Contradictions of Ecological Modernisation: Pulp and Paper Manufacturing in South-East Asia

Abstract

A growing literature suggests we have entered an era of paradigmatic institutional change permitting broad environmental transformation of society, including fundamental restructuring of manufacturing. To date, ecological modernisation theory has primarily examined advanced industrial societies. Few studies have taken into account its applicability in newly industrialising countries (NICs). This paper does so, drawing on the author’s research on South-East Asian pulp and paper industries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Those industries improved efficiencies, reduced waste, and progressed towards clean production. At the same time, they failed to meet an important criterion of ecological modernisation, the dematerialisation of production. Rather, ‘supermaterialisation’ of pulp and paper production in South-East Asia may be helping facilitate dematerialisation in the North. The paper concludes that dynamics of ecological modernisation may be present in large-scale, export-oriented modern sectors of NIC economies, while being more problematic in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Such dynamics present serious challenges for ecological modernisation theory.