Contenu du sommaire : Penser l'écologie politique en france au XXe siècle

Viewed from the USA or the UK, France's record on nature and environmental protection appears to be lagging behind other countries. However, French thinkers' contributions to environmental ideas are numerous, and several authors have even been important precursors. How, then, can we account for the lack of visibility of France and its intellectuals in global histories of environmentalism published in the last few years? By the preponderance of Anglo-Saxon historians in the new field of environmental history? By the greater willingness of American authors to engage in political contestation or their greater pragmatism? We provide some elements to answer these questions, as well as introduce and present the various contributions included in this special issue on “thinking about the environment in France in the 20th century.”

Political ecology in France has been spanned since its origins by very different conceptions of nature. These have in particular been formalised by three leading thinkers: Robert Hainard, Bernard Charbonneau and Serge Moscovici. They have even resulted in lively philosophical confrontations, which have so far been entirely ignored by scholarly research.

Once a key figure of the “realist” project in the 1930s, a noted pen of the Doriotist press until Munich, and, in the aftermath of the second world war, a liberal theorist of power and sovereignty, particularly hailed outside of France, Bertrand de Jouvenel expanded its range at the end of the 1950s by prevailing as one of the pioneers of environmentalism, after the publication of his essay Arcadie published in 1968. This article is made of three parts: after an examination of the roots of Jouvenel's environmentalism (the legacy of Colette, the “relève” of the 1930s, and Anglo-Saxon influences), and its content and specificities (emphasis on economics and on the role of experts), it will attempt to interpret it in light of the itinerary of the author who considered himselfa “traveler in the century.”

Prominent essayist since Love and the Western World published in 1939, European activist after the World War II, in 1970s-1980s Denis de Rougemont became a strong supporter of environmental causes. Today he is considered as a pioneer of ecology, as well as Bertrand de Jouvenel, Jaques Ellul, Bernard Charbonneau and Ivan Illich. While the federalist movements born after the war were fading away, Rougemont reinvested his commitment to a united Europe and to mobilize the younger generations by the way of the ecological struggle. Chairman of the association Ecoropa, founder member of the Groupe de Bellerive, Rougemont wanted to give prominence to a regional and federal European organisation beyond the Common Market. In his last major essay on political philosophy published in 1977, L'avenir est notre affaire, Rougemont detailed the parameters of the ecological crisis, creating an important part of the theoretical and ethical basis of the Green Movement in Switzerland and France. Our objective is to outline his major ideas and thoughts as well as the circumstances of his commitment.

Bernard Charbonneau and Jacques Ellul are two forerunners of ecology in France. As early as 1930s, they built a radical thought which was not only a critic of bound-less growth, but also a will to question the technological society itself. Nevertheless, their work is the fruit of warm debates between these two, especially about the responsibility of Christianity in the ecological crisis.

A leading thinker of the French school of thought characterised by a radical anticapitalist critique of productivism and the domination of science, André Gorz's enduring commitment to existentialist philosophy leads nonetheless to tensions between his analyses and some fundamental Green premises, and places him in a unique position within Green Marxism. This paper explores the nature of Gorz's materialism and anti-determinism, with reference to his lesser known publications written prior to the 1970s. Attention is drawn to the influence of Husserl's and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological theses, as well as of the Sartrean concept of “pratico-inerte” on his theorisation of ecological factors. The analysis leads to an appreciation of both the richness and the limitations of such a radically anthropocentric stance in Green philosophy, which is expressed by downplaying the role of natural determinism, and is related to his definition of the Green movement primarily in cultural terms as a defence of the “lived world.” The author concludes with an invitation to develop a complex history of Green thought and a subtle approach to Green theoretical matters generally, most particularly regarding the unresolved issue of the roots – ecological, technical, financial, etc. – of the current crisis of the capitalist system.

During the decade preceding May 1968, three different kinds of attitudes towards environmentalism can be observed within the French extreme left. Firstly, many revolutionary organizations are impervious to environmental issues. That is the case of all the Neo-Leninist organizations : Trotskysts, Maoists, Bordiguists... A second attitude is shown by Anarchists. Contrary to the Neo-Leninists, Anarchists become precociously aware of society issues, such as feminism, sexuality or everyday life, except for environmentalism before 1968. Finally, a third group, represented by a real pioneer, the Parti socialiste unifié, became aware, ahead of his time, of environmental issues. This classification can be understood by two different criteria : the relationship of these groups with the notion of modernity, and with Marxism.

The article draws from archival research, interviews and observations collected over several years in both Les Verts and the British Green party to reflect on the differences between the ways party members conceive their commitment to green politics. It argues that, beyond an analysis of political opportunities and constraints, one needs to compare the cultural roots of green attitudes and practices to understand the singularities of political organisations that share a broad commitment to sustainable politics and democracy.

This article analyses the relations of political ecology with nature conservation in the 1970s. At first sight, the politicization of ecology seems to imply to move away from this topic: nature conservationists could not be activists because they would focus on pollution consequences instead of trying to put an end to their origins. Yet, a study of ecology political networks and local groups leads to challenge this cliché by underlining the numerous way of politicization of environmentalism in 1970s France.

Introduced for the first time into environmental policy as part of the reform of the French national park system in 2006, the concept of ecological solidarity is built on a compromise between ecocentric and anthropocentric ethics. In addition to providing a basis for ecological and social cohesion in policy for protected areas, this concept contributes to the debate for a new model of society which highlights social and ecological interdependency, the need to diminish environmental inequalities and injustice and the limits of the biosphere. In this way, ecological solidarity provides for a new natural contract to establish the limits of human actions on nature.