Sustainability Politics and Paradigms
Lecture 1 – locating in modernity
-Allan
-Giddens
-Lintsen (484-508)
-Sorensen and Christianen
Lecture 2 – the elitist paradigm
-Evans
-Held
-Mackie
Lecture 3 – The pluralist paradigm
-Smith
-LaVaque
Lecture 4 -
-Scott Chp3
-Scott Chp6
-Lintsen 7
-Lintsen 11
Lecture 5 – The neo-pluralist paradigm
-Smith
,-Eckersley
-Kill and Tosun
Lecture 6 – The neo-marxist paradigm
-Dunleavy
-Steinmitz
-Andreucci
Lecture 1 – Introduction to the course: locating political science and sustainability in
Modernity
-Contemporary question: what are the roots of current sustainability problems?
Allan (2011: 3-6) In the beginning there was modernity
Tekst about contemporary social and sociological theory
-first understand modernity and the conditions under which social disciplines were founded
-modern used as a synonym of contemporary or up-to-date
-sometimes used as an adjective in modern architecture
-debate concerning modernity and whether we live in modernity now, or already have or
never will
-debate has implications for the kind of person we can be and kind of society we have
-apply a certain view of modernity that assumes a rational actor and an ordered world that can
be directed (one of many views)
,-according to other views reasoned social actor can be criticized – social world is not ordered
but chaotic system and the social world is not objective but simply a subjective attribution of
meaning
-other views argue that the idea of modern knowledge is intrinsically linked to power and is
oppressive
The making of modernity
-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 labor
- high commodification and use of rational markets
-the widespread use of bureaucracy
-large-scale integration through national identities—such as “American”—to unite differences
like gender, race, religion, etc.
In general, the defining institutions of modernity are nation-states and mass democracy,
capitalism, science, and mass media
- the historical moments that set the stage for modernity are the Renaissance,
Enlightenment, Reformation, the American and French Revolutions, and the Industrial
Revolution.
-modernity is also a way of knowing that is rooted in the Enlightenment and positivism
-The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that began around the time Sir
Isaac Newton published Principia Mathematica in 1686, though the beginnings go back to
Bacon, Hobbes, and Descartes.
, -The people creating this intellectual revolution felt that the use of reason and logic would
enlighten the world in ways that fate and faith could not
-The principal targets of this movement were the Church and the monarchy, and the ideas
central to the Enlightenment were progress, empiricism, freedom, and tolerance.
The ideas of progress and empiricism are especially significant
- Prior to the Enlightenment, the idea of progress wasn’t important. The reason for this is that
the dominant worldview had its basis in tradition and religion. Traditional knowledge is by
definition embedded in long periods of time and thus resists change and progress. Religion is
based upon revelation, which, again by definition, makes our learning about the world
dependent upon God’s disclosure and not upon us developing or advancing it.
Modern idea of progress needs new view; Rather than the world being a mix of the physical
and the spiritual, as with religion or magic, it had to be understood as simply empirical, and
our knowing of this world dependent upon our own efforts, our own observations using our
five senses, and our own gathering of evidence.
-Traditional knowledge is valid if it stands the test of time; religious knowledge is valid if it is
revealed by God; but modern knowledge is valid if and only if it is empirically tested and
works.
The idea of progress is also tied up with what’s called positivism
-The basic tenet of positivism is that theology and metaphysics are imperfect ways of
knowing and that positive knowledge is based upon facts and universal laws.
