental sociological theory on environmental reform, labelled ‘policies and protests’, ‘ecological modernisation’, and ‘networks and flows’. The three bodies of social theory follow each other chronologically, and have been developed against the background of the specific social order of that time. But they all still have their relevance in understanding how contemporary modern society copes with environmental crises and challenges.