ECOLOGICAL MODERNIZATION THEORY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IMPLEMENTATIONS

Abstract

Ecological Modernization Theory explains the potential for societies to recognize and respond to environmental impacts by finding new ways to manage the relationships between the environment and the economy. Environmental policy implications, on the other hand, are formed within different contexts and focus on the scope of new forms of environmental policy to be transferred between these contexts. In this context, it emphasizes the changing role of science and technology in environmental degradation and reforms, state institutions as social carriers of ecological restructuring and reforms, market dynamics and economic actors in addition to social movements. It also advocates changes in the traditionally central role of governments and nation-states in environmental reforms, and new ideologies emerging in the political and social spheres with changing discursive practices. It also wants to change the position, role and ideology of social movements in the process of ecological transformation. The aim of this research is to examine the connections between the literature on the environmental policy implications of Ecological Modernization Theory, which is a major area of discussion. According to the findings, environmental policy implications start from the basic component of the theory regarding the fundamental role of technological innovation in changing the ecological characteristics of the social structure. However, increasing environmental efficiency; transforming production processes from raw material-energy-intensive activities to information- and service-intensive activities; shows that clean production processes should be developed by using new technologies in economic activities. It is estimated that the effectiveness and success of the theory, which is mostly considered within the scope of industrialized countries, depends on the inclusion of ecological targets in macroeconomic and sectoral targets.