PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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In sum, political economy arguments are both varied and wide-ranging, but
always united in their ultimate focus on the quadruple question “Who benefits, who
suffers, why and how?”.
4.6 Renunciation
4.6.1 Introducing the Framework
In many ways, the renunciation discursive framework is the classical
environmentalist discourse, criticizing the over-consumption and depletion of natural
resources and urging a return to a less resource-intensive way of living. The overarching
theme is ecological balance, and the key unit of analysis is nature. Renunciation
approaches, the most radical of which are also anti-modern, are based on the fundamental
insight that it is impossible for all economies in the world to keep growing and thus
produce environmental impacts in the same way that Western industrial nations have in
the past century. Supporters of the Renunciation discourse do not share ecological
modernization scholars’ (or practitioners) faith in technology’s ability to ensure that
future growth is clean and ecological. The policy dimension for the framework is
protective, eco-centric action.
The most important, and also most stereotypical example of a globally relevant
renunciation discourse is the Deep Ecology / Ecosophy approach. Deep Ecology has a
strong moralistic, and even fundamentalist overtone. Deep Ecology principles are broad
and not easily translatable into one concrete political program. However, in 1984, Deep
Ecology leaders Arne Naess and George Sessions developed an eight-point platform for
supporters of the movement that has become a frequently-cited reference for Deep