In ecological modernization theory, Mol and Spaargaren argue that a reflexive ecological consciousness
will result in a new politics and transformation of industrial practices and technological
innovation that will benefit the environment (Spaargaren, 1997). This model is rooted in an economic
model of change with social implications, deriving its basis from earlier work done by resource economists
on internalizing the externalities of markets. In this economic model, businesses face increasing
costs of resources from both increasing scarcity and increased state-imposed costs on resource withdrawals
and resulting pollution outputs. In accounting for these increased costs of resource use and
by-products, firms respond by investing in technologies that reduce resource use. Ecological modernization
clearly emphasizes a firm’s ability to perceive changing external conditions like
environmental destruction and increasing costs of resources and react by altering their use of
resources in response. One underlying difference between treadmill of production and ecological
modernization theory is the level of agency that corporations and industrial sectors are perceived to
have in being able to react to their external environment and seek to alter it. Ecological modernization
also theorizes more variation in behaviors between organizations and industries rather than the
view of a united group of economic organizations. In addition, in EMT economic organizations do
not necessarily resist changes from environmental influences such as social movements and the state,
and in fact, interorganizational partnerships between these groups are highlighted as part of the process
of political modernization.
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