In the present text, we take the work of Anthony Giddens in order to evaluate the form by which the question of ecology came to be incorporated into social theory. Over the last decades, Giddens has become one of the great names in contemporary social sciences and in the past few years, his work has led an important intervention in the public sphere, due to his proposal for constructing a Third Way. At the same time, during this period many works in the social sciences have also expressed increasing interest in the theme of the environment, a phenomenon that can be seen even in the work of Giddens, where we will encounter a permanent reference to the themes of risk, danger, security and such concepts as sustainable development, ecological modernization and the risk society. By reason of this general portrait, it seems pertinent to evaluate what a social theory like Giddens' can tell us about the contemporary crisis in ecology. In the present work, we seek to show how this theme is intertwined with three distinct phases of thought in the author. Lastly, we briefly evaluate some criticisms directed at his work.
Anthony Giddens; modernity; social theory; theory of structuration; ecology and sustainable development
