PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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4.2 Ecological Modernization: The Dominant Discursive Framework 1
To the extent that sustainable development has come to have meaning, it has …
primarily served as a vehicle for a form of ‘eco-managerialism’. In its most
sophisticated form it has facilitated elements of what has been called ‘ecological
modernization.’
Frank Fischer and Maarten Hajer (1999:3)
4.2.1 Introducing the Framework
It is to the analysis of the concept of ecological modernization and its relationship
with concept of sustainable development that we now turn. 2
The overarching theme of
the discursive framework of ecological modernization is “sustainable” growth, the key
unit of analysis is the (market) economy and the related policy suggestions are those of
pro-active, competitive action.
Speaking simplistically, the concept of “ecological modernization” is really no
more than an “efficiency-oriented approach to the environment” (Hajer 1995:101). Some
see in it no more than a “neo-liberal environmentalism that is friendly to capitalist
development” (Harper 2001:101). In my view, this is an overly simplistic, and partially
1 In this study, I purposely do not distinguish between a “standard” modernization and an ecological
modernization perspective. No serious scholar today would deny that environmental concerns are relevant
and important for any kind of decision-making. So in my (as well as Hajer’s and other scholars’) view,
ecological modernization rhetoric now is the standard development rhetoric (at least in Europe) to the point
where it only makes sense to identify different levels of environmental commitment within the dominant
perspective of ecological modernization. David Harvey (1996:373-383), by contrast, still (rather
artificially) differentiates between a “standard view of environmental management” and ecological
modernization. Yet even he himself is forced to admit that in this attempt to portray the general
characteristics of ecological modernization, he is “exaggerating both its coherence and its difference from
the standard view” (p.380).
2 Eco-managerialism can be seen as a sub-concept of ecological modernization and it is therefore not
specifically discussed in this study. Broadly defined, it focuses on the management of natural resources,
risks and recreation (also see Luke 1999).