The Intervention Cascade: Environmental Problems in Differentiated Society

• In Event: Social Theory and Environmental Change

Abstract

Modernity is at once associated with the increasing capacity for instrumental control over nature and the unleashing of forces beyond human control. It is associated with the differentiation of society into distinct semi-autonomous social domains and anthropogenic transformations of the nonhuman environment that cannot be contained in any of them. This article embraces these tensions as a guide for analyzing the emergence of environmental problems. The “intervention cascade” refers to a chain of interventions to control nature and overflows into other domains, triggering subsequent responses. This article begins by grounding the framework in theoretical lineages concerning modernity and nature, social differentiation, culture, and nonhuman agency. I then present the framework in general terms, and then illustrate its utility through a discussion of the case of the Delta Smelt, a controversial endangered species of fish found only in the heart of California’s water distribution system. I close by identifying implications for the study of environmental problems, contrasting the approach with the prevailing constructivist model.

Author

• Caleb Scoville, Tufts University