ABSTRACT
Although it was established in the previous chapter that the environment and sustainable development truly constitute a field in Touraine’s sense of the word, this is not enough to understand the path that ecological modernization is likely to take. Indeed, we have shown that the business leaders we interviewed, while adhering to the paradigm of sustainable development, simultaneously put forward an interpretation that was consistent with their interests. Since it is on the margin of the main concerns of these business leaders, the environment enters into a representational system of which it is but a secondary element. In order to anticipate the paths that ecological modernization is likely to take, it is essential to understand not only the way business leaders enter into the field of the environment but also the universe into which the environment is integrated, that is, the business leaders’ social paradigm. It is important to understand this paradigm so as to understand the options of ecological modernization that are actually available, that is, those which might be linked to the elite’s social dominance and interests and thus around which a compromise might be forged.
