ABSTRACT
Postmodernism and the social construction of the environment
Problems of postmodern environmentalism
Introduction
Throughout the book so far an important point of reference for analysing the environment and social theory has been the ways in which, both historically and conceptually, ‘modernity’ has affected social theorising about the environment. ‘Modernity’ can be understood as the (sometimes radical) changes in the organisation and legitimation of ‘modern’ social, political and economic life and ‘modern’ ways of thinking and acting, associated with the advent of the modern’ age in the latter half of the eighteenth century in Europe. The many and complex aspects of these changes in almost all parts of life are central for an adequate understanding of how ‘social theory’ (itself a product of the ‘modern’ age), in its different forms, schools and as developed by different social theorists, viewed, valued and thought about the environment.
