Greening the globe : world society and environmental change / Ann Hironaka.

"Recent decades have seen a rapid expansion of environmental activity in the world, including the signing of a growing number of environmental treaties and the formation of international organizations like the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Greening the Globe employs world society theory (aka world polity theory or sociological institutionalism) to explore the origins and consequences of international efforts to address environmental problems. Existing scholarship seems paradoxical: case studies frequently criticize treaties and regulatory structures as weak and ineffective, yet statistical studies find improvements in environmental conditions. This book addresses this paradox by articulating a bee-swarm model of social change. International institutions rarely command the power or resources to directly impose social change. Nevertheless, they have recourse via indirect mechanisms: setting agendas, creating workspaces where problems can be addressed, empowering various pro-environmental agents, and propagating new cultural meanings and norms. As a result, world society generates social change even if formal institutional mechanisms and sanctions are weak"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Cover; Half-title; Title page; Copyright information; Dedication; Table of contents; List of figures and tables; Preface and acknowledgments; 1 World Society and Social Change; World Society and Social Change: The Strength of Weak Mechanisms; Explaining Global Environmentalism; Modernization Theory; Capitalist Interests and Social Movement Responses; World Society Theory; Theoretical Issues in the World Society Perspective; Institutional Origins and Change; Structures and Workspaces; Actors and Agency; Interests; Conflict; When Efforts at Social Change Fail.

Reflections and Research Implications2 The Origins of the Global Environmental Regime; The Modern Conception of the Environment; Traditional Perspectives on Institutional Formation; Modernization Theory; Social Movement Accounts; World Society Process of Institutional Formation; Preexisting International Environmental Institutions; The Economic Development Regime; The Workspace of the UN Stockholm Conference; The United Nations System; Workspace of the Special Conference; The Global Environmental Institution; 3 Institutional Structure; The Proliferation of Institutional Structures.

Modernization TheorySocial Movement Arguments; World Society Theory; The Apparent Ineffectiveness of Environmental Regulatory Structures; Political Will and Policy Effectiveness; Resources and Policy Effectiveness; Institutional Structure and the Creation of Workspaces; Agenda Setting; The Creation of Workspaces; Persistence of Institutional Structures; Institutional Structures, Workspaces, and the Global Ozone Regime; Setting the Agenda; Creating Workspace; Institutional Persistence; Conclusion; 4 Agents; Theorizing Actors and Agents; The Creation of Institutional Agents.

Environmental AgentsINGOs as Agents; Institutional Activity; Interpretation; Diffusion and Translation; Innovation; The Problem of Hazardous Waste; Actors Mobilize against Hazardous Waste; Agents and the Expansion of Waste Management Infrastructure; Conclusion; 5 Cultural Meaning; Sociological Perspectives on Culture; The Institutional Reconstruction of Interests; The Conventional View of Interests; Institutions and the Reconfiguration of Interests; World Society and Cultural Meaning; Cultural Meaning in Institutions; Change in Cultural Meanings.

Meanings in World Society: Beyond the Cultural JuggernautCultural Meanings and Social Change; Conflict and the Emergence of New Meanings; Diffusion and Adoption of New Meanings; Resistance, Anachronism, and Social Change; The Case of Climate Change; Conflict Results from the Expanding Environmental Agenda; The Re-formation of Corporate Interests; Resistance to New Cultural Meanings; Conclusion; 6 The Limits of International Institutions; Value-Based Motivations for Social Change; The Converse of Institutional Change; Revolutionary versus Incremental Change; Optimism and Pessimism.

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