Abstract
This paper examines structural dimensions of the influence of core-per iphery relations on adoption of environmental technologies in newly industrializing countries (NICs), using Nordic involvement in development of Southeast Asian pulp manufacturing in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a case study. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Southeast Asia was one of the first places in the world to employ new cleaner technologies in pulp and paper manufacturing. How did this happen? This paper argues that adoption of these technologies was influenced by dynamics within the world-system combined with the intentional actions of firms, states, and social movements over a 30-year period. The paper concludes that diffusion of the new environmental technologies is resulting in cleaner production in the periphery even while being part of a trend toward increased polarization between core and peripheral states, economies, and firms. Data were gathered from fieldwork in Southeast Asia from 1993-96; correspondence with Nordic firms, organizations and individuals in attendance and interviews at industry trade shows; and use of available data. Portions of the paper are derived from a larger study of adoption of environmental technologies in the pulp and paper industries of Southeast Asia and Australia.
Highlights
In the early 1990s, Southeast Asian pulp firms adopted world-class cleaner production technologi es, defying conventional wisdom that "Third World"countries were sites for "First World" manufacturing activities to run away to, to avoid incrca~ingly stringent environmental controls at home -- the so-called "pollution haven thcsis"(scc Leonard 1988; sec Eskcland and Harrison 1997)
Countries were sites for "First World" manufacturing activities to run away to, to avoid incrca~ingly stringent environmental controls at home -- the so-called "pollution haven thcsis"(scc Leonard 1988; sec Eskcland and Harrison 1997). How did this come to take place? This paper maintains that Southca~t Asian pulp firms' adoption of new, more environmentally-friendly pulping and bleaching technologies wa~ a product of structural dynamics within the world-system combined with the intentional actions of firms, states, and social movements in Nordic Europe and Southca~t A~ia over at lea~t a 30-ycar period
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, under conditions of global recession compounded by political restructuring and realignment in Europe, Nordic countries targeted forest industry process technologies a~ part of a broader effort to expand high value-added exports to the newly industrializing countries ofSouthca~t Asia-- the new "Tiger" economics
Summary
In the early 1990s, Southeast Asian pulp firms adopted world-class cleaner production technologi es, defying conventional wisdom that "Third World". The forward-looking practices ofNordic governmental and non-governmental organizations, technology firms, and research centers, in developing new, cleaner production technologies increased global demand for those technologies, including in Southeast Asia This is one point at which earlier analyses of relations between the world-system and environment may be furthered. As Arrighi and Drangel's (1986) analysis may suggest, the core-periphery hierarchy may be heightened in the course of peripheral industrialization, regardless (or even because) of the adoption of clean technologies How do these dynamics play out in the case of the "Vikings and Tigers" -- Nordic involvement in the development of Southeast Asia's pulp and paper industries?. At the end of the century, Nordic firms and states have been taking advantage of global economic crises to establish world-dominant pulp and paper sector frames, including both manufacturing and technology.
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