Habermas in Environmental Thought

Abstract

A number of environmental scholars have argued Jürgen Habermas' communicative theories contain important insights for developing discourse-based models for making decisions about environmental risks and problems. Others have criticized Habermas for his anthropocentrism and split with the first-generation Frankfurt School's social ecology. By repositioning these assessments into Habermas' theories and their development, I argue the dissimilar interpretations and applications of Habermasian theory in the environmental social sciences and humanities can be explained by the theme of Habermas' work highlighted by both groups. Environmental critics of Habermas tend to emphasize his substantive claims about human-nature relations, whereas his environmental supporters tend to emphasize how his procedural theories of fair and inclusive discourse provide democratic alternatives to technocratic environmental decision-making. Environmental scholars and sociologists can continue this fruitful "greening" of Habermasian theory by (1) merging the social ecology of the first-generation Frankfurt School with Habermas' communicative theories and (2) continuing the development of discourse-based environmental decision-making models while attending to the concerns raised by Habermas' environmental critics.

Communicative rationality and the evolution of business ethics: corporate social responsibility and stockowner–employee partnership–An empirical case study in Republic of Korea1

“…Purposive-instrumental rationality, though still present and important in many crucial respects, is not enough for grasping the significance of the transformation of business ethics and corporate governance. It is here where we find that the pioneering attempts to bring Habermas' concept of communicative rationality to business corporate organization of CSR and ESG are suggestive (47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54). Furthermore, we can say that we are passing the age of modernity characterized by a forwardlooking, optimistic outlook of science and technology and reaching the threshold of a self-reflexive second modernity (14)(15)(16)(17)(55)(56)(57)(58).…”

On the colonization of the environment

“…105-111). To survey the broad literature on these debates, associated with Dryzek (1990) and others, Gunderson (2014) provides a good entry point. 2.…”

Climate Change and Society

“…We would not expect a single ethical theory to dominate in sociology in the way utilitarianism dominates economic policy analyses. Some sociological discussions engage deliberative ethics in the tradition of Dewey and Habermas (Gunderson 2014(Gunderson , 2018, but, in general, there is surprisingly little discussion of ethical theories by climate sociologists. The sociological focus on power, inequality, and justice predisposes us to have useful insights into the implications of ethical theories in practice, and in turn, careful assessment of alternative ethical theories could help us hone our assessment of policies.…”