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44Hussey and DoversTable 1. Typology of Environmental Discourses.EnvironmentalDiscourseSustainabilityProblem SolvingSustainableDevelopmentEcologicalModernizationAdministrativeRationalismDemocraticPragmatismEconomicRationalismDescriptionReinforces capitalist economy but economic growth, environmentalprotection, distributive justice, and long-term sustainability are seen to gotogether. Reassures developed societies that no tough choice will be madebetween economic growth and environmental protection.A systems approach which takes seriously the complex pathways bywhich consumption, production, resource depletion, and pollution areinterrelated. Emphasizes the need for partnerships between governments,business, moderate environmentalists, and scientists to restructure thecapitalist political economy along green lines.Seeks to organize scientific and technical expertise into bureaucratichierarchy in the service of the state, treated in monolithic terms. Strongemphasis on regulation. Strong conception of the nature of government asthe administrative state.Stresses the importance of interactive problem-solving involvingparticipants from within government and outside it. Like administrativerationalism, it takes the structural status quo of liberal capitalism asgiven, but government is seen not as the administrative state, but rather asa multiplicity of decision processes populated by citizens and driven byliberal democracy.Relies exclusively on the deployment of market mechanisms to achievepublic ends. Opposes regulation. No role for government except toestablish the basic parameters (property rights, infrastructure etc) ofdesigned markets. There are no citizens in economic rationalism, onlyconsumers and producers.Survivalism Survivalism Recognizes and emphasizes the resources upon which human beingsdepend. Stresses that human demands on the carrying capacity ofecosystems threaten to explode out of control. Population seen as anaggregate entity to be managed by elites. Rich in metaphors based on“limits to growth” theory.GreenRadicalismThe PrometheanGreenRomanticismGreenRationalismSource: Adapted from Dryzek (1997).Denies the existence of natural resources, ecosystems, and nature itselfand therefore denies that there could be a limit to them. Humans areseen to dominate everything else, and together with energy, competition,technology and markets nature can be totally controlled (once it is fullyunderstood).Considers that industrial society involves and induces a warpedconceptions of persons and their place in the world. Emphasizes the needfor new kinds of human sensibilities that are less destructive to nature.Two conceptions of nature captured in this discourse: “inner nature”and “outer nature.” Founded on the belief that governments, market andpolicies are of no consequence to the environment—the key to changingthe world is through ideas.Recognizes that nature is a series of complex ecosystems whosewellbeing requires change in human behavior. Social, political andeconomic structures are recognized as having important influence thatcannot be reduced to the sensibilities of the individuals inhabiting them(such as in Green Romanticism). Humans are set apart from nature byvirtue of their reasoning capacities, but they are not seen to dominate. Astewardship relationship between humans and nature is advocated.UCOWRJOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY WATER RESEARCH & EDUCATION