Ecological modernisation around the world: An introduction

Many contemporary environmental social scientists and commentators suggest that a major turn occurred in the 1980s with regard to the continuing undermining of sustenance bases of western industrial societies. The Brundtland report WCED, 1987 is often denoted as the codification of that transformation, which was marked by other historical events as well, including the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). Beyond this common understanding, divergent interpretations have developed on (i) the nature of that transformation, (ii) the actors and actions which have triggered innovations in societies’ interactions with external nature, (iii) the extent to which such environmental improvements have reflected changing environmental ideologies and discourses, and (iv) the social and geographical distribution of those changes.