Crisis? What crisis? The Austrian 1970s from an Environmental History Perspective

Due to oil prices and terror, the 1970s have been described as a decade of crisis, but in Austria, with a view to the "Kreisky Era", also as aphase of societal renewal, democratisation, and modernisation. In environmental history, this decade marks the break-through of a consumer and throwaway society with the concurrent formation of a new environmental movement. This article attempts a combination of different historiographical interpretations of the 1970s. With a focus on material and energy flows (`social metabolism'), the 1970s can be characterised as a decisive late phase of Austria's transition from an agrarian to an industrial socio-metabolic regime. Austria saw a significant deceleration of economic growth, compared to the "Wirtschaftswunder", and thus a slowdown in the consumption of nature. This situation was a "crisis" for most political elites, also blaming the new environmental movement for conflicts over a future energy system.