Régulation School and environment: Theoretical proposals and avenues of research

The article explores the relevance of a particular approach of the institutionalist movement, régulation theory, to deal with the relationship between the economy and the environment. Régulation theory, which appeared in France at the end of the 1970s, is mainly interested in macroeconomic issues. In contrast, until now it has tended to neglect environmental questions. By taking several key concepts of this theory (accumulation regime, mode of régulation, institutional forms), we have sought to assess its significance vis-à-vis the environmental field. More precisely, from the perspective of establishing an environmental regulationist theory, we propose considering the economic relation to the environment as the articulation of three forms: a transhistorical form, a general capitalist form and a specific capitalist form, the latter being variable in capitalist time and space. We give several illustrations of the variability of the relation to the environment, depending on the different accumulation regimes and the different modes of régulation. Two principal avenues of research are proposed: historical analyses for given economic areas, and comparative analyses relating in particular to different capitalist areas.