Ecological Modernization Perspective Research Articles

Determinants of Support for Climate Change Efforts in the Global South

This paper addresses determinants that underpin support for climate change efforts. The study is based on Pew Research Center (USA), Spring 2015 Global Attitudes survey dataset, with a primary focus on climate change, collected from March 25 to May 27, 2015. Drawing on the new ecological paradigm and ecological modernization perspectives, the paper utilizing logistic regression, examines the relationship between individuals’ perception or awareness of the severity of climate change and their support for limiting greenhouse emissions; the extent to which individuals’ views on whether developing countries should do as much as the rich countries in addressing climate change predict the likelihood of their (individuals’) support for limiting greenhouse emissions. The logistic regression models reveal that people’s rational insight into the following consequences of climate change positively predicts support for limiting greenhouse emissions: severe weather like floods or severe storms; long periods of unusually hot weather; rising sea levels; years of schooling and age positively predict support for limiting greenhouse emissions. In general, knowing an individual’s country of residence offers no predictive value in determining whether the individual will support limiting greenhouse emissions. The notable exceptions are: South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. These four countries display positive and statistically significant coefficients in the logistic regression model predicting support for greenhouse emissions. Keywords: climate change; environmental concern; greenhouse emissions; ecological crisis; Africa

Modernizing our way out or digging ourselves in? Reconsidering the impacts of efficiency innovations and affluence on residential energy consumption, 2005–2015

This study scrutinizes the impacts of efficiency innovations as well as affluence on residential energy consumption, which is a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions. The study draws on the ecological-modernization perspective, which is optimistic about how technological innovations and affluence can help societies overcome environmental challenges associated with production and consumption, and the political-economy perspective, which raises doubts about whether these factors are beneficial to the environment, given their tendency to drive more consumption. Analysis of nationally representative longitudinal data reveals mixed relationships between efficiency innovations and residential energy consumption: while some measures of efficiency innovations, generally those not requiring human-technology interactions, are negatively related to residential energy consumption, others are either unrelated to it or drive more consumption. These findings suggest efficiency innovations offer only minimal opportunities for conserving energy, and may depend on the nature of the innovation. Raising doubts about the potential for rising affluence to promote environmental protection, this study reveals positive relationships between our measures of affluence and residential energy consumption.

Transdisciplinarity and the food energy and water nexus: Ecological modernization and supply chain sustainability perspectives

Successful Food-energy-water (FEW) nexus projects will be more likely to succeed if a transdisciplinary approach is used. Ecological modernization (ecological technology) policies and practices, and sustainable supply chains influence the FEW nexus from a commerce and industry perspective. Taking these perspectives and considering their intertwined linkages is important for advancing research and adoption of FEW nexus efforts. This paper provides an overview of these perspectives and interlinkages. A biosolids case study is used to exemplify the complexities and interactions of these four thematic perspectives: the FEW nexus, transdisciplinarity, ecological modernization, and sustainable supply chains. An integrative multi-level analysis scheme is used to analyze interrelationships. This analysis and the case study help to identify a series of research opportunities to further this nascent field. Research opportunities include methodological developments, attitudinal and social concerns, performance indicator systems, and meta-social evolutions in technology and policy.

GREEN INNOVATION ANDFIRM PERFORMANCE: THE ECOLOGICAL MODERNIZATION PERSPECTIVE

Green innovation is becoming an essential business strategy in the 21stcentury as it brings sustainable environment and economic prosperity hand in hand. Consequently, the impact of green innovation on firm performance has drawn enormous attention among the scholars for the past few decades, aiming at empirically justify the positive implications of being green in business. However, the analysis from the ecological modernization perspective remains limited, although the focus on preventive approach to achieve environmentaland economic improvement is the central argument of this theoretical lens. This study tackles the above issue by examining the performance outcomes of green innovation adoption in view of ecological modernization perspective. A quantitative, survey based study collected data from 130 Malaysian manufacturing firms, which was subsequently analyzed using SmartPLS 2.0. The findings generally corroborate the positive implications of green innovation on firm performance in the aspects of environment, economic and competitive advantage. Likewise, EM perspective fits in offering plausible insights of the findings, hence entails the alternative ground to be employed in other studies of the like.

Will Democratization Save the Climate? An Entropy-Balanced, Random Slope Study

Democratization might be instrumental in addressing climate change on a global scale but the effect of democracy on carbon dioxide emissions is unclear. Treadmill of production (TOP) theory implies that democracy may increase emissions as publics pressure governments for increased economic growth. On the other hand, theories aligned with a rational choice perspective and ecological modernization perspectives suggest that democracy will reduce emissions as autocratic leaders have little incentive to address environmental policy. In this article, we clarify the role of democracy in emissions by using data that disaggregate different characteristics of democracies. Using novel causal inference techniques and generalized linear models, we allow the effect of democratic characteristics to vary across countries. Results indicate that democracy tends to reduce emissions, but the effect is modest, and its intensity varies significantly across countries.

The human dimensions of climate change: A micro-level assessment of views from the ecological modernization, political economy and human ecology perspectives

Understanding the manifold human and physical dimensions of climate change has become an area of great interest to researchers in recent decades. Using a U.S. nationally-representative data set and drawing on the ecological modernization, political economy, and human ecology perspectives, this study examines the impacts of energy efficiency technologies, affluence, household demographics, and biophysical characteristics on residential CO2 emissions. Overall, the study provides mixed support for the ecological modernization perspective. While several findings are consistent with the theory's expectation that modern societies can harness technology to mitigate human impacts on the environment, others directly contradict it. Also, the theory's prediction of an inverted U-shaped relationship between affluence and environmental impacts is contradicted. The evidence is somewhat more supportive of the political economy and human ecology perspectives, with affluence, some indicators of technology, household demographics, and biophysical characteristics emerging as important drivers of residential CO2 emissions.

State power and environmental initiatives in China: Analyzing China’s green building program through an ecological modernization perspective

This paper applies the ecological modernization (EM) framework to analyze China’s green building program. EM focuses on the effective institutionalization of environmental objectives into respective political and economic systems, and thus provides valuable insights into the roles of the state and other stake holders in environmental regulation. Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese government has advanced an aggressive green building campaign, which is distinguished by its speed, scale, and evolution from one of voluntary participation to a top-down implementation through administrative hierarchies. While this has resulted in a remarkable growth of green building projects, questions remain about the effectiveness and sustainability of such a state-centered approach. Though interviews with officials, planners, architects, real estate developers, and property managers in several Chinese cities, data analysis of the green building stock, and surveys of architects, this paper analyzes Chinese green building patterns and situates such patterns among the contradictory motivations of different levels of government and their relationships to different stake holders. This research finds that the top-down state apparatus is not sufficient to overcome these contradictions and the profit motives of the property developers. However, many under-developed opportunities exist to leverage property developers, building professionals, and the public to engage in green building practices. In the end, I argue that the state must embrace reform to build flexible and collaborative movements with other parties with strong public participation. China’s ecological modernization process may feature a stronger state and faster changes, but it is not exempted from the need of political modernization.

Energy Policy and Environmental Possibilities: Biofuels and Key Protagonists of Ecological Change*

AbstractWhile a growing body of research indicates the severe ecological and social costs of biofuel production worldwide, the U.S. government continues to promote the expansion of this fuel sector. Recent congressional testimony regarding the promotion of biofuels via the renewable fuel standard (RFS) offers a strategic research site for sociological investigation into the practices of key political actors and their roles in promoting and discouraging ecologically oriented change. Congressional hearings provide a window into the political process of energy policy formation, thus informing environmental sociological theory and debates. The ecological modernization perspective and its assumptions provide the analytical frame of this empirical analysis of congressional hearings during the peak legislative period concerning biofuels. This research is intended to contribute to alternative energy debates, add to our understanding of the role of various actors in energy policy formation, and further theoretical developments within sociology.

Green supply chain management innovation diffusion and its relationship to organizational improvement: An ecological modernization perspective

Drawing on diffusion of innovation and ecological modernization theories, we identify three types of industrial manufacturers, namely early adopters, followers, and laggards, based on the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices among Chinese manufacturers. Test results indicate that differences exist between the three types of GSCM adopters in terms of their environmental, operational, and economic performance. Understanding how Chinese manufacturers adopt GSCM practices and if this adoption affects their performance contributes theoretical advancement to the diffusion of innovation theory. Practically, the results provide managerial insights for manufacturers to benchmark for environmental management practices and performance improvement.

Evaluating green supply chain management among Chinese manufacturers from the ecological modernization perspective

Green supply chain management (GSCM) has become an emergent ecological modernization tool amongst Chinese manufacturers to balance environmental performance with productivity and business performance gains. Ecological modernization at the society level is influenced by restructuring policies and regulations. Some of these policies and regulations in China are focusing on enhancing energy savings and pollution reduction (ESPR). Based on a survey of 376 responses, we investigate whether different Chinese manufacturer clusters varying in their extent of implementing GSCM exist from this ecological modernization perspective. We also examine if Chinese manufacturers’ awareness of domestic and international environmental ESPR-oriented compliance is related to GSCM implementation and whether a mediating effect of regulatory pressure plays a significant role. The results highlight the varying pace of Chinese manufacturers to ecologically modernize with GSCM practices and the significance of regulatory pressure to diffuse the practices adoption by Chinese manufacturing industry. Implications of this research go beyond the manufacturers investigated in this study where similar occurrence of these relationships may exist in other regions.

Discourses of Nature Conservation and Heritage Management in the Past, Present and Future: Discussing Heritage and Sustainable Development from Swedish Experiences

The relationship between heritage management and nature conservation in Sweden has changed over time, from an earlier division between the two sectors – with nature conservation attached to the growing movement of environmental politics – towards more integrated ways of working under the umbrella of sustainable development. As forests have been associated with nature, the earlier divide has been more evident with forested areas than agricultural areas, a view that has contributed to the marginalization of such landscapes and their inhabitants. With the more integrated policy, heritage management is drawn into the societal discourse of ecological modernization, where environmental and sustainability issues have become new business ideas and sources of further economic growth. From an ecological modernization perspective, nature and cultural heritage are today (touristic) commodities, enforcing the power of the urban world over the rural world and thus risk contributing to further marginalization of the inhabitants. However, heritage sites appear to function as boundary objects in local communities, and may thus function as meeting places and sources of enhancement of community pride. Therefore, we argue for community participation and public communication within the heritage sector, especially concerning marginalized, forested landscapes in order to contribute to an increased knowledge and understanding of the local heritage and history, thus opening the way for creative local processes.

Water Price Reforms in China: Policy-Making and Implementation

Following the conviction that economic and pricing approaches are an essential addition to conventional command-and-control environmental regulation, China has gradually increased attention to, research on and experiments with the application of economic instruments in urban water management over the past two decades. This paper analyzes the actual application and implementation of economic instruments in Chinese urban water sectors, applying an ecological modernization perspective. Water tariffs in China have increased sharply over this period, increasingly representing full costs and increasing water use efficiency. But implementation of water tariffs does run into problems of unclear responsibilities, poor collection rates and institutional capacities. It is concluded that Chinese style ecological modernization should pay more attention to the institutional dimensions of natural resource pricing policies, if it is to profit from the theoretical advantages of economic approaches in urban water management.

Ecological Modernization and Eco-Marxist Perspectives: Globalization and Gold Mining Development in Turkey

Within environmental sociology, one of the central debates is between the ecological modernization perspective and the eco-Marxist perspective.1 Both theoretical perspectives have dealt with the en...

Conceptualizing a “Sustainability Business Model”

According to one perspective, organizations will only be sustainable if the dominant neoclassical model of the firm is transformed, rather than supplemented, by social and environmental priorities. This article seeks to develop a “sustainability business model” (SBM)—a model where sustainability concepts shape the driving force of the firm and its decision making. The SBM is drawn from two case studies of organizations considered to be leaders in operationalizing sustainability and is informed by the ecological modernization perspective of sustainability. The analysis reveals that organizations adopting a SBM must develop internal structural and cultural capabilities to achieve firm-level sustainability and collaborate with key stakeholders to achieve sustainability for the system that an organization is part of.

An ecological modernist interpretation of sustainability: the case of Interface Inc.

AbstractThis article seeks to extend understanding of how sustainability is operationalized in firms by considering the example of Interface Inc. In particular, we assess the sustainability policy and strategies of Interface Inc. within the frame recourse of an ecological modernization (EM) perspective of sustainability. One question of particular interest is whether organizations are able to implement an EM‐aligned worldview through their own internal capabilities or whether changes to the wider socio‐economic system are required. The analysis of Interface's experiences suggests that, at this stage, an organization cannot fully adhere to an EM perspective of sustainability; its success is also dependent on changes to the wider socio‐economic system in which the firm operates. The critical factors in implementing sustainability that emerged from the Interface case study are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

From Additions and Withdrawals to Environmental Flows

Sociology is known for its academic debates. These debates are vehicles to accumulate understanding and interpretation of a constantly changing modern order. In the environmental social sciences, one of the axes of debate recently centered between Treadmill of Production ideas and Ecological Modernization perspectives. This article reviews the nature of that debate and aims to move beyond it. In using the sociology of networks and flows, the future research agenda for the environmental social sciences is reframed and reformulated.

Ecological Modernization and Consumption: A Reply

This contribution balances Carolan's claim that ecological modernization perspectives fall short in adequately dealing with consumption, by referring to four major points. First, Carolan misinterprets ecological modernization where he claims that this perspective only argues for more production (and consumption). Second, Carolan is wrong in stating that ecological modernization has basically neglected issues of consumption as it has been part and parcel of the theory for some time. Third, he is incoherent with respect to the issue of downsizing consumption in a demodernization way. Finally, the approach taken by Carolan to debate the environmental dimensions of consumption brings us back to Malthusian debates of the 1970s, instead of moving forward to a more sociological theory and perspective of sustainable consumption.

Ecological Modernization and the Global Economy

This paper explores what an ecological modernization perspective has to offer in an era marked by globalization. Globalization processes and dynamics are mostly seen as detrimental to the environment. The point that an ecological modernization perspective puts on the research agenda is that, although global capitalism has not been beaten and continues to show its devastating environmental effects in all corners of the world, we are moving beyond the era of a global treadmill of production that only further degrades the environment. More or less powerful, reflexive, countervailing powers are beginning to move towards environmental reform. And these powers are no longer limited to a small environmental movement that only reacts to the constant undermining of society's sustenance base. In analyzing these countervailing forces, the paper also explores the consequences of globalization processes for ecological modernization ideas and perspectives.

Combining Social and Ecological Sustainability in the Nordic Forest Periphery

The growth of environmental consciousness has set challenges to the development of remote rural areas dependent on the exploitation of forest and other natural resources. The ecological modernization perspective seems to be leading to a simple disregard for the problems of societal development in these areas. The northern forests are considered to be the ‘lungs of Europe’ and a storehouse of biodiversity. The perspective of sustainable development attaches greater attention to the incomes of the local residents and functionality of communities. The article stresses that social sustainability must be taken seriously in contemplating the use of natural resources in remote rural areas and in resolving environmental problems. The empirical subject of the article is the North Karelian Biosphere Reserve. There is an appraisal of ways of using natural resources on the reserve, which are both conducive to maintaining employment and ecologically friendly. Utilization of natural resources as well as the strengthening of conservation interests have been significant supra‐local actors. Thus, is it important that biosphere reserve operations attract actors from various regional levels.