Since the late 1980s, ecological thought and the European eco-movement have gone through a phase of fundamental transformation which has been widely acknowledged but not yet theorised in any satisfactory way. This important text questions why radical ecological criticism has had so little impact on contemporary society, despite the urgency of the issues it highlights. The book offers a challenging theoretical critique of ecological thought itself.

Ingolfur Blühdorn is a Lecturer in European Politics at the University of Bath. His previous publications include The Green Agenda: Environmental Politics and Policy in Germany (co-edited with Frank Krause and Tom Scharf).

Part 1 Preliminaries; Chapter 1 Ecological Concern and Theoretical Enquiry; Chapter 2 Ecology in Crisis; Chapter 3 Towards Post-Ecologism; Part 2 Understanding Ecologism - Critical Theory; Chapter 4 Alienation and Reconciliation - Horkheimer and Adorno; Chapter 5 Pluralisation and Reflexivity - Ulrich Beck; Part 3 Deconstructing Ecologism - Systems Theory; Chapter 6 Autopoietic Systems and Functional Differentiation - Niklas Luhmann I; Chapter 7 Ecological Communication - Niklas Luhmann II; Part 4 Post-Ecologism; Chapter 8 Ecology Without Identity; Chapter 9 Avoiding Ecologist Fallacies; Chapter 10 Managing the Transition to Post-Ecologist Politics;