PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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modernization is about “what needs to be done with the capitalist political economy” so
that it does not challenge the current world order, but it accepts and works within it.
Dryzek is rather specific about the advantages of ecological modernization for business:
since future cleanup is expensive, pollution prevention pays; moreover firms can make
money by selling preventive devices and strategies as well as other green goods.
Consequently, “the key to ecological modernization is that there is money in it for
business” (Dryzek 1997:142), making it a pro-capitalist concept. By contrast, the
concept of sustainable development provides both pro-capitalist and anti-capitalist
interpretations, with a tendency towards the latter. This is consistent with my own
interpretation of sustainable development as a term that is applied within different
discursive frameworks. Note that ecological modernization is also defined as an
exclusively pro-modern discursive framework, while sustainable development as a
concept is also used by post-modernists and anti-modernists.
4.2.3 Ecological Modernization as a Framework for EU Transport Policy
Quite predictably, modernization-oriented transport economists and engineers
stress the vital importance of efficient transport infrastructures for successful economic
development, i.e. growth. They often narrowly equate sustainability with technological
innovation and/or profitability. 11 In the modernization-oriented literature, technical and/or
economistic solutions for road transport such as low-emission vehicles, smart cars,
congestion pricing systems, or HOV lanes take precedence over a more fundamental
11 To give a concrete example: during the 1999 World Bank Transport Expo, the ‘sustainability’ of toll
roads was repeatedly defined as the ability of the private concession company to turn a profit.