World Society, the Nation-State, and Environmental Protection: Comment on Frank, Hironaka, and Schofer

Abstract

This article comments on the implications of Frank Hironaka and Schofer’s paper regarding world society nation-state and environmental protection. The arguments presented in their paper provide a noteworthy contribution to the understanding of states and environments. The paper documents that the global organizational-homogenization process is relevant to environmental protection institutions policies and practices. Moreover the authors acknowledge that there are arenas of environmental protection policy in which the impetus has come from the nation-states of the developing world rather than being diffused from the world society to the less modern nation-states. Finally the article suggests that McMichaels approach to a world-systemic context be adopted to provide a template for world society researchers for the development of a more nuanced view of the antecedents and consequences of structural homogenization.