Historical Roots of the Dutch Sustainability Challenge: The Impact of the Utilization of Material Resources on the Modernization of Dutch Society, 1850-2010

This study starts from two main concerns: - What are the historical roots of the current sustainability problems of the Netherlands? In which periods and through which social activities did these problems come into being? - Every generation has to cope with new or different sustainability problems. To which degree and in which ways have earlier generations managed to solve these problems? Is there anything we can learn from them with respect to the current challenges? Many studies on sustainability issues are geared toward the present and the future. This research proposal embraces the opposite approach by seeking to trace the historical roots of the current sustainability problems as a way to raise our understanding of the ecological crisis. In our view, such approach will provide an important addition to the prevailing literature. This research project will allow us to uncover the elements of the Dutch techno-economical system that are responsible for the current sustainability challenges. We will do so through quantitative analyses of historical data and datasets on economic development, flows of materials, energy use and sustainability indicators from 1850 onward. Specifically this implies that we will work with mass balances, input-output tables and shift share analyses. Moreover, analysis of the institutional embedding, path-dependencies and lock-in effects of the relevant social activities will make it possible for us to explain the persistence of the Dutch sustainability challenge. It will prove difficult, however, to realize the transition towards a sustainable society because, as historical analyses have revealed, prevailing techno-economic systems are stabilized in many ways. Much of the basic material for this study we derive from earlier large-scale historical research programs in which the applicants of this project were involved, including ?Technology in the Netherlands? and ?National Accounting.? Valorization of this research is pursued through intensive contact with Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, CBS) and annual seminars with CBS, the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving, PBL) and the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Sociaal en Cultureel Planbureau, SCP). In addition to scholarly articles, an edited volume will be put together to which all researchers of the project will provide a contribution. This publication will offer an integral and historical overview of the Dutch sustainability issue (emergence, nature and persistence) and discuss the range of possible solutions.