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5 Sociological Perspectives on Sustainability Communication 59

somewhat different constellation of conflicting parties with different opportunities
to forge new cross-cutting discourse coalitions and political alliances.
The sociological perspective thus emphasizes the fact that the sustainability
debate is not just about looking for the best solutions of sustainability problems but
also about a comprehensive norm-building process, a restructuring of social inter-
pretations of reality and institutional practices. If specific ways of framing problems
define the range of possible and legitimate ways of solving them, then the question
of which frames, images, and metaphors gain public acceptance is of vital impor-
tance for the kind of policies and measures adopted.

The German Discourse on Sustainable Development: An Example

This sociological perspective will be illustrated in the following section using the
example of the German discourse on sustainable development. This outline refers to
an empirical study of the German sustainability debate at its formative stage from
the mid- to the late-1990s (Brand and Jochum 2000). The goal of this study was a
qualitative reconstruction of the central frames of this debate through the use of key
documents, i.e. a number of programmatic studies on sustainable development pub-
lished in the mid-1990s and position papers from major political, economic and
social actors, complemented by a media analysis.
At the beginning of the 1990s the environmental debate in Germany was in a
crisis – at least as perceived by environmental actors. The late 1980s had seen a
general greening of political debates in which the concept of ecological modernisa-
tion had advanced to being a generally accepted reference point for societal innovation.
But ecological concerns lost their political importance to traditional growth and cost
arguments in the wake of the social and economic problems following German
reunification in 1990. There was a feeling of resignation among environmental
groups and a search for new strategic approaches was launched (Brand 1999). It was
in this phase of disorientation that the reception of the international debate on sus-
tainable development took place, especially inspired by the Agenda 21 adopted by
the Rio Conference in 1992. In the following years a great variety of concepts for
implementing the idea of sustainable development was developed, not only as part
of flourishing local Agenda 21 initiatives but also in many social, economic, politi-
cal and scientific organisations. It should come as no surprise that there were differ-
ent perspectives about how to take action, which was as true for Germany as for all
other Western countries (cf. Baker et al. 1997; Lafferty and Meadowcroft 2000).
A central position in the German debate was held by two reports from the Enquete
Commission “Protection of Mankind and Environment” of the German Federal
Parliament (1994, 1998) and a study on ‘Sustainable Germany’ (Sachs et al. 1998)
by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
Which positions have emerged in the following years in the German debate on
sustainability development? Although all actors acknowledge, or at least pay lip
service to, the demand for a more sustainable way of life and the need for an integrative