Sustainability politics. Paradigms and debates (73220042FY)
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Summary Sustainability Politics Mid-Termn Notes
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Sustainability politics. Paradigms and debates (73220042FY)
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Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
This document provides summaries of both the lectures and readings for the first part of the course. They are very comprehensive and great to study for the exam.
Sustainability politics. Paradigms and debates (73220042FY)
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SP Mid-Term Summary
Lecture 1: Introduction. Locating Political Science
and Sustainability in Modernity.
In the Beginning There Was Modernity- Allan (2011:
3-6)
The view of modernity assumes a rational actor and an ordered world that
can be directed.
Central ideas:
Empiricism;
Control through knowledge;
Progress;
Autonomy;
Tolerance (through ration)
As a historical period, modernity began in the seventeenth century and
was marked by significant social changes, such as:
Massive movements of populations from small local communities to
large urban settings;
A high division of labour;
A high commodification and use of rational markets;
The widespread use of bureaucracy;
A large-scale integration through national identities to unite differences
like gender, race, religion, and so forth.
The defining institutions of modernity are nation-states, mass democracy,
capitalism, science and mass media.
In order for the modern idea of progress to make sense, the universe had to
be seen in a specific light.
Progress in modernity—and thus the intent of modern knowledge—is
focused on two main areas: technical and social.
SP Mid-Term Summary 1
, The technical project of modernity is generally the domain of science.
The institutional responsibility for the social project rests with the
democratic state.
The social project of modernity was founded on the belief in natural,
human rights—rights that cannot be given to people by a
government because they belong to every person by birth.
A necessary implication of this belief is that government can
rule only by consent of the governed; that is, modern
government can rule only through democracy.
The Technical and The Social Project
The Technical Project:
Knowledge:
Empirically grounded;
Universal laws;
Enabling predictions;
Progress:
Via interventions, informed by universal laws;
Has to have predictable efforts;
Enables the control of nature and society.
The Social Project:
The nation-state and the state system promote stability;
The institutions enable:
The development of knowledge;
Knowledge-based progress.
The Theory of Second Modernity- Sørensen, Mads
P. & Alan Christiansen (2013: 39-48)
First Modernity:
Central concern: How to realize socio-economic progress;
SP Mid-Term Summary 2
, It was driven by six premises:
1. Society as a nation-state society;
2. Programmatic individualization;
3. Society as an employment society or gainful employment
society;
4. Nature is perceived as being separate from society;
5. Reliance on a scientifically defined concept of rationality;
6. First modern societies understand and manage their
development according to the principle of functional
differentiation.
a. The differentiation of social and societal subsystems
(economy, politics, culture, science etc.) has led to an
understanding of them as separate, unique and hierarchical
systems.
Goes hand-in-hand with industrialization.
It was challenged by its success (like individualization) and its
unintended side effects.
Second Modernity:
Driven by side effects: How to maintain well-being while avoiding/
eliminating/ mitigating side effects;
Whereas Beck characterized first modernity as linear or simple
modernity – since the process of modernization occurred in a relatively
straightforward manner – he characterizes second modernity as
reflexive.
The reason for this change is that the process of modernization is
starting to relate actively to itself.
Whereas the process of modernization during first modernity was
largely programmatic, the process of modernization of second
modernity is, by and large, wholly powered by the unintended side
effects of industrial modernity.
Five Challenges:
1. Globalization;
SP Mid-Term Summary 3
, 2. Intensified/ radicalised individualization;
3. The global environmental crisis;
4. The gender revolution;
5. The Third Industrial Revolution.
Main characteristics:
Post-national organization of politics and economy;
The dissolution of communities and institutions;
Post-fulltime employment;
The socialization of nature;
The science of disenchantment: critique of rationality;
De-differentiation.
Dis-associated from industrialization.
Example: Netherlands
1. First Modernity, 1850-1970:
a. A corporatist agricultural system;
b. The state promotes knowledge development;
c. The state regulates food quality;
d. From the 1960s onwards, modernization enables mass
consumption, which leads to an increase in flows;
e. Post 1945s:
i. Agriculture becomes less labour-intensive: modernization takes
place through controlling animals and plants;
f. Specialization of labour;
g. Broken circularity to maximize economic benefits.
2. Second Modernity, 2000s onwards:
a. Farms vertically integrated in economic chains;
b. Mass consumption shapes lifestyles;
c. Closed cycles between nature and human/ animal waste flow;
SP Mid-Term Summary 4
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