Rationality and the environment: decision-making in environmental politics and assessment / by Bo Eling

1 Introduction; The problematic; Method of analysis--
2 The Environment as a Goal; The institutionalization of the environmental question in public debate; The institutionalization of the environmental question in the political apparatus; The environmental question's accentuation of the value problematic of the modern; The environmental question's transcending modernity; Environment, subject and society--
3 Modernity and ReflexivityHow the concept of modernity entered sociology; Communication and modernity --
Habermas' 'Theory of Communicative Action'; The theories of reflexive modernity; Risk society and reflexive modernity; Globalization and trust; Critique of Beck's and Giddens' concept of reflexive modernity; Capitalization and modernization; Reflexivity, knowledge and rationality--
4 Ecological Modernization; Theories of ecological modernization; The forms of reflexivity; The practice of ecological modernization. Internalization of environmental concerns in economic development strategy--
5 The Environmental Politics of Modernity; Environmental assessment as ecological modernization; Environmental assessment as reflexive arrangement; Bibliography; Index.

Environmental assessment and management involve the production of scientific knowledge and its use in decision-making processes. The result is that within these essentially rational, political assessment frameworks, experts are creating and applying scientific knowledge for decision and management purposes that actually have strong ethical and aesthetic dimensions. Yet these rational political frameworks lack the tools to provide guidance on ethical and aesthetic issues that affect the wider public. This revolutionary work argues that ethical and aesthetic dimensions can only be brought into en.