Module

Sustainability
and Governance
Introduction

Environmental policy paradigms in retrospect:

from conservation to sustainable development,
from environmental regulation to environmental governance
Michael Pregernig

History of environmental policy

Historic roots of environmental policy

Environmental policy is a young field of policy.
Sporadic measures have been taken for centuries
but environmental policy as an independent field
of governmental activities does exist only since the early 1970s.
At that time, we experienced a transition from
isolated and scattered regulations (e.g., neighbourhood
laws, protection against immediate risks) to a
more comprehensive environmental legislation.

1962

Source: boingboing.net

2007

2014/15

History of environmental policy

The ecological shock

The 1960s (in the US) and the 1970s (in Western Europe)
were marked by a profound change in values often referred
to as the ecological shock. Its main roots are:
1. increase in ecological damages and the frequency
and magnitude of ecological catastrophes
2. increased problem perception
due to a more critical
media coverage
3. (critical) scientific studies
getting a lot of public
and media attention

Development of key concepts of

modern environmental policy
Environmental policy as ...
1900ff.:

protective measures to reduce the

degradation of natural landscapes
1950s/60s: the protection against adverse effects
emanating from technical and economic
progress in an industrial society
1970s/80s: measures against the tendency
of industrial societies to destroy
their basic living conditions
(buzzword: limits to growth)
1990s on: the search for an environmentally
sustainable development path which
should be reached via the ecological
modernisation of our industrial society

conservation
curative
action
total
system
conversion
gradual
system
adaptation

Meta and regulatory discourses

(Arts et al. 2010)

Modernity
Discourse popular in the middle of the 20th century
Based on ideas of economic growth, industrialization,
social stratification, control over natural and
social resources and social change
Belief in the principles of rationality, efficiency,
planning, and future-orientation in individual
decisions, social institutions, and bureaucracy
Technology as the major determinant of social transformation
Natural resources should be transferred from the
agrarian sector to the industrial sector, which will
lead to structural transformation
Sources: Glover (2006), Arts et al. (2010)

1972

Ecological modernziation
Originated from debate on de-modernization
strategies of grass-root eNGOs in 1970s/80s
Strong focus on Technological Environmental
Innovations (Huber) as main drivers behind
Sustainable Development (incl. high-techs)
Companies/TNCs as important stakeholders
in the process of environmental change
Moderate(ed) eNGOs as professional sparring-partners
of consumers, companies and governments next to their
protest and pressure role in environmental change
Decentral governments and civil-society actors as
important co-policy makers to complement (inefficient)
national politics (state failure, Staatsversagen, Jnicke)
Source: Spaargaren (2008)

Cited references

Arts, Bas (Lead Author) (2010): Discourses, actors and instruments in international
forest governance. In: Rayner, Jeremy, Buck, Alexander & Katila, Pia (eds):
Embracing Complexity: Meeting the Challenges of International Forest Governance.
Vienna: IUFRO. 57-73.
Esty, Daniel C. (2006): Good Governance at the Supranational Scale: Globalizing
Administrative Law. Yale Law Journal, 115/7, 1490-1562.
Lemos, Maria Carmen & Agrawal, Arun (2006): Environmental Governance. Annual
Review of Environment and Resources, 31(1): 297-325.
Meuleman, Louis (2008): Public Management and the Metagovernance of
Hierarchies, Networks and Markets: The Feasibility of Designing and Managing
Governance Style Combinations. Heidelberg: Springer. Chapter 2: Theoretical
Framework, pp. 9-86.