Another Point of View - Locating Environmental Education Between Modern Capitalism and Postmodern Socialism - A Reply to Lucie Sauvé

Oct 15, 2026

A reply by John Huckle argues that environmental education and sustainability debates cannot be separated from the intertwined global economic crisis. It challenges Lucie Sauvé’s framing through modernity and postmodernity by linking modernity’s dominant forms to material realities of global capitalism. The text critiques reformist sustainability discourse, highlights contradictions in capitalism and schooling, and defends critical education grounded in participative action research. It emphasizes democratic transformation across economic, political, and cultural spheres to achieve ecologically and socially sustainable development.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Another Point of View

Locating Environmental Education Between Modern Capitalism and Postmodern Socialism

A Framework for Analysis

Environmental Education

Another Point of View Locating Environmental Education Between Modern Capitalism and Postmodern Socialism: A Reply to Lucie Sauvé John Huckle, South Bank University, London In countries as diverse as Belgium, Mexico, Bangladesh and China, 1998 brought severe flooding which threatened the lives and livelihoods of countless millions of people. More and more disaster experts, development agencies, and citizens’ groups are supporting the theory that the globalisation of economies is largely responsible for such human misery. Structural adjustment programmes, deregulation and the opening of markets maybe good for international capital, but such processes increase inequalities, encourage people and countries to over-exploit natural resources, and contribute to reductions in spending on social and environmental welfare. The global environmental crisis cannot be separated from the global economic crisis and any analysis of the causes and possible solution to environmental problems should start from this fact. A Framework for Analysis Rather than locating her analysis within the framework provided by a global capitalism undergoing profound change, Lucie Sauvé prefers to start from “two dominant cultural trends—modernity and postmodernity.”She fails to acknowledge that dominant forms of modernity are those shaped by and shaping the material realities of global capitalism, and that what some recognise as postmodernity is the result of continuing capitalist restructuring to overcome related economic and environmental problems. It is no accident that the discourse of sustainable development has risen to prominence in the past two decades as economic liberalism has accentuated problems of underdevelopment and environmental degradation. Disorganised capitalism has proved less sustainable than organised capitalism and the political debate surrounding sustainability is part of a larger debate focussing on what mode of regulation will allow capitalism to survive in a viable form. Such debates are pre-occupied by the kind of reformism that seeks a new form of social democracy or “third way” in Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 4, Summer 1999 36 Europe, they also create space to raise genuinely radical alternatives (Giddens, 1994). They point up the continuing contradictions of capitalism and capitalist schooling and prompt consideration of ecological socialism and democratic education. The author’s framework is too reluctant to acknowledge the complex nature of modernity, its many dimensions, and its contradictory elements. Critical theory has developed to explain why the “major hopes” of modernity have not been realised, suggesting that economic power, technocracy, and instrumental reason have exploited human and non human nature rather than allowing them to realise their true potential (Kellner, 1989; Gibson, 1986; Young, 1989; Goldblatt, 1996) . It seeks to set a partial and arrested enlightenment on a new path of sustainable development, by subjecting the economic and political spheres (the market and the state) to discursive democracy or popular control guided by the kind of communicative reason still found within the public and private spheres (Dryzek, 1987) . Critical education or participative action research is central to such a renewed modern project or constructive postmodernity, and is well exemplified by the more radical interpretations of Local Agenda 21 that assist communities to empower themselves and so gain greater control over their lives and environments (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991; Selman, 1996) . Only when the economic, political and cultural spheres are fully democratised will people be able to realise their common interest in forms of development that are ecologically, economically, socially and culturally sustainable. The critical theory and notions of participative action research that underpin critical education for sustainability embrace a philosophy of knowledge that lies between modernism

FAQs

Why does Huckle connect environmental problems to the global economic crisis?

He argues that the global environmental crisis is inseparable from the global economic crisis and that analyses of causes and solutions must start from this relationship.

What does Huckle criticize about Sauvé’s proposed framework?

He contends that Sauvé underestimates how modernity is shaped by global capitalism and how “postmodernity” can result from continuing capitalist restructuring to address economic and environmental problems.

How does the article describe critical education for sustainability?

It presents critical education as central to a renewed modern project, grounded in critical theory and participative action research that validates ideas through theory applied to practice.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Rainbow Cat