Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Environmental activism'
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1
Maughan, Christopher. "Activism Ltd : environmental activism and contemporary literature." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/79823/.
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This thesis examines representations of environmental activism in contemporary literature. In general terms, this thesis understands activism to be a mode of politics that seeks to transform society, counter to forces of oppression and crisis. Precisely as a transformative or counter-hegemonic mode of politics, the actions, public perceptions, and representations (literary or otherwise) of activism and social movements mark out an extreme – though rarely understood – horizon of political agency and possibility. The thesis uses and adapts Fredric Jameson’s theory of the political unconscious to explore, via literary representation, the prospects, constraints, and capacities which exist in contemporary forms of environmental activism. It begins by considering novelistic representations of climate change that display a tension between ‘fast-violent’ and gradual or historically-embedded forms of environmental change. The thesis then moves on to consider novelistic fiction that displays evidence of the intertwining of environmental crises and neoliberal governmentalities. A later chapter turns to a more specific site of resistance – food production – examining novelistic fiction that not only thematises the emergence of particular forms of resistance, but also aesthetically and formally registers agroecological theory and practice. The final chapter moves away from fictive writing and investigates the ways in which literary non-fiction presents a new kind of critical problem regarding the accuracy of its representations of activism; namely, the tensions which emerge between realist and speculative registers. To date, there has been a relative lack of attention paid to representations of activism in environmental literary and cultural criticism. A critical study of the cultural representation of environmental social movements will, I argue, yield valuable insights into how environmental problems are articulated and the forms of activism in use today, along with the contradictions, tensions – and even unintended harmonies – between environmentalism and mainstream political and economic trends.
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Newlands, Maxine. "Environmental activism, environmental politics, and representation : the framing of the British environmental activist movement." Thesis, University of East London, 2013. http://roar.uel.ac.uk/3046/.
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This thesis explores the relationship between environmental activism, environmental politics and the mainstream media. In exploring the power relations between government, activists and the media, this work draws on Foucauldian theories of governmentality, power and space (heterotopia). The central hypothesis is that environmental politics has witnessed a shift in power away from activism and towards environmental governance and free-market economics, nestled in a media discourse that has depoliticised many environmental activist movements. Foucault’s theories on power, biopower and governmentality are combined with a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of newspaper reports and original empirical research derived from a focus group with environmental activists. The empirical data and analysis provides original knowledge on relations between environmental activists and journalists. The premise that economics has become the dominant solution to the detriment of environmental activism movements is argued through a historical analysis of advanced liberal governments’ role in creating new green markets and instruments (‘green governmentality’ in Luke’s terms). The shift towards green governmentality has been accompanied by an increased application of state measures, from legislation and surveillance, to conflating environmental activism with terrorism, and the neologism of eco-terrorism. Journalists reaffirm such governance, and the critical discourse analysis charts the shift from positive to negative reporting in the mainstream media. However, activists also contest such power relations through social and new media, alongside traditional repertoires of protest within the space of activism, to challenge such advanced liberal discourse, and bypass traditional media practices. As neoliberalism has increasingly become the main position in environmental politics, it places activism into a discourse of deviance. The activists’ movement counters this measure through new media, liminoid practices and repertoires of protest.
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Myers, Brendan. "Animism, spirit and environmental activism." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ56354.pdf.
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Whelan, James M., and n/a. "Education and Training For Effective Environmental Advocacy." Griffith University. Australian School of Environmental Studies, 2002. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20040526.140105.
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Research on environmental advocacy has tended to focus on outcomes and achievements rather than the processes through which these are achieved. In addition, minimal research has attended in detail to the complexity of environmental advocacy, or explored measures to through which to enhance advocates prospects of success. The environment movement itself has given scarce attention to promoting the skills, abilities and predispositions that contribute to effective advocacy. Indeed, most environmental non-government organisations (ENGOs) in Australia appear to believe that scientific or expert knowledge will be sufficient to influence environmental decision-makers and consequently provide minimal training or education to enhance advocacy. This thesis is a response to these problems. It seeks to develop an understanding of, and model for, activist education and training in the Australian environment movement. The two main bodies of literature that inform the study are social movement and adult education literature. The former provides the context for the study. Social movement theorists present various explanations of how and why environmental activists work for change. These theorists also discuss the organisational structures and modes of operation typically adopted by activists. The second body of literature is utilised in this thesis to provide a synthesis of relevant educational orientations, traditions and practices. Popular, experiential and adult environmental education offer promising strategies for advocacy organisations that seek to enhance activists skills and abilities. The research questions posed in this study lie at the convergence of these two bodies of literature. Two empirical studies were undertaken during this inquiry. The first was conducted with the Queensland Conservation Council, an environmental advocacy organisation where the researcher was employed for five years. The study drew on methods and techniques associated with ethnography and action research to identify, implement and evaluate a range of interventions which aimed to educate and train advocates. Three cycles of inquiry generated useful insights into environmental advocacy and identified useful strategies through which advocacy may be enhanced. The second study, a case study based on interviews and observation, explored the Heart Politics movement. The ethnographic research methods utilised in this case study resulted in a rich description and critical appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of Heart Politics gatherings as activist education. These two studies contributed to the development of a grounded and endogenous theory of education and training for environmental advocacy. This theory is based on a set of observations concerning the provision of activist education: (1) that most activist learning occurs informally and unintentionally through participation in social action such as environmental campaigns; (2) that this learning can be assessed according to a five-category framework and tends to favour specific categories including the development of social action and organisational development skills rather than alternative categories such as political analysis and personal development; (3) that this informal learning can be harnessed and enhanced through strategies which situate learning in the context of action and promote heightened awareness of the learning dimension of social action; and (4) that a key obstacle to education and training in the environment movement is a conspicuous lack of professional development or support for the people involved in facilitating and coordinating activist education activities and programs. These people are often volunteers and infrequently possess qualifications as educators or facilitators but are more likely to be seasoned activists. They tend to work in isolation as activist education activities are sporadic, geographically diffuse and ad hoc. These observations along with other insights acquired through participatory action research and ethnographic inquiry led to a set of conclusions, some of which have already been implemented or initiated during the course of this study. The first conclusion is that strategies to promote the professional development of activist educators may benefit from the development of texts tailored to the tactical orientations and political and other circumstances of Australian environmental advocacy groups. Texts, alone, are considered an inadequate response. The study also concludes that informal networks, formal and informal courses and other strategies to assist collaboration and peer learning among activist educators offer considerable benefits. Other conclusions pertain to the benefits of collaborating with adult educators and tertiary institutions, and professionals, to the relative merits of activist workshops and other forms of delivery, to the opportunities for activist training presented by regular environment movement gatherings and conferences and to the significant merits of promoting and supporting mentorship relationships between novice and experienced activists.
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Whelan, James M. "Education and Training For Effective Environmental Advocacy." Thesis, Griffith University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365775.
Full textAbstract:
Research on environmental advocacy has tended to focus on outcomes and achievements rather than the processes through which these are achieved. In addition, minimal research has attended in detail to the complexity of environmental advocacy, or explored measures to through which to enhance advocates’ prospects of success. The environment movement itself has given scarce attention to promoting the skills, abilities and predispositions that contribute to effective advocacy. Indeed, most environmental non-government organisations (ENGOs) in Australia appear to believe that scientific or expert knowledge will be sufficient to influence environmental decision-makers and consequently provide minimal training or education to enhance advocacy. This thesis is a response to these problems. It seeks to develop an understanding of, and model for, activist education and training in the Australian environment movement. The two main bodies of literature that inform the study are social movement and adult education literature. The former provides the context for the study. Social movement theorists present various explanations of how and why environmental activists work for change. These theorists also discuss the organisational structures and modes of operation typically adopted by activists. The second body of literature is utilised in this thesis to provide a synthesis of relevant educational orientations, traditions and practices. Popular, experiential and adult environmental education offer promising strategies for advocacy organisations that seek to enhance activists’ skills and abilities. The research questions posed in this study lie at the convergence of these two bodies of literature. Two empirical studies were undertaken during this inquiry. The first was conducted with the Queensland Conservation Council, an environmental advocacy organisation where the researcher was employed for five years. The study drew on methods and techniques associated with ethnography and action research to identify, implement and evaluate a range of interventions which aimed to educate and train advocates. Three cycles of inquiry generated useful insights into environmental advocacy and identified useful strategies through which advocacy may be enhanced. The second study, a case study based on interviews and observation, explored the Heart Politics movement. The ethnographic research methods utilised in this case study resulted in a rich description and critical appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of Heart Politics gatherings as activist education. These two studies contributed to the development of a grounded and endogenous theory of education and training for environmental advocacy. This theory is based on a set of observations concerning the provision of activist education: (1) that most activist learning occurs informally and unintentionally through participation in social action such as environmental campaigns; (2) that this learning can be assessed according to a five-category framework and tends to favour specific categories including the development of social action and organisational development skills rather than alternative categories such as political analysis and personal development; (3) that this informal learning can be harnessed and enhanced through strategies which situate learning in the context of action and promote heightened awareness of the learning dimension of social action; and (4) that a key obstacle to education and training in the environment movement is a conspicuous lack of professional development or support for the people involved in facilitating and coordinating activist education activities and programs. These people are often volunteers and infrequently possess qualifications as educators or facilitators but are more likely to be seasoned activists. They tend to work in isolation as activist education activities are sporadic, geographically diffuse and ad hoc. These observations along with other insights acquired through participatory action research and ethnographic inquiry led to a set of conclusions, some of which have already been implemented or initiated during the course of this study. The first conclusion is that strategies to promote the professional development of activist educators may benefit from the development of texts tailored to the tactical orientations and political and other circumstances of Australian environmental advocacy groups. Texts, alone, are considered an inadequate response. The study also concludes that informal networks, formal and informal courses and other strategies to assist collaboration and peer learning among activist educators offer considerable benefits. Other conclusions pertain to the benefits of collaborating with adult educators and tertiary institutions, and professionals, to the relative merits of activist workshops and other forms of delivery, to the opportunities for activist training presented by regular environment movement gatherings and conferences and to the significant merits of promoting and supporting mentorship relationships between novice and experienced activists.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Australian School of Environmental Studies
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Wilson, Mark. "The British environmental movement : the development of an environmental consciousness and environmental activism, 1945-1975." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2014. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/21603/.
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This work investigates the development of an environmental consciousness and environmental activism in Britain, 1945-1975. The 1970s have been described as ‘the decade of the environment’ and was the period when the modern environmental movement emerged. In this thesis, the environmental movement is considered to be a broad network of individuals and pressure groups engaging in collective action with shared environmental beliefs. Much of the work on the movement has ignored or played down the importance of the post-war period on its development. This project challenges that, dealing less with the movement itself and more with the developments which led to its emergence: through analysing events like the great London smog of 1952 and the Torrey Canyon oil spill of 1967, as well as through television programmes, this thesis traces the post-war influences of the movement and the growth of environmental awareness. Environmental pressure groups form part of the movement and a number of them are studied here, such as the Newcastle-based group Save Our City from Environmental Mess and the London-based group Commitment, WWF, Friends of the Earth and the National Smoke Abatement Society. From analysing the resources of these groups and the political processes within which they appear (resource mobilisation theory and political process theory) a better understanding is made about their successes, failures and how they fed into a growing environmental awareness. Television programmes from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s – notably natural history programmes such as Look, Zoo Quest, Doctor Who and Doomwatch – also helped an environmental consciousness develop. In marrying together these different issues, this work provides an original contribution to knowledge, and assesses some of the influences which led to the environmental movement emerging in 1970s Britain.
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FOSSATI, SERENA. "ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM AS IDENTITY PROJECT: THE CASE OF STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS IN CHINA." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/39109.
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Il progetto di ricerca analizza i tratti distintivi dell'identità ecologica promossa da associazioni ambientaliste cinesi e le relative pratiche coinvolte nel processo di gestione delle identità all’interno di piattaforme di social networking. Un secondo livello di analisi indaga le modalità con cui gli attivisti negoziano la loro identificazione con i progetti identitari ecologici attivati dalle organizzazioni di appartenenza. La ricerca etnografica si focalizza su dieci associazioni studentesche attive a Pechino. La metodologia qualitativa include interviste in profondità a membri delle organizzazioni, osservazioni partecipanti delle loro attività, l’analisi qualitativa del contenuto di post condivisi sui loro profili Sina Weibo e Wechat; e dei contenuti condivisi dai membri sui loro profili WeChat Moments tra febbraio e luglio 2016. I risultati rivelano identità ecologiche complesse ed elaborate. Lo studio propone una tassonomia tripartita dei progetti identitari, che include ‘sustainable lifestyle-related identities’, in riferimento alla responsabilità degli studenti nel ridurre il loro impatto ambientale (in relazione alla conservazione di acqua, energia, cibo e pratiche di viaggio sostenibili); ‘investigation-related identities', indicando l'impegno degli studenti nella comprensione delle questioni ambientali e nel contributo alla soluzione delle relative problematiche attraverso azioni concrete; ‘social identities’, riferendosi alla determinazione delle associazioni a occuparsi di questioni sociali, impegnandosi in progetti di beneficenza.The study explores the distinctive features of the environmental identity promoted by Chinese students environmental associations (SEAs), and the social media practices involved in their identity management processes. A second level of analysis investigates how activists negotiate their identification with the environmental identity projects fostered by their organizations. The ethnographic research focuses on ten SEAs located in Beijing. The data collection process is based on extensive usage of in-depth interviews with staff members, participant observations of activities, and content analysis of materials posted on SEAs’ social media accounts (Sina Weibo, WeChat), and materials shared by members on their WeChat Moments over a six-month period (February- July 2016). Results reveal that SEAs environmental identities are plural and composite in themselves. I propose a tripartite taxonomy, which includes sustainable lifestyle-related identities, referring to the responsibility of students to reduce their carbon footprint, by addressing the sources of their impact (in relation to water, energy, food conservation, green travel practices); investigation-related identities, consisting in students’ meaningful engagement in the understanding of environmental issues, and contribution to their solution through concrete action; and social identities, referring to SEAs determination to be concerned about social issues, by engaging in charity projects.
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FOSSATI, SERENA. "ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM AS IDENTITY PROJECT: THE CASE OF STUDENT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS IN CHINA." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/39109.
Full textAbstract:
Il progetto di ricerca analizza i tratti distintivi dell'identità ecologica promossa da associazioni ambientaliste cinesi e le relative pratiche coinvolte nel processo di gestione delle identità all’interno di piattaforme di social networking. Un secondo livello di analisi indaga le modalità con cui gli attivisti negoziano la loro identificazione con i progetti identitari ecologici attivati dalle organizzazioni di appartenenza. La ricerca etnografica si focalizza su dieci associazioni studentesche attive a Pechino. La metodologia qualitativa include interviste in profondità a membri delle organizzazioni, osservazioni partecipanti delle loro attività, l’analisi qualitativa del contenuto di post condivisi sui loro profili Sina Weibo e Wechat; e dei contenuti condivisi dai membri sui loro profili WeChat Moments tra febbraio e luglio 2016. I risultati rivelano identità ecologiche complesse ed elaborate. Lo studio propone una tassonomia tripartita dei progetti identitari, che include ‘sustainable lifestyle-related identities’, in riferimento alla responsabilità degli studenti nel ridurre il loro impatto ambientale (in relazione alla conservazione di acqua, energia, cibo e pratiche di viaggio sostenibili); ‘investigation-related identities', indicando l'impegno degli studenti nella comprensione delle questioni ambientali e nel contributo alla soluzione delle relative problematiche attraverso azioni concrete; ‘social identities’, riferendosi alla determinazione delle associazioni a occuparsi di questioni sociali, impegnandosi in progetti di beneficenza.The study explores the distinctive features of the environmental identity promoted by Chinese students environmental associations (SEAs), and the social media practices involved in their identity management processes. A second level of analysis investigates how activists negotiate their identification with the environmental identity projects fostered by their organizations. The ethnographic research focuses on ten SEAs located in Beijing. The data collection process is based on extensive usage of in-depth interviews with staff members, participant observations of activities, and content analysis of materials posted on SEAs’ social media accounts (Sina Weibo, WeChat), and materials shared by members on their WeChat Moments over a six-month period (February- July 2016). Results reveal that SEAs environmental identities are plural and composite in themselves. I propose a tripartite taxonomy, which includes sustainable lifestyle-related identities, referring to the responsibility of students to reduce their carbon footprint, by addressing the sources of their impact (in relation to water, energy, food conservation, green travel practices); investigation-related identities, consisting in students’ meaningful engagement in the understanding of environmental issues, and contribution to their solution through concrete action; and social identities, referring to SEAs determination to be concerned about social issues, by engaging in charity projects.
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Halder, Bornali. "Mitaku'oyasin : an anthropological exploration of Lakota Sioux environmental activism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.251454.
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Chang, Woo-joo. "Women's collective caring practices in South Korean environmental activism." Thesis, Lancaster University, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.654456.
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This thesis examines the relationship between gender roles and environmental activities in South Korea. The research project included interviews with 23 women activists involved in organic co-operatives and environmental organisations, and two case-studies of recent environmental campaigns in South Korea: a campaign against water-fluoridation in Gwachun, and the Village Kitchen of the Mapo Doorae Cooperative. The study also incorporated the analysis of some key texts in Korean ecological thinking, and impOliant documents from the Korean environmentalist movement. The thesis also exammes the discourse of Saengmyung (Life) which emphasises women's caring roles in protecting the environment. Nevertheless, it shows that, in assuming caring roles within environmental organisations, women were often marginalised within environmental organisations. Three discrete motivations for women's environmental engagement in the South Korean environmental movement are identified: 1) awareness of the relationship between health and environmental issues; 2) a desire to escape personal isolation, and 3) the influence of specific sensual experiences and · memories of encounters with the natural world. The thesis traces the conflicts these women often faced in juggling their commitment to ecological campaigns with the demands of family life. It shows that, despite these tensions, some managed to transform themselves from individualised mothers into environmentalists, labelled as 'activist mothers' or ' socialised housewives', thereby becoming ecological agents. The thesis contends that the voices and opinions of women activists are often excluded in public discussions of environmental issues and that women are not encouraged to pursue ecological citizenship in the public sphere in South Korea. However, it demonstrates that some South Korean women have created ecological communities, which are quietly subversive and which constitute a form of 'subaltern public sphere' (Fraser, 1997). It argues that, as the core of their environmental activities, women's caring practices in South Korea have been orientated towards, and to some extent successful in challenging traditional gendered roles and divisions of labour.
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Roosth, Joshua. "UNIVERSITY LEADERSHIP IN SUSTAINABILITY AND CAMPUS-BASED ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2010. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/3963.
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This thesis examines the development of environmental sustainability on 194 of the wealthiest colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Campus-based environmental organization membership data, organizational profiles, participant observation, and sustainability grades (from the Sustainable Endowment Institutes College Sustainability Report Cards 2009) are used to examine the relationship between campus-based environmental organizations and sustainability of higher educational institutions. Linear regression is used to analyze the overall university sustainability grades as an outcome variable. Overall university sustainability grades are impacted by campus-based environmental activism social movement organizations, high endowment per student, the age of the university, and the presence of state renewable portfolio standards. My findings suggest that the Sustainable Endowment Institute s College Sustainability Report Card might be improved by including indicators of greenhouse gas reports and interdisciplinary courses on sustainability.M.A.
Department of Sociology
Sciences
Applied Sociology MA
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Hague, Alice. "Faithful advocates : faith communities and environmental activism in Scotland." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/31101.
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This thesis investigates local-level environmental activism in faith communities, and aims to understand what explains environmental advocacy by Christian faith communities. It asks why Christian communities are participating in environmental advocacy, and identifies the motivations and practices behind their engagement. Faith-based organisations and faith communities are increasingly active in environmental advocacy, both through high-level interventions, and local-level action. While high-level engagement often attracts widespread attention, as in the case of the Pope’s 2015 environmentally-focused encyclical, the engagement of locally-grounded faith communities is often overlooked, both in academia and practice. This thesis aims to fill that void by exploring faith-based environmentalism from the perspective of the local faith community. It takes an ethnographic approach, based on twelve months of participant observation in three Christian congregations in Edinburgh engaged in environmental action. Building on earlier studies of religion and ecology and religious environmentalism, this thesis argues that environmental engagement is explained by theological motivations, and also by practical factors expressed and experienced in the social context of the local faith community. Theologically, faith communities base their environmental engagement within a broad framework of justice, understanding the natural environment as God’s creation, and aligning a Christian responsibility to ‘care for creation’ with recognition of the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on those least equipped to respond. Yet theology alone cannot explain this advocacy. Engagement is motivated by a sense of community and, more pragmatically, is also explained by everyday issues that reflect the reality of life in a faith community. It is in the social context of the faith community that these factors are brought together. Above all, the research findings emphasise the importance of community, understood both as people and place, as a key underlying factor explaining engagement. By highlighting the central role of community in environmental advocacy, this thesis offers insight into religious environmentalism that prioritises the everyday, ‘lived’ experience of religion, and articulates the importance of the social context in which religion is practiced for understanding engagement.
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Reiprich, Barbara. "Feeling activism: Emotionalized and visual-based strategic communication within environmental small-scale activism on social media." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informatik och media, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-364217.
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This master thesis aims to understand whether the connection of visuals and emotions on social media can be utilized by activists to increase awareness of environmental issues. In particular, this thesis discussed if emotional visual content about environmental activism on social media increases recipients' emotional awareness and small-scale activism when embedded in visual framing communication. The work is based on theories like affective visual framing, affective intensity, stickiness and grab, which define the dynamics of emotions online and the merits that come with it, when used for strategic communication. In combination with visual communication on social media and the emotional impact of visuals, environmental imagery develops power for social transformation. Analyzing the organization Greenpeace and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation for their emotional strategic communication on Instagram, the research uses mixed-methods to gather data about the reception of emotional visuals. A questionnaire collects data about broad responses to images and seven in-depth interviews focus on deeper motivations and opinions behind the emotional reaction. The research reveals that first of all emotions are generated by emotionally framed visual contents. These emotions also lead to an emotional awareness of environmental issues. Nevertheless, small-scale activism was neither increased by emotional content nor by general emotional awareness. Solely short-term interest in activism could be identified.
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Okaty, Jessica. "The Effectiveness of Outdoor Education on Environmental Learning, Appreciation, and Activism." FIU Digital Commons, 2012. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/791.
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The main objective of this research was to determine the effectiveness of outdoor education on student knowledge retention, appreciation for nature, and environmental activism in a college level course on south Florida ecology. Six class sections were given quizzes on four course topics either post-lecture or post-field trip. Students were also given pre-course and post-course opinion surveys. Although mean quiz scores for the post-field trip were higher than for the post-lecture, statistical analysis determined that there was no significant difference in quiz scores for location taken (post-lecture or post-field trip). Survey results show a correlation between knowledge of environmental issues and environmental activism. Even though student survey responses point to outdoor education and field trips being the most effective method of learning and influential on appreciation for nature, the quiz scores do not reflect such.
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Deutsh, Shoshana. "No science, no democracy : environmental knowledge and scientific activism in Canada." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/55116.
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“No Science, No Evidence, No Truth, No Democracy”: this phrase has appeared on signs and has been chanted at protests across Canada since the “Death of Evidence” protests in 2012. It marked the emergence of a number of pro-science organizations that have sought to protect the role of science in Canada’s democracy in the face of substantial changes to science governance in Canada. Arguing against funding cuts to environmental research and libraries, much of the protest has been centred on the emergence of a “wilful ignorance” or “war on science” in Canada. This thesis takes these pro-science activists seriously as part of an emerging social movement working towards changing how federal science is governed and how politics influences its governance. By tracking their modes of resistance, this thesis aims to understand how federal scientists conceive of their role and that of science in democratic governance since the sweeping changes of Bill C-38 and affiliated policies which have been accused of gutting environmental protections and blocking environmental knowledge. I argue that these changes reflect an institutional power shift and have generated a tension between different models of scientific practice within federal institutions. Differing conceptions of scientists as public servants have fuelled the protests, which have focused in particular on the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), a freshwater institute in Kenora, Ontario, a freshwater research station previously managed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and now by the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Using the ELA as my case study, I analyze how different conceptions of politics and governance have been articulated using discourse analysis as my primary method of study. Adding to current Science & Technology Studies (STS) discussions on the tension between expertise and democratic decision-making, I question the role of federal governance and perceptions of political interference in producing environmental knowledge.Arts, Faculty of
Graduate
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Galusky, Wyatt. "Virtually Uninhabitable: A Critical Analysis of Digital Environmental Anti-Toxics Activism." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28117.
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In this dissertation, I analyze online environmental anti-toxics activism. Environmental activist groups have created a presence on the World Wide Web to help empower people to become aware of and struggle against pollution. The sites that I explore (http://www.epa.gov/tri/, http://www.epa.gov/enviro/wme/, http://www.rtknet.org/, and http://www.scorecard.org/) serve as devices of this empowerment and by extension recruit people to the political goals of anti-toxics activism.
In my analysis, I focus on a series of questions germane to this context. How can/does this movement go online and utilize that presence to sway others to their cause and ideology? How then is that cause represented digitally, in the online medium? What are the reciprocal impacts of that representation on the movement itself? Most importantly, what form of activist identity is being promoted through the mediation of the online interface? That is, how are the identity of the self as activist and the related understanding of space and place altered through their translation into a digital environment? What are the parameters and limitations of digitally mediated, informed empowerment?
I undertake to critique empowerment as found through the digital translation of environmental anti-toxics activism into the virtual space of the Web. I show that particular uses of this Internet application invent (reinvent/reinforce) versions of environmental anti-toxics activism, digitized versions which must be understood in terms of their wider assumptions and implications. I break the study into three main parts. The first part lays theoretical groundwork for studying Web-based entities. The second part deals with more particular foundational elements for digital environmental anti-toxics activism, especially in terms of information. In the final section, I analyze and critique the forms of digital identity and empowerment that the websites create. I conclude that digital empowerment, defined primarily through access to expert information, actually represents an impoverished version of empowerment which may do little to aid real-world toxic struggles.Ph. D.
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Lozeva, Silvia M. "Migrants and nature: migrants’ views on environmental activism in Western Australia." Thesis, Curtin University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/2012.
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The thesis “Migrants and Nature” brings together two globalized movements: the movement of people and the environmental movement. It offers a rich consideration of the values, practices and structures that the relationship between migrants and nature brings. I argue that migrants are empowered in a degree and in character by environmental activism. As such they have the potential to determine social and partial outcomes in the allocation of the rights to the natural environment.
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Scott, Conohar. "The photographer as environmental activist : politics, ethics and beauty in the struggle for environmental remediation." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2015. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/19640.
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This practice-based research study examines two questions in an effort to determine how the photographer can play a role in the promulgation of environmental activism. Firstly, I ask if certain aesthetic approaches to the documentation of industrial pollution can be regarded as antithetical to the values of environmentalism; in particular, I examine the use of the sublime and the role that beauty plays in documenting scenes of environmental despoliation. In response to this question, I describe the problems associated with establishing a counter-aesthetic position in my artistic practice, which is commensurate with environmental ethics. Secondly, I ask how photography can be used as a means of conducting environmental protest by working in solidarity with environmental scientists and activists, in the struggle for environmental remediation. In a bid to answer this question, I argue that the production and dissemination of the photobook is one method of realising the dissensual capacity of art to bring about the conditions necessary for remediation to occur. Importantly, my practice proceeds through an understanding of debates ongoing in contemporary theory. In particular, I argue that Jacques Rancière s conceptions of dissensus (Rancière, 2010: 173) and the politics of aesthetics (Rancière, 2004: 25) can be interpreted as a means of understanding how aesthetics can be used to enact a form of political praxis. Using Rancière and Murray Bookchin s concept of social ecology as a basis for my artistic practice, I claim that photography can not only make the existent reality of pollution visible, it can also initiate a form of participatory democratic subjectivity, allowing the demands of the artist to become visible too. Moreover, in the design and dissemination of the three photobooks I have created, I make a case for a collaborative model of artistic practice, which extends beyond the medium specificity of photograph, and embraces multimodality and trans-disciplinarity, as a means of situating the photograph into a broader discursive field.
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Begg, Rachel. "Banning Bottled Water in Concord, MA: How an Apolitical Commodity Became Political." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/30700.
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This thesis paper explores how various actors gathered around bottled water when a ban was put into place in Concord, Massachusetts. The objective has been to answer the following questions: How does an apolitical commodity become a political one? Specifically, how does bottled water move from being an apolitical commodity to become a highly political one? What does this mean for environmental politics? I situate my theoretical approach within Martha Kaplan’s research with fountains and coolers. I use Bruno Latour to show in which ways this ban became a matter of concern, as well as how the ban and the plastic bottle are actors. I conducted fieldwork in Concord and I interviewed participants. My findings reveal that the ban brought meanings to the surface and challenged them or supported them in various ways. The discussions turned from the impact of bottled water on our environment to the political impact of bottled water companies and large corporations on local Concord issues.
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O'Donnell, Kathleen. "Responses in Policy and Practice to Radical Environmental Protest Targeting Key Parts of the Civil Infrastructure in Australia and the United Kingdom." Thesis, Griffith University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366947.
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In advanced liberal democracies, proportionately responding to radical environmental protest that targets lawful business operations including those considered key parts of the civil infrastructure (such as those essential services involved in energy production) is a “wicked problem” that poses ongoing challenges, not least in attempting to balance rights of protest and free speech against securing essential services. The policing of protest continues to be controversial.
Environmentalism and environmental activism is multi-faceted and diverse; it is no one thing and comes with a rich history. The repertoire of environmentally-motivated activism rests on a spectrum that spans lawful advocacy, protest and dissent through to violent acts of direct action protest (instrumental law breaking) considered prejudicial to the security of nation states and the safety of its communities and people. The scholarship focused on environmentalism, environmentally-motivated activism and environmentally- motivated protest is diverse and is situated in different bodies of literature including the social movement literature, political science, security and criminology. This reflects a broad philosophical and ideological base, a breadth of activism as well as different political, policy and policing responses to it across time and across jurisdictions. It is a sharply contested scholarship that evidences the conflicting and powerful narratives of (1) well-intentioned direct action protest against “corporate criminals” driven by genuine and deeply held environmental concerns, and (2) serious criminality that poses significant challenges to policymakers and police.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Arts, Education and Law
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Zantinge, Robert. "Shareholder activism: performing for publicity or actual policy change? : The influence of social and environmental shareholder activism on CSR performance." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-316396.
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Pfent, Alison Marie. "Changing oneself and then changing the world the role of regulatory fit in identity change with implications for environmental activism /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=osu1243694931.
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Boucher, Priscilla Mae. "Ecology, feminism, and planning, lessons from women's environmental activism in Clayoquot Sound." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0003/NQ27110.pdf.
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Vickers, Robert. "Thinking globally acting locally : an overview of local environmental activism in Britain." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2010. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/12165.
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Over the last four decades national environmental groups have become an important means of political participation for many British citizens. Since the mid-1980s these organizations have established a number of local groups. There are still some gaps in our understanding of these groups, particularly relating to participation at the grass-roots level. This investigation examines the British environmental movement, focusing on those who become coordinators of local groups, and attempts to find the correlates of their environmental activism. The research reviews the existing empirical data relating to environmental activism, and theoretical accounts relating to participation. It also considers the significance of the emergence of postmaterial values, and looks at the theoretical framework that informs environmental activism. The hypothesis that the conservation and ecology movements are effectively sub-groups within the broader ecology movement is tested, and the thesis explores the possibility that those who participate in these movements have different socio-demographic and cognitive profiles, and methods of activism. The history and development of environmentalism in Britain is discussed, revealing the fundamental differences between the conservation and ecology movements. To test the hypothesis a national, internet based, questionnaire was conducted. In total, 380 activists were surveyed, all of whom were coordinators of local environmental groups that were affiliated to one of six nationally prominent environmental organisations. The findings of the research indicated that although many national environmental organizations seem to have become closer together in terms of their core beliefs and objectives. There are some notable differences between conservationists and ecologists at the grass-roots level, particularly in relation to sociopsychological variables, and means of participation.
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Liu, Lili. "Environmental activism and political intermediation : local flexibility in managing protests in China." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2017. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26683/.
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Rahmani, Aviva A. "Trigger point theory as aesthetic activism : a transdisciplinary approach to environmental restoration." Thesis, University of Plymouth, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/9326.
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This dissertation presents a new approach to addressing environmental degradation based on transdisciplinary ecological art. Transdisciplinarity is defined here as merging art and science to discover new insights. Ecological art is defined as an aesthetic practice that promotes environmental resilience. This writing will describe why those approaches are essential to restoring resilient bioregionalism. It introduces the author’s own heuristic perspectives and methodologies and demonstrates how they may be integrated with technology and science. The problems of accelerated loss of coastal (littoral) zone biodiversity, degraded water quality, and habitat fragmentation need critical attention. The author’s research goal was to present a replicable set of guidelines for identifying small points of restoration for wetland littoral zones (the coastal region between terrestrial and marine life) based on a case study called Ghost Nets, scaled to a second case study, Fish Story. Her novel approach included establishing relevant parallels from quantum physics and acupuncture to energetic systems. Additional specific analogies were explored from visual arts, theatre, music, dance, and performance art, to discover a holistic and integrated point of view. Parallels and analogies were drawn by interrogating the two case studies. An important aim of the study was to examine how certain restoration practices could be scaled up to the bioregional level and integrated with a special theory, Trigger Point Theory, to reinforce healthy ecosystems. This included an analysis of how restored upland ecotones and a different relationship to other species could contribute to restoration in the littoral zone. The analysis critiqued how anthropocentric considerations often fail to protect vulnerable water systems. The role of environmental justice for vulnerable human populations and ethical concerns for other animal species was included in that analysis. The author also claims that when artists work with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, that may propel a new transdiscourse and eventually make heuristic information scientifically useful. Insight from the Ghost Nets case study informed data collections and GIS mapping for the Southern Gulf of Maine. Those insights and the mapping were used to analyze relationships between finfish abundance, eelgrass, and invasive, predatory green crabs. Conclusions were drawn that are relevant to coastal and fisheries management practices. The author used performative approaches to contribute expert witnessing to her conclusions. Questionnaires were used to determine how much community awareness was accomplished with the case studies, and assess effects on future behavior. By combining art and science methodologies, the author revealed insights that could help small restored sites act as trigger points towards restoration of healthy bioregional systems more efficiently than would be possible through restoration science alone. In scaling up (applying small models to larger systems) and applying these practices for landscape ecology, the author assembled a set of recommendations for other researchers to implement these ideas in the future. Those recommendations included the formal engagement of ecological artists as equal partners on environmental restoration teams.
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Berglund, Eeva Kaarina. "Anxieties about nature and science : local environmental activism in a German town." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1995. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/273047.
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Mckenzie, Patsy. "Predictors of Likeliness to Engage in Radical Animal Rights and Environmental Activism." ScholarWorks, 2016. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/1854.
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Radical animal rights and environmental activism is considered domestic terrorism under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Traditional models of terrorism purport that there is a path to radicalization that is influenced by an individual's sense of identity and ideological beliefs. Using collective identity theory and cognitive experiential self-theory as the framework, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine whether social identity, cognitive processing mode, and ideological beliefs were predictors for engagement in radical animal rights and environmental activism. The Three Factor Model of Social Identity Scale, the Rational Experiential Inventory, and the Activism Orientation Scale were used to collect data from a sample of 65 self-described radical animal rights and environmental activists. Standard multiple regression analyses were used to test each hypothesis. According to the results of the study, only rational processing mode, F(6, 64) = 3.18, (p < .05 ), was a predictor of likeliness to engage in radical animals rights and environmental activism. Although ideology was not a significant predictor, exploratory analysis showed that ecofeminism demonstrated predictive value, F(2, 64) = 6.12, (p < .05). This study contributes to positive social change by expanding the understanding of the profile of radical activists, which may aid those who support radical actions and those who oppose such actions in opening a meaningful dialogue whereby solutions to issues facing the environment and animals can be addressed with successful outcomes.
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Keller, Anne M. ""One Narrow Thread of Green": The Vision of May Theilgaard Watts, the Creation of the Illinois Prairie Path, and a Community's Crusade for Open Space in Chicago's Suburbs." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1466590966.
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Kontio, Unna. "Environmental motives in the Buddhist ecology : A study of Thich Nhat Hanh’s ecology, engaged practice and environmental activism." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Religionshistoria, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-411591.
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Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the key actors in the contemporary engaged Buddhist practice. With his understanding of the traditional Buddhist doctrine, tradition and practice he constructs a view of ecology that he thinks encourage both the individual and the collective to environmentalist action. His cosmology is based on an understanding the reality as a non-dual, interconnected, interdependent and impermanent and sees all beings and the nature equal in their nature. He also bases his ethical and moral views on this cosmology and is an advocate for traditional Buddhist ethical and moral principles such as non-violence and non-judgementalism. The traditional doctrine of the 4 noble truths and the dependent co-arising is the base for his thought of why we should practice mindfulness with the goal of raising awareness of the true nature of reality and the environmental issues. According to him it is possible to stop the global warming with the use of mindfulness and action that are based on on the traditional Buddhist perception of cosmology and moral and ethical principles.
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Allen, Kimberly Renee Holland Dorothy C. "The cultural politics of environmental justice activism race and environment-making in the contemporary post-civil rights period /." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,2213.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2009.Title from electronic title page (viewed Jun. 26, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology." Discipline: Anthropology; Department/School: Anthropology.
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Lehman, Philip Kent. "Application of Social Influence Strategies to Convert Concern into Relevant Action: The Case of Global Warming." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/26213.
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This research studied the efficacy of enhancing information-based appeals with social influence strategies in order to encourage environmental activism and efficiency behaviors in response to global warming. A secondary goal was to study the relationship between pro-environment attitudes as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the activism/efficiency behaviors. After hearing a 15-minute presentation about the threat of global warming, 270 participants were encouraged to take relevant action by (a) signing web-based petitions asking automakers to build more environmentally friendly cars, (b) sending web-based letters to their state senators asking them to pass legislation to curb global warming, and (c) replacing their own inefficient incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
The primary independent variable was the intervention technique used to encourage the three behaviors. The Information Only condition received a standard informational presentation, and a Social Influence condition received a presentation enhanced by the social psychological principles of authority, social validation, and consistency. A third group—Social Influence and Commitment—received the social influence manipulations and also signed a commitment statement.
Overall compliance was relatively low, with 30.7% of participants across all conditions completing one or more activism/efficiency behavior. Statistical comparisons of the compliance rates of the three groups were insignificant, and thus failed to support the efficacy of the social influence approach. Participants who held stronger pro-environment attitudes were more likely to complete the tasks. Those who completed at least one of the environmental actions scored significantly higher on a pre-presentation NEP (m = 54.9) than those who completed none (m = 50.3). In addition, political conservatism was negatively related to the NEP and task compliance. Finally, individuals who completed at least one of the requested behaviors showed a significant increase in pro-environment attitude on a second (post intervention) NEP, while the NEP scores of non-compliers remained unchanged.Ph. D.
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Leap, Shannon J. "Roots Versus Wells: Grassroots Activism Against Fracking in New York and California." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/64.
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The reliance upon and depletion of fossil fuels as an energy source puts pressure on individuals, communities, energy companies, and policy-makers. Hydraulic fracturing – known colloquially as fracking – as a method of drilling for oil and natural gas temporarily alleviates this pressure since it allows for the extraction previously inaccessible fossil fuels in shale rock deposits deep beneath the Earth’s surface. This has resulted in a nationwide “fracking boom,” which has come with its share of economic benefits. However, the process of fracking can be detrimental to human and environmental health. In reaction to the increasing development of this practice, many communities across the country are mobilizing against fracking. This thesis will focus on the grassroots activism against fracking in New York, where fracking was banned in December 2014, and in California, which is largely slated as the next frontier for the expansion of fracking and thus battleground for the fight against fracking. Using grassroots academic literature, media coverage of fracking and activism in each state, and interviews from organizers working in each state, this thesis will examine the motivations, frameworks, strategies, and tactics used in each grassroots campaign in order to offer lessons in successes and opportunities for improvement within these anti-fracking efforts and others across the country.
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Hancock, Rosemary Joy. "Muslims Going Green: Islamic Environmental Activism in the United States and Great Britain." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/14655.
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This thesis examines Muslim environmental activism in the United States and Great Britain, utilising a theoretical framework of social movement theory. Through interviews with Muslim environmentalists, supported by textual data produced by Islamic environmental organisations, the thesis analyses the way Muslim environmentalists frame environmental crises, how they motivate and sustain their activism through emotion and identity work, and their use of ‘moderate’ forms of activism. Islamic environmentalism has not received due academic attention from social movement theorists or Islamic studies scholars. The thesis contributes to the literature on social movements by testing the theory in new ground: Islamic environmental activism is simultaneously a religious movement and a secular movement, and this offers interesting avenues for theorising on the role of religion in social movements. The thesis also contributes to Islamic studies literature: although there is a very small body of academic work on Islamic environmentalism, none apply social movement theory to this area. The thesis argues Muslim environmentalists are drawn into activism through (i) affective ties to friends, romantic partners, and charismatic leaders, and (ii) due to a strong sense of religious duty that stems from a very particular, environmental understanding of Islamic scripture and practice. Secondly, the thesis demonstrates the importance of ‘group culture’ for attracting and retaining committed activists. Finally, the thesis contends that Muslim environmentalists demonstrate a synthesis of political activism and religious practice. Religious ritual, symbolism, and narrative are incorporated into political action in such a way that activism becomes religious practice.
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Kensicki, Linda Jean. "Media construction of an elitist environmental movement new frontiers for second level agenda setting and political activism /." Access restricted to users with UT Austin EID Full text (PDF) from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3034551.
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Tamefusa, Chihiro. "Environmental Justice in Remediation: Tools for Community Empowerment." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/144.
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Exide Technologies finally closed its secondary lead-battery recycling plant on March 12, 2015. The community of primarily Hispanics around the facility had to fight many years to have the polluting facility shut down. Because government agencies, whose job is to protect citizens from polluters, were not regulating the facility properly, residents are not sure if they can trust the agencies to carry out remediation effectively and efficiently either. In this paper I explore the environmental justice issues associated with environmental remediation and what community members can do to make sure that their neighborhood is cleaned up properly. Through interviews with government agencies and environmental activists heavily involved in this case, I discovered that the main environmental justice issue in remediation is increased exposure to toxins. I argue that strong community activism and involvement are necessary for remediation to happen properly, and explore some tools that can be used in this process.
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Calibeo, Diletta Luna. "On the Potential of New Media to Enhance Environmental Activism in the Australian Context." Thesis, Griffith University, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/381393.
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Over the last two decades, positive claims have been consistently made worldwide about the potential of new media and more recently social media to enable easier, faster, and more universal political action and enhanced civic engagement. Challenging this potential, perhaps profoundly, however, are issues of expanding corporate media ownership of new media and state digital surveillance. As such, the focus of this study is on discerning more clearly the posited beneficial potential of new media to enhance environmental activism, as also contextualised by the posited limitations to that potential.
The overall aim of this study, as such, is to investigate the potential benefits and limitations of new media for Australian environmental activism regarding environmental protection, as particularly informed by campaigner perceptions of such potentiality. To fulfil this aim, the design of the research comprised two stages of investigation. The first stage comprised an extensive literature review informed by environmental politics, media studies, social movement theory, and science, technology and society (STS) studies. Relevant analytical themes identified from the literature review informed the development of the conceptual framework for downstream research.
The second stage comprised the application of the conceptual framework in collecting and analysing empirical data. Data collection was based on, first, web content analysis of a demonstrative sample of 15 environmental activist groups and organisations in Australia to distil the current usage of new media for environmental activism, the extent of which appeared high. Second, data collection was based on in-depth interviews with 34 environmental activists as representatives, and expert informants, of activist environmental groups and organisations across Australia campaigning to protect the environment on their views on the potential of new media for on-the-ground activism.
In conclusion, the thesis found good potential in new media to enhance environmental activism in Australia to protect the environment. However, key limitations remain, as canvassed in the literature, of increasing concentration of corporate media ownership and digital surveillance. As such, these potential limitations should pose some reasons for caution by environmental activists in Australia to ensure that democratic rights of freedom of speech and expression of dissent are protected.
Lastly, the thesis makes an original contribution to the literature in two ways. First, it contributes to strengthening existing knowledge on new media in first the Australian literature and then the international literature, as found at the intersection of environmental politics, media studies, social movements studies, and STS studies. Second, the conceptual framework contributes to theory building in identifying new issues and insights not explored before in the Australian landscape, including the potential impact of fake news, echo-chambers, and abusive behaviours and trolling on civic participation in environmental activism, as well as the limitation most held by Australian activists of reaching out to diverse audiences across an increasingly crowded and competitive digital space for environmental and social issues to be raised.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Environment and Sc
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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Lima, Ashley. "Responsible Stewards of the Earth: Narratives, Learning, and Activism." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/20350.
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This study on engagement in environmental activism can offer valuable insights into how Ontario’s young people come to be responsible stewards of the earth. This research seeks to understand the narrative complexities put forth by teachers and students (Gr. 11-12) about the influence school plays for environmental activists. The teachers’ involvement with activism is mediated by students and the social networks that support their actions. The students’ involvement in action is influenced by teacher mentors, learning about/in the environment, and having a venue for activism. These findings suggest that in order to live up to Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow schools should be seeking to have at least one environmentally literate teacher who wants to provide students with a venue for action. To assist the teachers and students with activism, there needs to be support for environmental action initiatives from the school administration and the community.
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Howard, Emily M. "Divided into Stands, Together they Fall: A critical analysis of salvage logging in the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/51800.
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This research takes elements of the scholarship on environmentalism -- political theory and ethical philosophy -- and evaluates them together in the context of the conflict over salvage logging in the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest in Oregon. I tell the story of the conflict through a history of land and fire management in the U.S. Through a closely detailed account of the anti-salvage logging activism, I explore the gap between ethics and political responsibility and how they unfold in this battle against deforestation. This research offers an in-depth look into how the environmental movement struggled internally to identify goals, and to challenge powerful economic and political systems that prevent significant change from taking root. I argue that the environmental movement needs a theory of environmental responsibility as a framework by which to better understand the strategies and complexities of environmental conflicts. The task of environmental responsibility is to confront the challenge of how to make the environmental movement responsive to the political and economic conditions that produce conflicts, and how environmentalism can overcome the limits of liberal individualism. As forests continue to dwindle, and as activists across the nation mobilize to stop the Keystone XL pipeline that will carry Canadian tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico, the future of environmentalism has never been more critical.Ph. D.
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Wong, Wai Man Natalie. "Beyond NIMBY : the emergence of environmental activism and policy change in two Chinese cities." Thesis, University of York, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/11924/.
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The present research article focuses on public participation in the environmental policy-making process in post-Mao China. It is a well-known fact that public administration in socialist China is highly centralised, and that public policies are initiated at the center and then locally administered under the one-party rule. In this monist political system, main stakeholders in the policy process are mainly Chinese Communist Party cadres, together with the ‘authorised’ groups of societies; so far participation from autonomous interest groups and society has been limited at best. In general, the ‘western model’ of civil society, which is characterised by a plurality of interest groups participating in public policymaking, implementation and evaluation, has – so far – been absent in China. This study aims to use environmental protection as a platform to examine the transformations that have been taking place in the environmental policy process and use it as a piece of references to revisit the current academic literature on China. Specifically this article will compare two anti-incinerator protests in Guangzhou (Canton) and Beijing, to illustrate the dynamics surrounding the emergence of public participation in China’s environmental policy process. This study plans to analyse why Guangzhou and Beijing Municipal governments have had different responses and attitudes to address citizens’ grievances. Furthermore, the research will dwell on the establishment up of a Public Consultative and Supervision Committee for Urban Waste Management in Guangzhou City, a public consultative mechanism on waste management, which certainly represents a major novelty and a breakthrough for the policy making process of China. This research project demonstrates how policy adjustment is not determined solely by protests’ outcomes but is also greatly affected by the response of local governments and the development of civil society. Consequently, the discussion is expected to give a new interpretation on environmental management of China.
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Zecchinato, Giulia <1992>. "Nonviolent Grassroots Activism in the Global Era: challenging environmental degradation and socio-economic inequality." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/9870.
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L’azione diretta non violenta è stata nel secolo scorso il mezzo prediletto dagli attori sociali per reclamare i loro diritti. Dalle campagne di disobbedienza civile in India al movimento per i diritti civili, il metodo di lotta non violenta si è dimostrato efficace per affrontare problematiche concrete. L’obiettivo di questo elaborato è indagare il ruolo e le potenzialità di tale strumento alla luce delle criticità sociali, economiche ed ambientali sorte dalle dinamiche della globalizzazione. In particolar modo si prenderanno in considerazione la crescente disuguaglianza socio-economica e l’impatto ambientale del persistente modello di sviluppo, che ancora non si è permeato degli insegnamenti delle teorie dello sviluppo sostenibile. A tale fine si indagheranno due casi recenti di azione diretta non violenta: il fenomeno di Occupy Wall Street, che si è proposto come insurrezione collettiva “antisistemica” contro l’ingiustizia economica, e la decisa opposizione guidata delle tribù indigene del bacino del fiume Xingu contro la costruzione del complesso idroelettrico di Belo Monte, in Brasile, destinato a provocare uno dei più gravi disastri ecologi e sociali che l’Amazzonia abbia mai visto. Con la consapevolezza che tali movimenti sociali di protesta sono iscritti in dinamiche più ampie e che nel mondo globalizzato un’azione locale può avere ripercussioni a livello planetario, soprattutto grazie all’utilizzo dei social media, sarà infine proposta una riflessione sulle similitudini presenti tra i due casi per proporre una lettura positiva delle dinamiche di cui si sta facendo protagonista la società civile globale, che sembra sempre di più essere l’ultima depositaria di un senso etico e democratico che lo Stato e l’oligopolio globale hanno barattato con la sottomissione alle leggi e ai valori del mercato.
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Foehringer, Merchant Emma. "Radical Housewife Activism: Subverting the Toxic Public/Private Binary." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/101.
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Since the 1960s, the modern environmental movement, though generally liberal in nature, has historically excluded a variety of serious and influential groups. This thesis concentrates on the movement of working-class housewives who emerged into popular American consciousness in the seventies and eighties with their increasingly radical campaigns against toxic contamination in their respective communities. These women represent a group who exhibited the convergence of cultural influences where domesticity and environmentalism met in the middle of American society, and the increasing focus on public health in the environmental movement framed the fight undertaken by women who identified as “housewives.” These women, in their use of both traditional female stereotypes as well as radical influences from other social movements, synthesized their own unique type of activism, which has had a profound influence on the environmental movement and public health in the United States, especially in its relation to environmental justice.
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Mason, Michael Richard. "The politics of wilderness preservation : environmental activism and natural areas policy in British Columbia, Canada." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.261503.
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Wengel, Lea. "Post-political Numbness of a Digital Society : The Political Condition of Environmental Activism on Twitter." Thesis, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, HLK, Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-40880.
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Over the past decades, a widespread consensus has emerged regarding the anthropogenic causes and negative impacts of climate change. For instance, the environmental pollution reaches alarming dimensions on a global level implying immanent dangers to the future of humankind and nature. The need to take action in order to maintain the integrity of human and environmental systems has long been recognised by most political elites, business leaders, activists and the scientific community. Yet, it seems that political and economic institutions do not move on fast enough from words to actions. At the same time, a depoliticisation of the public sphere is observed repressing a radical critical discourse. Several political theorists and philosophers debate about the emergence of a post-political and postdemocratic condition, implying a state of politics of consensus. The thesis at hand aimed to investigate the post-political condition of climate change activism in the online realm by means of the case of a rather recent trend of environmental activism, the zero waste movement. A quantitative content analysis was conducted studying 500 #zerowaste tweets that were posted in April 2018. The content characteristics of the Twitter postings were analysed and a coding system developed to measure the post-political condition of communication practices in the environmental pollution debate on Twitter. The study finds that in particular civic actors (citizen and public personalities), commercial and nonprofit organisations engaged in the zero waste debate distributing informative content mobilising the public to make certain lifestyle decisions. It is furthermore revealed that the #zerowaste debate on Twitter is evidently depoliticised. The communication practices on the social media platform incorporated in many ways discursive strategies such as universalisation and externalisation resulting in a rationalised and moralised representation of the problem of environmental pollution.
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Robin, Melanie J. "Democratic pursuit of environmental justice through activism: Rural landowners, civil disobedience, and the perception of influence." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28229.
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The rural revolution, as coined by the Ontario Landowners' Association (OLA), has gained considerable momentum in the past five years. Its activism in the pursuit of environmental justice, initiated by the perception of a government too intrusive into rural affairs, has evolved both externally and internally of governmental decision making structures. The association has moved from primarily using purposeful illegality, such as demonstrations, to active involvement in provincial politics. In this context, the qualitative research presented in this thesis is guided by three research objectives: (1) to develop a conceptual framework of environmental justice; (2) to examine the utility of the components of this conceptual framework within the rural revolution context; and, (3) to explore the perceptions of key stakeholders regarding the Ontario Landowner Associations' influence on rural public policy efforts to attain environmental justice. These three research objectives seek ultimately to address the central research purpose: To explore the concept of activism as a tenet of environmental justice by examining the case study of the OLA. The primary focus of the central research purpose, therefore, is on the traits of the OLA, or associated research themes, that have the potential to influence public policy content, its implementation, and its acceptance in rural Ontario. These associated research themes are: the OLA's targeted issues, the OLA's mission, leadership, activism forms, barriers and facilitators to activism, membership, and any additional insights. Four stakeholder groups sensitive to environmental public policy directed at rural communities have been consulted. They are provincial and municipal elected politicians (architects of policy), managers and planners of provincial ministries (implementers of policy), rural and agricultural commodity and interest groups (recipients of policy), and the Ontario Landowners' Association (challengers of policy). A conceptual framework of environmental justice has been proposed and is presented here. Moreover, the perceptions revealed by the respondents allow for an examination of the utility of the environmental justice 'instruments' and 'barriers and facilitators' sections of the conceptual framework. Research results show that the OLA's influence on rural public policy is perceived to be based on the organization's credibility, which is in turn perceived as dependent upon a combination of the associated research themes. It is hypothesized that these findings not only pertain to the OLA, but have determined the variables responsible for the perception of an effective activism group in general. Furthermore, this research has reiterated the importance of perception studies. These reflections may well transcend the OLA case study and may prove meaningful for all stakeholder groups in the understanding of activism seeking to sustain or reclaim environmental justice. These reflections may also facilitate mutual respect for different points of view and differing contributions to environmental management.
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Thomas, Christopher Scott. "Engendering environmental justice: women's rhetorical collaboration for a more just and sustainable world." Diss., University of Iowa, 2018. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6308.
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This dissertation examines how gender operates as agencies for women’s environmental justice activism. I contend that women’s activism, often taking place through collaborative and collective means, presents new opportunities to theorize rhetorical agency that include women-centric and leaderless forms of grassroots organizing. To this end, I explore various agencies for women’s collaborative environmental communication—motherhood, eco-spirituality, and political calls for recognition—that work to test the boundary conditions of rhetorical studies in ways that find empowerment and resistance in a collective rather than in any one particular person. In developing these accounts, I construct a framework that emphasizes the agentic capabilities possible through collaborative rhetorics of resistance—the communicative performances of defiance and empowerment put forth by groups of people that often result in the articulation of collective identities, the challenging of dominant structures and institutions of power, and work to inspire mutual critique and reflection in others. Theories of rhetorical agency assist in documenting and illuminating the ways speakers navigate discursive and material constraints as they bring their audience to action, but often do so by privileging the rhetoric of individual (male) speakers. By exploring collaborative rhetorics of resistance, this dissertation project tests the boundary conditions of rhetorical agency and generates a more comprehensive understanding of how loose networks of people enter into, take part in, and possibly redirect the course of environmental deliberations. This dissertation project is focused on the ways in which women rhetorically collaborate to craft collective subjectivities, protest environmental threats to their families and communities, and inspire mutual critique and reflection in others.
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Fedorenko, Irina. "Environmental activism, non-governmental organisations and the new generation of civil society in Russia and China." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2017. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:9698b035-a314-4f42-aae4-313a093b95b4.
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This dissertation analyses the development paradigms of civil society in Russia and China, using the examples of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations (ENGOs) and youth grassroots movements in Beijing, Moscow, Vladivostok, and Kunming. Civil society in Russia and China have experienced similar path of development over the last thirty years, and in both countries, ENGOs have been supported by Western donors in hopes of democratisation. This factor has created contention with the national governments, and both countries have recently adopted the laws restricting NGO development and limiting the engagement of foreign donors. This dissertation is situated in the context of transition and change of political landscape and examines the impact of these laws on ENGOs and civil society development in Russia and China, as well as on the future of political activism and youth. Qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews and participant observation is used to illustrate the effects of these changes on the first generation of ENGOs and their foreign donors, and the impact on the future of civil society - young environmental activists. Despite the consensus on the devastating state of political freedom and activism in Russia and China, this dissertation sheds light on emerging environmental movements and the new forms of activism that may be transforming the landscape for civil society in both countries. Situated in the literature on environmental movements, youth and environmental activism from geography, political science, and area studies, this dissertation challenges dominant discourses on civil society in authoritarian regimes. The results of this study not only contribute to the literature on countries in postcommunist transition but also contribute to our understanding of alternative forms of environmental activism in constrained political environments.
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Nolan, Kathryn. "Generation Climate Crisis: A qualitative analysis about Generation Z's experiences and attitudes surrounding climate activism in the state of Ohio." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1619785138898759.
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Wall, Derek. "The politics of Earth First! in the United Kingdom." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.244290.
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Murray, Savannah Paige. "The Dam Fighters: Commons Environmental Rhetoric, Rhetorical Citizenship, and Local Ethos." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/100838.
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In this dissertation project, I examine the ways in which a grassroots environmental organization, the Upper French Broad Defense Association (UFBDA), was able to contribute knowledge and voice concerns regarding a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) proposal between 1961 and 1972. The TVA proposal included a plan for comprehensive water resource development in western North Carolina which would have required in the implementation of 14 dams, flooding of more than 18,000 fertile agricultural acres and displacing 600 families from their ancestral homes. Employing archival research methods, in this dissertation I analyze the UFBDA's everyday rhetorical tactics which contributed to their overall success in preventing the implementation of the TVA project. I situate archival sources alongside contemporary scholarship in democratic practice, environmental rhetoric, rhetorical citizenship, and ethos, as discussed in rhetoric and writing studies. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the ways in which the UFBDA case study offers a generative model for future environmental controversies, providing specific techniques which can contribute to the success of grassroots organizations mired in environmental controversies and contentious decisions.Doctor of Philosophy
In this dissertation project, I examine the ways in which a grassroots environmental organization, the Upper French Broad Defense Association (UFBDA), was able to contribute knowledge and voice concerns regarding a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) proposal between 1961 and 1972. The TVA proposal included a plan for comprehensive water resource development in western North Carolina which would have required in the implementation of 14 dams, flooding of more than 18,000 fertile agricultural acres and displacing 600 families from their ancestral homes. In order to complete this dissertation project, I explored two archival collections pertaining to the UFBDA. Based on my findings in the archives, I provide new understandings of how grassroots environmentalism works, particularly in terms of how environmentalists use language in order to participate in decisions about the environment. More specifically, this dissertation documents how members of the UFBDA were able to describe the western North Carolina landscape as a commons and not a wilderness, work together across counties to create new opportunities to share their concerns over the TVA project, and establish their own credibility as knowledgeable citizens about their local environment. By highlighting specific components of the UFBDA's work, this dissertation provides examples that can be used by future grassroots environmental organization facing similar challenges regarding environmental controversies.