ABSTRACT

In the last chapter I demonstrated how the crisis of ecologist theory formation, the crisis of the eco-movement, and the crisis of eco-movement theory all point towards an end of the ecologist paradigm. Environmental issues, however, are undoubtedly still very high on contemporary political agendas. But the ecologist patterns of framing the problems and devising solutions have lost much of their political influence and theoretical credibility. The reasons for the emergence of post-ecologist patterns of discourse and policy making, and their significant social and political implications, cannot be spelt out with the conceptual tools provided by traditional ecologist thought. For this purpose we require a theory of post-ecologist politics.