The Light-Green Society

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Part I - The Postwar Acceleration
Introduction
1. Nukes, Concordes, and Anxiety
The French "Special Relationship" with High Technology
Ambivalent Modernity
Europe's Nuclear Macho? Perceptions of France as a Relatively "Ungreen" Nation
The Postwar Boom: Continuity vs. Discontinuity
Technological Darwinism
The Great Renewal
Machine/Symbol: The Concorde
The Role of Nuclear Technology within the National Discourse of Anxiety
French Perceptions of the Rainbow Warrior Affair
2. Endangered Species: The French Peasant
The Rural Future: A Key Issue for the French Greens
Machine/Symbol: Le Cheval Vapeur (Farm tractor, or "Steam-Horse")
The Cultural Backlash: In Search of a New Rural Balance
Territorial Balancing
French Uniqueness, French Ordinariness
Part II - The Rise of Ecology
3. The Prehistory fo Ecological Awareness
Environmentalism and Ecology: Working Definitions
Nineteenth-Century Precursors in France: From "Acclimatation" to Conservation
From Unity to Beauty: The Early Twentieth Century
1945-1960: Warnings Unheeded
4. The Unexpected Trajectory of Environmentalist Success
1960-1974: Taking it to a New Level
1974-1981: Eco-Quixote vs. Electricité de France
Machine/Symbol: The Nuclear Reactor
1981-1989: Entering the Political Fray
1989-present: "Tous Verts!"—"We are all environmentalists!"
5. Nuances of Dark Green
The Intellectual Horizons of French Environmentalism
A Revolution against the Industrial Revolution
The Two Main Currents of French Green Thought
Social Environmentalism: Four Interlocking Agendas
What Is Distinctive about the French Green Visions?
6. What Might It Actually Look Like?
The French Green Utopia: A Guided Tour
Machine/Symbol: The Wind Turbine
Part III - A Society Goes Light-Green
7. The Dual Nature of Light-Green
Nature Penetrating into Society—Machine/Symbol: The Train à Grande Vitesse
Society Penetrating into Nature—Machine/Symbol: Brittany's Pointe du Raz
8. Greening the Mainstream Consumer
Ironic Twists of a Partial Revolution
Surface Change and Deep Change
Back to Nature
Eco-consumerism: The Overflowing Cornucopia of "Less is More"
Eco-labels and "Eco-Friendliness"
9. The Environmentalization of the State
Anti-statism, More Government
The Layer Cake of Green Governance: Six Levels, Three Modes
Key State Actors, Key Legal Turning-Points
10. Industrialists as Ecologists
Factories and Big Business: New Constraints, New Strategies
ISO-14000 and Eco-Audit: The Case of an Industrial Pioneer
The New Eco-Professions: Expansion in the Tertiary Sector
11. Elusive Sustainability
A Territorial Balance Sheet
The State of the French Territory: An Ecocentric Perspective
The Anthropocentric Perspective: Is the Light-Green Society Sustainable as a Habitat for Humans?
Part IV - The Future of Nature in a Light-Green World: Long-Term Global Implications
12. The Light-Green Horizon
Broader Implications of the French Story
Humans and Nature on a Shrinking Earth
13. Artificialization and Its Discontents
The Rising Tide of Artifice
Machine/Symbol: Biotechnologies
La Gestion du Vivant: The "Management of All Living Things"
14. The Enduring Mirage of Wilderness
Philosophies of Nature for a Technologically Intensive Age
If Not the Dualism of Nature and Culture, then What?
The Case for Hybridity: A World of Intertwinings
The Case for Dualism: Wilderness as the Irreducible Other
From Wilderness to Wildness: A Paradoxical Synthesis
15. The Shifting Landscape of Tame and Wild
Nature Penetrating into Society: Emerging Connectedness
Society Penetrating into Nature: Ambiguous Control
16. A Cosmic Wilderness?
Cousteau's Grandchildren Swim the Rings of Saturn
Conclusion
The Age of Ecology Arrives (But it is not what anyone expected)
A Planet of Paysage?
Notes
Bibliography
Index