eleven - Green social welfare: an investigation into political attitudes towards ecological critiques and prescriptions concerning the welfare state

Summary

The environment has now firmly established itself as an issue that society can no longer afford to ignore, and there is currently a general consensus both among political parties and the public that the quality of the environment is important to human welfare (George and Wilding, 1999). However, despite this increased importance, concern for the environment has not yet been translated into comprehensive policy initiatives. There is a growing recognition that such concern needs to be incorporated into all policy areas, including social policy but, both theoretically and practically, Green social policies continue to remain something of an enigma.

Since the 1990s social policy's neglect of environmental issues has been partly addressed by Cahill (1999), Ferris (1991), Fitzpatrick (1998a, 1998b), Huby (1998) and Shaw (1999). Indeed, Fitzpatrick (1998b) argues that if Green critiques are even marginally accurate in terms of the explanations that they offer and the predictions that they make, then the social policy community cannot afford to disregard environmental concerns indefinitely. One reason is that studies have begun to demonstrate that the environment has a direct impact on health. However, more importantly, the contemporary welfare state is dependent on economic growth to provide the financial resources with which to deliver welfare goods and services (Shaw, 1999). The ecological critique challenges this perception; unlimited, indiscriminate economic growth is neither desirable nor possible (Meadows et al, 1972, 1992). Therefore, if economic growth is limited the welfare state as we know it is under threat. But, with economic growth continuing to be the yardstick by which countries measure their success, the idea that such limits to growth exist has yet to find favour either with politicians or the electorate.

This chapter reports preliminary findings from research currently being undertaken by the author, which examines the extent to which politicians and Green activists make an association between welfare reform and environmentalism. It argues that Green social policies and welfare reforms can only be developed if we have a clear idea about how they understand the nature of this relationship. From discursive analysis it has been possible to ‘map’ a tentative diagram of different environmental discourses that highlight potential areas of rapprochement alongside those of diversity. Such an approach, it is argued, may indicate what alliances are necessary/possible in order to create a political agenda of social sustainability.