5. The Dilemmas of Environmental Activism

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Politics of Sustainable Development

• 5. The Dilemmas of Environmental Activism

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• Phases of Environmental Activism
• awakening primarily local protests against
  pollution
• pre-1968
• 2. age of ecology national organizational
  development
• 1969-1974
• 3. politicization social movements in relation
  to energy policy
• 1975-1979
• 4. differentiation professionalization and party
  politics
• 1980-1986
• 5. internationalization global orientation
  network and alliance-building
• 1987-1993
• 6. Integration Agenda 21, sustainable
  development
• 1994-2000

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Awakening

• action group model of organization
• local arenas, or sites
• often direct action form of protest
• protests about air and water pollution

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The Age of Ecology

• new activist organizations
• national and transnational arenas
• coordinated, planned manifestations
• programmatic ambitions

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Politicization

• broad-based alliances
• media central sites of debate
• organized information campaigns
• focus on energy production and use

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Differentiation

• political parties, professional activism
• parliamentary and government arenas
• lobbying, expertise, research
• wide range of issue areas

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Internationalization

• transnational networks
• key sites intergovernmental meetings
• link to socio-economic development
• emphasis on global issues

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Integration

• appropriation by other actors
• market as important arena, or site
• discursive politics public relations
• social and cultural dimensions

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Environmental Activism as Cognitive Praxis
Type of Activism Community Local campaigns Social ecology Professional Mainstream organizations Political ecology Militant Radical groups Deep ecology Personal New age artists Green consumers Knowledge forms Factual Lay Legal Expert Rhetorical Ideological Spiritual Citizen Knowledge interest Empowerment Public participation Enlightenment Policy deliberation Political protest Resistance Authenticity Identity
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Conditions of participation

• Contexts of mediation, meeting places
• Bridge-builders, translators
• Enlightened civil servants
• Political support from above
• Cultural acceptance from below

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Regimes of Green Knowledge
Residual Dominant Emerging Key sites
local/national global hybrid networks F
orms of popular commercial exemplar
y action resistance facilitation mobilization
Type of knowledge factual/lay managerial situated
Tacit competence traditional professional experi
ential
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Elements of Green Knowledge

• Network-based
• Ad hoc project organization
• Change, or policy-oriented
• Hybrid, or eclectic identities
• Transdisciplinary dissemination
• Importance of tacit forms of competence
• Socially, or ethically informed