Ecologie et choix socio-politiques

The movement in favour of ecology is part of the dynamic impetus of changing values. Present values are marked by the influence of economics. No new values have as yet been acquired involving the abandoning of other values linked to economic affairs, but there is an accumulation of values with priority given to the defence of acquired values. The policy in favour of the environment seems to be the result of many varied forces, with various motivations that are sometimes ambiguous. The environment which is the privileged place for the influence of external forces must also be considered as a field of sociopolitical forces. Such an attitude leads to certain criteria of choice and analysis being revised. In particular the analysis of costs and advantages must be abandoned or completed by a socio-dynamic type analysis aimed at showing up the interaction of various forms of reasoning and non-converging interests and at considering the "rule of the game" as being at stake in situations that may rise to conflict. Unlike the historico-relative nature — reversible and depending on given circumstances of the rules set up there appears the irreversible and variegated character of man's influence on this environment.