The social acceptability of the ecological transition: beyond resistance to change[L’acceptabilité sociale de la transition écologique : au-delà de la résistance au changement]

Since its early days, the environmental movement focused on two main strategies: lobbying governments and raising public awareness. After several decades of mobilization, it is clear that while awareness of the ecological crisis is widespread, changes in behavior and policies are not commensurate with the challenges. To explain this gap between environmental awareness and inaction, many are tempted to invoke the thesis of resistance to change. However, even if it can be verified in certain cases, this thesis is largely insufficient to explain the slowness of ecological modernization. Behaviour is largely determined by infrastructures, so that ecological impact depends above all on institutional decisions, whether private or public. At this scale, however, it is difficult to integrate issues such as climate change or ecosystem preservation into the logic of action, not least because of the social implications of restructuring the economic system.