Over beschaving en milieu

Samenvatting

On Civilization and the Environment. The pivotal question of the article is to what extent the increasing concern for the environment in industrial societies could be considered a matter of civilization in the sense of Norbert Elias. In order to put this question into a developmental perspective, a distinction is made between two interconnected social developments: ‘economization’ and ‘ecologization’. An analysis is made of the structure and civilizing nature of these processes. The implications of this analysis for environmental policies are taken into consideration as well. Finally, the study discusses to what extent economization obstructs the ecologization of society.