This book examines how the European environmental movement, as part of an emerging European civil society, has impinged on the problem definitions and solution strategies in the European politics of the environment. Examining core case studies in European environmental policy - biodiversity politics (Natura 2000), the politics of genetically modified organisms, Trans-European Transport Networks, and the European politics of climate change - this study, written at the crossroads of social movement, public sphere and political discourse theory, argues that a social movement's most important feature is its 'cognitive praxis', its ability to successfully challenge dominant conceptions of reality and to create new green public spheres. It examines whether 'ecological modernization' is able to solve the tension between economic growth and environmental protection, and to what extent European environmentalism has contributed to the emergence of a green 'normative power Europe'.
List of Tables and Boxes
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
1 Introduction 1
2 Social Movements, Civil Society and Public Spheres 18
3 European Environmental Politics 40
4 Environmental Groups in Brussels 61
5 In Search of a European áGood Society' 77
6 The Natura 2000 Discourse 97
7 Framing Genetically Modified Organisms 123
8 Ecological Modernization and the Trans-European Transport Network 145
9 The European Politics of Climate Change 167
10 Conclusion 189
Notes 202