Post-Ecologist Politics: Social Theory and the Abdication of the Ecologist Paradigm (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory) - Hardcover

Since the late 1980s, ecological thought and the European eco-movement have gone through a phase of fundamental transformation which has been widely acknowledged but not yet theorised in any satisfactory way. This important text questions why radical ecological criticism has had so little impact on contemporary society, despite the urgency of the issues it highlights. The book offers a challenging theoretical critique of ecological thought itself.

Since the late 1980s, ecological thought and the European eco-movement have gone through a phase of fundamental transformation which has been widely acknowledged but not yet theorised in any satisfactory way. Numerous environmental sociologists have suggested that ecological thinking has come to maturity and that 'ecologism' has firmly established itself as an independent ideology. This book counters such assertions, controversially suggesting that, rather than being the vanguard of a future sustainable society, the eco-movement has become a rearguard battle defending modernist ideals which have largely lost their validity and attractiveness.

Post-ecologist Politics insists on the indispensability of theoretical models which may help us to interpret societal processes including environmental change and the multi-level discourse about it. Through the use of critical theory and systems theory (particularly the work of Luhmann), Bluhdorn reinterprets the eco-movement and devises a theory of 'post-ecologism'. This book questions why radical ecological criticism has had such little impact on contemporary society, despite the urgency of the issues it highlights, and offers a challenging theoretical critique of ecological thought itself.

Post-ecologist Politics is challenging and thought-provoking reading for all students and scholars interested in the politics and philosophy of the eco-movement.