Reformulating Modernization-Based Environmental Social Theories: Challenges on the Road to an Interdisciplinary Environmental Science

Abstract

While modernization theory has been largely abandoned in the social sciences, its influence is evident in environmental Kuznets curves, ecological modernization, and forest transition theory. These environmental social theories have consequently undergone criticism and varying degrees of reformulation that moved them away from modernization trappings, and in the process opened them to greater influence from theoretical perspectives in other social science disciplines, as well as the biophysical sciences. This is not unique to modernization-based environmental social theories, and raises questions about theoretical reformulations with cross-disciplinary contributions as a means of moving toward an interdisciplinary environmental science. Challenges to such efforts arise due to theoretical disputes and misunderstandings, which in turn hinder cross-disciplinary critiques of environmental social theories. While these challenges can be addressed via more transparent dialogue, reformulations should be viewed as provisional and incomplete. Whether theoretical reformulations and interdisciplinarity will suffice to address time-sensitive environmental questions remains to be seen.