8. Industrial Society and Beyond

2021 ◽  
pp. 167-186
Author(s):  
John S. Dryzek
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Policy Performance

Countries such as Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland have apparently turned in some of the most successful environmental policy performance in recent decades. The reason has much to do with their adoption of ecological modernization discourse. This discourse is most at home in prosperous consensual democracies, though it has spread to many countries, including developing ones, as well as to global governance. Ecological modernization sees environmental protection and conservation implemented by government as good for business, and so economic growth. The slogan “pollution prevention pays” is prominent. Ecological modernization is largely a moderate technocratic discourses that stresses green re-tooling of the capitalist economy, though more radical “strong” versions exist that would contemplate thoroughgoing structural change that moves beyond the liberal capitalist status quo.

8. Industrial Society and Beyond: Ecological Modernization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John S. Dryzek
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Technological Change ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Production Technology ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Green Production

This chapter examines ecological modernization, a discourse that addresses the restructuring of the capitalist political economy along more environmentally defensible lines. At one level ecological modernization is about the search for green production technology, and especially clean energy. However, this search also opens the door to intriguing possibilities for more intensive transformation, involving political change as well as technological change. So although at first sight ecological modernization looks like a rescue mission for industrial society, albeit an imaginative one, it also points to political and economic possibilities beyond industrial society. The central assumption of ecological modernization is that the capitalist political economy needs conscious reconfiguring and far-sighted action so that economic development and environmental protection can proceed hand-in-hand and reinforce one another. The chapter first explains the idea of ecological modernization before discussing its discourse analysis. It concludes with some remarks on the future of ecological modernization.

scholarly journals THE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT 1974: A SIGNIFICANT LEGAL INSTRUMENT FOR IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY DIRECTIVES OF MALAYSIA

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maizatun Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Pollution Control ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Policy Objectives

In Malaysia, the Environmental Quality Act 1974 is considered to be the most comprehensive piece of legislation promulgated to deal with environmental protection and pollution control. The Act also forms the basic instrument for achieving environmental policy objectives. As a developing country that strives for economic growth, Malaysia’s rapid development activities especially since the early 1980s have unveiled new dimensions to environmental concerns. Since its introduction more than 30 years ago, the scope and strategies of this Act have been constantly amended, altered or improved in the pursuit of environmental policy objectives. Thus, in the context of environmental protection, the Environmental Quality Act 1974 needs to be pro-active and flexible enough to accommodate new measures for facing challenging environmental problems. These changes provide an indication of the increasing complexities of environmental issues facing Malaysia. This paper examines the development of environmental strategies that has taken place within the framework of the Act, based on Malaysia’s environmental policy directives particularly on sustainable development.

Uneven Decoupling

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 410-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan P. Thombs ◽  
Xiaorui Huang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Data Limitations ◽  
Treadmill Of Production ◽  
Global North ◽  
Organization Of Production ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

The macro-comparative decoupling literature has often sought to test the arguments made by the treadmill of production (TP) and ecological modernization (EM) theories. However, due to data limitations, these studies have been limited to analyzing the years after 1960. Given that both theories discuss historical processes operating before 1960, analyzing pre-1960 data is warranted to more comprehensively test the propositions made by both theories. We assess the long-term relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions from 1870 to 2014 using a sample of global North nations. We use Prais-Winsten regression models with time interactions to assess whether, when, and how much CO2 emissions have decoupled from economic growth over time. We find that significant relative decoupling has occurred twice since 1870: during the last 30 years of the nineteenth century, the timing of which is contrary to what both the EM and TP theories might expect, and after 1970. We also observe that the relationship remained relatively stable from the turn of the twentieth century to approximately 1970, which aligns with the arguments made by the classical TP work. We conclude that shifts in the global organization of production have shaped the magnitude of the economic growth–CO2 emissions relationship and its changes over time, which has implications for climate mitigation policy.

Human Destiny Is a Choice

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
World Order ◽  
Military Spending ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Global World ◽  
First Time ◽  
Human Destiny

In this chapter, Haq outlines his optimistic outlook for global world order. For him the end of the Cold War had opened up many more choices for the global community. For the first time global military spending was seen to be declining every year. He saw potential to reallocate ODA aid funds, which were previously tilted in favour of cold war allies. For Haq the challenge is to link economic growth as the means to human development as an objective. He stresses on the need to reform institutions of global governance to translate globalization into opportunities for people.

The management of structural adjustment and macroeconomic reform in Vietnam

1998 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37
Author(s):  
Keith Griffin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Structural Change ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Rapid Economic Growth ◽  
Actual Output ◽  
Present Decade ◽  
Official Data ◽  
Low Rate

Vietnam has been remarkably successful in managing structural adjustment and macroeconomic reform. As a result, it has achieved very rapid economic growth during the present decade without, apparently, a substantial increase in inequality. All sectors of the economy have grown rapidly and yet there has been dramatic structural change. This growth and structural change, according to official data, have occurred despite a relatively low rate of investment. Our analysis suggests, however, that savings and investment have been understated, that actual output is higher than the national accounts data indicate and that growth is even faster than the official figures suggest. These results are a consequence of the nature and sequencing of the policy reforms that were introduced from the 1980s onwards.

scholarly journals Expansion of Policy Domain of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP): Challenges and Opportunities for Policy Design

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6763
Author(s):  
Yasuhiko Hotta ◽  
Tomohiro Tasaki ◽  
Ryu Koide
Keyword(s):  
Policy Design ◽  
Sustainable Consumption ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Policy Domain ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Sustainable Consumption And Production ◽  
Transition Policy

Since 2015, the international policy community has started to agree on international agreements with ambitious middle-term and long-term goals, highly relevant to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) such as those seen in the Paris Agreement, SDGs, and the plastic-related agreements at the G7 and G20 processes. Along with this trend, there has been growing attention given to socio-technical system change or “transition”. Policy debate is putting more focus on the need to change consumption and production patterns and deal with various ecological consequences within planetary boundaries such as decarbonization, absolute reduction in material throughput, or creation of a plastic-free society. This paper examines the expansion of the policy domain of SCP in three phases; SCP focusing on pollution control and cleaner production (SCP 1.0), SCP from the perspective of product lifecycle (SCP 2.0), and SCP focusing on systematic changes in socio-technical systems driving consumption and production (SCP 3.0). The potential impact of a wider SCP policy domain can be comparable to the historical shift in discourse related to ecological modernization theory from pollution prevention to efficiency. This emerging trend corresponds to the need for a fresh approach to policy design which can facilitate transition to sustainability.

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