To what extent are the environmental associations that emerged from the 50s on the bearers of the so-called "modernity project"? Are they only a consequence of modernity itself or also "propelling elements" of modernity's main values? This paper investigates the possible relationships between environmental civil organizations and modernity. It stresses the dimensions that constitute modernity, and tackles the particular ways in which the environmental movement internalizes nature when building up its specific identities, as well as when proposing social references for the relationship of men and relationships between humankind and the natural world.
Environmentalism; Civil Society; Modernity; Social Theory