Tesi sul tema "Environmentalism"

Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau has been analyzed and characterized in many ways, but the relationship between certain aspects of his thought and what can be called eco-philosophy has not been pursued. Rousseau's ideas of man's relationship with nature, his condemnation of bourgeios society, the scientific/mechanistic paradigm and the idea of progress have distinct parallels to the thought of traditional eco-philosophers such as Thoreau, Muir and Leopold. Though Rousseau's thought is decidedly anthropocentric and therefore utilitarian in its ethical content, he did favour a careful stewardship of nature which rejected treating it as a resource to be exploited. Instead, he saw God's handiwork in the natural world and felt a great reverence for it. To facilitate this understanding, he studied botany and took many solitary walks in the wilderness as a means of achieving a greater appreciation of its natural beauty and his place within it. In addition, Rousseau's advocacy of direct democracy and small self-sufficient agrarian communities also reflect modern positions, particularly those of Bookchin, Schumacher and the leaders of the various Green movements. Evidence from his work, thus, will be presented to support the contention that his philosophy has distinct parallels to these modern perspectives. While much of his thought seems hopelessly Utopian in the light of modern realities, there is a great deal that is relevant to the environmental problems modern society faces.
Arts, Faculty of
Political Science, Department of
Graduate

This dissertation explores student environmentalism in Beijing, China. It traces students' political norms and values, explains their activism and experience of pollution, and investigates the role of environmental non-governmental organisation (ENGOs) in forming youth environmentalism. To serve these objectives, the work takes forward theories on youth activism and agency and recent debates on environmental health, environmentalism and ENGOs. This study was designed as a qualitative research project based primarily on interviews and complemented by ethnographic methods, content analysis, pictorial evidence and survey results provided by the Jane Goodall Institute China. Research findings and methodology are presented in four papers and a framing document. My work challenges labels of agency and activism as either protest and resistance or 'quiescence' and questions the influence of globalisation on activists' norms and values. I put forward 'fragmented activism' as a new concept to capture the nature of youth environmental activism in Beijing. I contribute to environmental health literature by tracing how young people develop discursive mechanisms to mitigate the fear of air pollution and argue that their response offers invaluable insights into the interplay between space and the body in polluted environments. This thesis further shows that the repertoire of student environmental associations in Beijing represents a type of 'place based environmentalism' (Smith, 2001) but argues that, whilst this may be a contradictory response to contemporary environmental issues, it is not usefully assessed against abstract and normative notions of what environmentalism should be. I also challenge scholarly assessments of ENGO action. By exploring ENGO strategies in China that rely on extant societal and governmental narratives about good citizenship and moral values - instead of radical alternatives to mainstream development models or political processes - I argue for new research paradigms guiding the study of environmental movements.

This thesis is a discourse study of environmentalism in the UK. The research indicates how reframing environmental issues using religious concepts and language can deepen our understanding of people's relationship to the environment and environmentalism. The thesis suggests that this process of reframing may be important for the social sciences, by illuminating new ways to engage with and understand the controversies and debates at hand. The data supporting this reframing analysis was obtained through in-depth, semi-structured one-on-one interviews with individuals identified as being 'environmentally concerned' and was analysed first thematically, and then using the researcher's 'discourse toolkit'. Nuclear power is treated as an emblematic issue to provide a concrete focus for a topic prone to abstraction; viewing environmentalism as a form of religion encouraged interdisciplinary working. By developing ideas from Bailey's implicit religion (Bailey, 1997) I provide a language for environmentalism-as-religion, wherein pro-nuclear heretics challenge an anti-nuclear orthodoxy. Linking environmental discourses to enduring cosmologies shows that 'superficial' conflict over climate change mitigation is acrimonious precisely because it deals with manifestations of deeper convictions on the human-nature relationship. Updated versions of existing 'nuclear discourses' are analysed in combination with environmental-religious discourses, showing that ideas about public understanding and acceptance of nuclear power, even when rebranded as 'sustainable', are still best understood in terms of ancient cosmological ideas about the 'natural' or 'proper' way for humanity to approach and interact with the environment. Key environmental discourses were overtly religious and or even direct reformulations of Christian mythoi, with important implications for the movement's stagnation and inherent contradictions. This thesis argues for the social sciences to take religion seriously, as the religious impulse - both implicit and explicit - is an important social phenomenon which shows no sign of fading and remains an important factor in modern society.

Attitudes to nature vary between individuals, between cultures and over history. Human behaviour towards nature varies similarly and crudely can be characterised as ‘abusive’, ‘indifferent’ or ‘caring’. Attitudes in western societies currently appear to be more proenvironmental, yet the actual collective behaviour of humanity is unsustainable, potentially threatening our survival. Investigations into the epigenesis of pro-environmental behaviours are few, qualitative, and mainly study environmental educators. Potential antecedents to such behaviour are suggested to include ‘experiences of nature’, adult instruction, and both formal and informal education. In comparison, the antecedents of interpersonal pro-social patterns are increasingly well understood as a result of systematic psychological research: the emotional and motivational qualities of an attachment with the ‘primary caregiver’ (principally parental ‘attachment status’) have been demonstrated to make enduring prototypes for the qualities of other, later, relationships. In this study, a comprehensive, retrospective questionnaire, covering the environment and behaviour of childhood, parent-child relations, and the behaviour of parents in relation to the environment, as well as the present attitudes and behaviour toward nature of the respondent, was completed by 294 adult subjects from a variety of ‘nature relevant’ occupations including Biotechnologists, Conservation Bureaucrats, ‘Ecoradicals’, Students, Farmers and Foresters. Factor analysis demonstrated a modest correspondence between attachment to parents and behaviour toward nature, and showed that people do replicate certain parental environmental behaviours. However, much more potent antecedents of pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours emerged. These were: unconstrained childhood exploration of nature, and modelling of easy familiarity with nature by a ‘nature mentor’, usually a parent. Vicarious experiences of nature, as from broadcast media, also appeared positively to influence attitudes and behaviour, but they result in a more ‘objectified’, less motivated, relationship, and were not a substitute for direct experience. Vocational choice was influenced by childhood nature experience. It is concluded that environmentalism may usefully be considered as composed of dimensions or components of three kinds: emotional, behavioural and cognitive. An emotionally secure relationship with nature, here termed ‘Attachment to Nature’, is hypothesised to be the most significant factor in the generation of committed proenvironmentalism, and a comparison to parent-child attachment theory is made. Outdoor recreation behaviour may prove to be a measure of this nature attachment, comparable with the ‘strange situation’ test of infants for parental attachment. As poor interhuman attachment is implicated in chaotic and abusive relationships, wider emotional and behavioural effects of separation from nature are probable, and may prefigure behavioural pathologies analogous to dissociative disorders, depression and violence. This remains to be rigorously investigated, as do detailed pathways to particular environmental values and behaviours for different personality types. The loss of access to the non-human inherent in the global tide of urbanisation may have long-term psychological costs, implying psycho-social sequelae significant for health, architectural, town planning, transport and economic policies. An ‘ecopsychological’ model of the present erosion and potential restoration of individual and collective psychological health in relation to nature is presented.

In recent years, ecological issues have grown to become some of the most significant sociopolitical concerns of our time - something which has been reflected by an explosion in engagement with such issues across every area of arts and culture. Across most major art forms, this trend has been identified, analysed and promoted both by critical studies in the growing field of ecocriticism, and by the curatorial recognition of new 'ecological' genres; however, to date there has been no equivalent ecologically-focused engagement within sound art. This can be recognised as the product of two significant gaps in sound art scholarship: the first critical in nature, regarding the lack of ecocritical engagement with sound art; and the second curatorial, regarding the failure to recognise the growing number of ecologically-engaged works of sound art as a distinct genre in their own right. The research detailed within this thesis will address each of these gaps by conducting a comprehensive investigation into ecology and environmentalism in contemporary sound art. The critical gap will be tackled by coupling a thorough analysis of the field of ecocriticism with an investigation into the ways in which ecological principles manifest within sound as a medium and listening as a means of engagement. This will then be used to develop a new ecocritical framework specifically designed for sound art, which will be employed to conduct ecocritical listenings to a selection of canonical and contemporary sound works. To address the curatorial gap, meanwhile, a new genre of 'ecological sound art' will be proposed, with a second set of ecocritical listenings focused upon a selection of ecological sound works in order to determine the precise nature of their ecological engagement, and to develop both a comprehensive definition and an initial catalogue of works for this important and timely contemporary movement.

I examine the consistency between contemporary environmentalist ideals and Buddhist philosophy, focusing, first, on the problem of value in nature. I argue that the teachings found in the Pāli canon cannot easily be reconciled with a belief in the intrinsic value of life, whether human or otherwise. This is because all existence is regarded as inherently unsatisfactory, and all beings are seen as impermanent and insubstantial, while the ultimate spiritual goal is often viewed, in early Buddhism, as involving a deep renunciation of the world. Therefore, the discussion focuses mostly on the Mahāyāna vehicle, which, I suggest has better resources for environmentalism because enlightenment and the ordinary world are not conceived as antithetical. Still, many contemporary green ideas do not sit well with classical Mahāyāna doctrines. Mahāyāna philosophers coincide in equating ultimate reality with ‘emptiness,’ and propose knowledge of this reality as a final soteriological purpose. Emptiness is generally said to be ineffable, and to involve the negation of all views. An important question is how to reconcile environmentalism with the relinquishing of views. I consider several prevalent themes in environmentalism, including the philosophy of ‘Oneness,’ and other systems that are often compared with Buddhism, like process thought. Many of these turn out to have more in common with an extreme view that Buddhism seeks to avoid, namely, eternalism. I attempt to outline an environmental position that, like the doctrine of emptiness, traverses a Middle Path between eternalism and nihilism. I conclude by proposing that emptiness could be regarded as the source of value in nature, if it is seen in its more positive aspect, as ‘pliancy.’ This would imply that what Buddhist environmentalists should seek to protect is not any being in its current form, nor any static natural system, but the possibility of adaptation and further evolution.

My thesis examines the nature and value of knowledge and normative implications of its value. With this in mind I examine Greco’s account of knowledge in detail and consider whether it convinces. I argue against the account on a number of fronts; in particular I argue against Greco’s treatment of the Barney and Jenny cases. In doing so I draw on the dialectic in the literature and go beyond it by showing how his treatment of those cases is such as to raise problems for his treatment of other cases. More specifically I argue that Greco’s treatment of the Barney case is such as to threaten his treatment of standard Gettier cases and his treatment of the Jenny case threatens his treatment of the Careless Math Student case. I also consider an alternative virtue epistemic approach offered by Pritchard which I reject. In attempting to overcome the challenges that the Barney and Jenny cases pose I articulate an alternative account according to which what I call “epistemic grace” is a requirement of knowledge. It is via this epistemic grace requirement that I also account for the value of knowledge. Recognition of the value of knowledge serves as the basis for the articulation of the notion of epistemic environmentalism. With epistemic environmentalism in view, trust is analysed and its significance to the gaining of knowledge, albeit knowledge of a certain kind, is considered. Finally, the normative implications of epistemic environmentalism are laid out in a framework to show how findings in epistemic value theory relate to approaches that can provide a basis for justifying intervention or non-intervention in the assisting of the attaining or holding of epistemic goods of value.

This dissertation will analyse Wordsworth’s A guide to the Lakes with an ecocritical approach; it will compare Wordsworth’s work with other writings about the Lake District. It will study, then, the environmental defence of the region, the preservation of it from modernity and the struggle to prevent this shrine of nature from being turned into a museum. It will also examine how the tourism in the area changed due to Wordsworth’s growing fame which attracted not only visitors but also new settlers, and how eventually his disciples, followers and admires contributed to the foundation of the Lake District National Park.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2005.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-302). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

As environmental issues and the communities that confront them increasingly transcend borders, environmentalists in the North (wealthier countries) and the South (poorer countries) face the challenges of effective communication and collaboration. Acknowledging differences in how environmentalists culturally construct the environment is an important starting point; particularly given the tendency on the part of Northern environmentalists to assume (a) that environmentalism is essentially the same in different cultures i.e., it is all like Northern environmentalism; and (b) that environmentalism is more developed in the North. This study examines and compares the constructed environments of a sample of Mexican and Canadian environmentalists. Some significant differences are identified. The environmentalists in the two countries constructed the environment differently as a result of their distinct histories, economies and use of technology. Cultural constructions of the physical environment overlap with and cannot be separated from constructions of the social, cultural, political and economic environment.

A lo largo y ancho del mundo, los conflictos ambientales invaden nuevas geografías y espacios simbólicos. Este proceso se ha llamado la “ambientalización” de las luchas sociales, y consiste en el uso de los problemas ecológicos para ganar legitimidad y así desafiar tanto a las estructuras como a prácticas políticas y científicas. Esta tesis busca examinar los motivos, energías y estrategias de resistencia a la desposesión ambiental considerando sus propias formas de expresión, los valores expresados y el significado que yo otorgo. En este sentido, primero examino lugares específicos de resistencia y luego a través de análisis y comparaciones de múltiples casos amplío el alcance del estudio. Finalmente, presento un marco comparativo de la estadística en la ecología política que busca integrar el conocimiento activista con información social y biofísica. La tesis comienza con algunas preguntas generales: (i) ¿Cómo se expresan estos conflictos?; (ii) ¿Cuáles políticas utilizan estos grupos? (iii) ¿Con qué finalidad?. Luego, refino estas preguntas en cinco sub-preguntas de investigación: (a) ¿bajo qué condiciones emerge una resistencia efectiva contra la frontera de las mercancías?; (b) ¿cuál es la política o políticas del conocimiento utilizadas por dichos movimientos?; (c) ¿cómo podemos entender el proceso por el cual estos movimientos escogen sus estrategias y tácticas para defender sus reivindicaciones?; (d) ¿cuales son las inter-relaciones de grupos movilizados a diferentes escalas?; (e) ¿como puede utilizarse un análisis desde la economía ecológica/ecología política para apoyar estas luchas?. Para examinar estas preguntas me vuelco en concretos y teorías sobre: conflictos ambientales, formas de ambientalismo, acumulación por desposesión, metabolismo social, política de los conocimientos activistas y teoría de los movimientos sociales para analizar cómo los grupos en estos contextos tan diferentes desafían a los desbalances de poder, cómo consiguen ganar poder, y cómo estos grupos obtienen sus objetivos y resultan exitosos en su resistencia a proyectos impuestos. Finalmente, estoy interesada en el rol del activismo en la construcción de una agenda transformadora más amplia que se pregunte y desafíe las (super) estructuras políticas e institucionales. Concluyo esta tesis iluminando las luchas por conflictos ambientales y sus análisis al enfocarme en las siguientes cinco lecciones: 1) Establecer precios de la naturaleza no contribuye a la conservacion ni a la justicia ambiental porque el proceso técnico y político para definir precios profundiza y reproduce las iniquidades estructurales con consecuencias negativas a nivel distributivo; 2) La prohibición a la participación de diferentes actores sociales puede catalizar nuevas formas de democracia participativa en el territorio y la coproduccion de conocimiento tecnico “situado”; 3) La reasignación de los derechos a la productividad biológica y la incorporación de actores en nuevas estructuras agrarias transforma no sólo las relaciones sociales y las estrategias de acumulación sino también reproduce a la naturaleza influyendo en gran medida en la energética de los ecosistemas y por ende en las estrategias de vida de las poblaciones; 4) Los movimientos locales han conseguido sus máximos logros al ser capaces de unir en amplias coaliciones a grupos con agendas complejas y multidimensionales. Los discursos ambientalistas son utilizados como estrategias “apolíticas” clave por grupos a diferentes escalas mientras que la política de identidad puede ser una herramienta poderosa para la movilización pero puede conducir a la atomización que puede confluir en conflictos locales étnicos. 5) Existe la necesidad de desarrollar nuevos métodos que analicen los aspectos globales e interconectados de los luchas ambientales locales, para así trascender de las escalas locales y conseguir entender los procesos y relaciones que generan las iniquidades ambientales a escalas más amplias como regional, nacional y globales. Ofrezco este esquema dentro de esta nueva praxis para la investigación en justicia ambiental. Finalmente, en mi tesis presento el concepto del ambientalismo de los desposeídos para así explicar las motivaciones de los movimientos ambientales en el presente. Las características que definen al ambientalismo de los desposeídos incluyen un uso de la política como desafío al poder del estado basado en una crítica estructural a la acumulación capitalista. El ambiente se concibe como co-producido y dependiente más que como la “naturaleza” en singular. Asimismo, el ambientalismo de los desposeídos está informado por una conciencia planetaria que describe a los procesos locales como embuídos en flujos socio-metabólicos globales a través de las cadenas de mercancía, y finalmente, el ambientalismo de los desposeídos utiliza de manera activa tácticas de disrupción muchas veces contenciosas para responder a esta desposesión ecológica. Palabras clave: justicia ambiental, ecología política, metabolismo social, investigación colaborativo, contención, conocimiento activista, acumulación por despojo, política agraria, capitalismo, crisis, "commodity chains"
Around the world environmental conflicts are invading new spatial and symbolic spaces. This process has been described as the “environmentalization” of social struggles, whereby ecological issues are increasingly used to both legitimate and contest political and scientific structures and practices. This dissertation responds to the need to examine the motives and strategies of resistance to environmental dispossession, considering the forms they take, the values they express and the meanings we can ascribe to them. I do so firstly by examining specific sites of resistance and then broadening out through multi-case analysis. Finally I introduce a framework for a cross-comparative “statistical political ecology” that aims to integrate activist knowledge with social and biophysical data. I start by asking the overarching questions: (i) How are such conflicts expressing themselves? (ii) What are the politics such groups are employing? (iii) and to what effect? I then refine these into five sub-research questions (a) under which conditions does effective resistance against a commodity resource frontier emerge? (b) What are the politics of knowledge employed by such movements? (c) How can we understand how they pick their strategies and tactics to stake their claims? (d) What are the inter-connections of groups mobilizing across scales? (e) And how can a political ecological/ecological economics analysis be put to use to support such struggles? To examine these questions, I engage with concepts from ecological conflicts, forms of environmentalism, accumulation by dispossession, social metabolism, politics of activist knowledge and social movement theory to analyze how groups in different contexts contest power imbalances, leverage power, and how they achieve their goals and become successful in both rolling back imposed projects. Finally I am interested in the role of such activism in wider transformative agendas that can challenge broader political and institutional structures. I conclude this dissertation by bringing light to environmental conflict struggles and analyses focusing on the following five lessons: 1. Setting prices for nature is neither conducive to conservation nor to environmental justice because the technical and political process of setting prices deepens and reproduces structural inequalities with negative distributive effects; 2. The foreclosing of participation for different social actors is catalyzing new forms of participatory democracy and the co-production of “situated” technical knowledge; 3. The re-assignation of rights to biological productivity and the incorporation of actors into new agrarian structures transforms not only social relations and accumulation strategies, but also reproduces nature with profound impacts on ecosystem energetics and corresponding livelihood strategies. 4. Local movements have achieved the most success when they have been able to unite broad coalitions of groups with complex and multidimensional agendas. Environmentalist discourses are deployed as a key “apolitical” strategy by groups across scales while identity politics are both a powerful tool for mobilization as well as a divisive force that can lead to local ethnic conflict. 5. There is a need to develop new methods for analyzing the global and inter-linked aspects of localized environmental struggles, that allows going beyond dynamics at local scales to understand crucial processes and relations generating environmental inequalities at broader regional, national, and global scales. I offer such a framework within a new praxis for environmental justice research. Finally, I offer the concept of the environmentalism of the dispossessed to explain the motivations of environmental movements today. It’s defining characteristics include: the use of politics to challenge state power based on a structural critique of capitalist accumulation; a conception of the environment as being co-produced and contingent rather than being conceived a singular “nature”; informed by a “global materialism” that considers how local processes are embedded with global social metabolic flows through commodity chains; and increasingly willing to use disruptive and contentious tactics to respond to ecological dispossession. Keywords: environmental justice, political ecology, ecological conflicts, social metabolism, collaborative research, contention, activist knowledge, accumulation by dispossession, agrarian politics, capitalism, crisis, commodity chains

Outdoor recreation and environmentalism are interlinked phenomena. Historically, they have clear parallels; both emerged at the dawn of the last century, drew inspiration from the Romantic Movement, and were reactions against elements in the modern industrialized and urbanized society. The establishment of the national parks in Sweden (first in Europe) could be seen as one illustration of this linkage; the protected natural areas came to serve as landscapes for the practice of outdoor recreation. From this beginning, outdoor recreation has been a retreat for environmentalists and an expression of “close to nature” ideals but also a source of inspiration for critics of modern society.  Within this context, this thesis explores the relationship between outdoor recreation and environmentalism of today. The study focuses on how people who express an environmental commitment relate to, and use, nature and the landscape as a recreational resource in contemporary Sweden and is empirically based upon quantitative and qualitative data, including a case study of the organization Nature and Youth Sweden (Fältbiologerna).
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Friluftsliv i förändring (FIF-projektet)

The purpose of this study is to investigate environmentalism in the United States. The dimension of perspective receives considerable attention. The prevailing perspective by a society regarding the importance of the health of the natural world greatly influences the degree of support of environmental organizations, environmental policy, as well as the direction charted for the future of that society. The perspectives of the Native Americans and the dominant European cultures which arrived in North America are presented and contrasted. It is supposed that the perspective which prevails in the United States regarding the importance of the natural world is evolving. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Manifest Destiny and the American Industrial Revolution exacted a steep cost from the nation's natural resources. Previously perceived as "raw materials," today the unmanipulated environment is viewed in terms of its recreational, aesthetic, ecologic, and spiritual worth. This evolving perspective is demonstrated qualitativelythrough case studies featuring methods of sustainable agriculture, by an ecological restoration project, and by grassroots eco-poltical activism. The changing perspective is quantified by measuring the growth of some of the nation's leading environmental organizations. It is hypothesized that those organizations have experienced significant growth over the study period, or from 1980-1994. It is concluded that there has been phenomenal growth of the leading environmental organizations during the study period. The prevailing perspective by the citizens of the United States is indeed evolving toward a view that is more sustainable since the missions of the nation's leading environmental organizations are endorsed by the financiers of those organizations Environmentalists, now more than ever, must remain encouraged and vigilant in order to increase the chances that the newly evolved perspective will become policy. Increased participation in the political process is facilitated by the personal computer which allows both the monitoring of environmental voting records of the individual Members of Congress while making those legislators accessible by electronic mail systems. Finally, the optimal sustainable perspective is reflected in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each step toward the ultimate environmental perspective indicates genuine progress for America.

Concern for the environment is a theme which has gained much currency in popular and academic discourse. The normative assumptions, however, which underlie the field of environmental politics, are far from univocal. The exclusion of normative considerations from much environmental literature and many environmental projects, therefore, is an indication of our general failure to see environmental issues as ethical issues demanding resolution. This study aims at examining how the critical theory of Herbert Marcuse contributes to an ecological perspective that does treat the natural environment as a domain of ethical inquiry. Drawing from the Romantic tradition, Marcuse treats nature as sensuousness and spirituality with immanent value. His theory of nature is concerned with the reconciliation of human subjectivity as rational, moral will with external nature. What emerges is an ethics of aesthetic community in which nature is more than an object of contemplation, but the purveyor of immanent value, the grounds for ethical, creative and "playful" activity. This notion of aesthetic community does not emerge without its own internal tension and ambiguity which, we argue in this work, remain unresolved as a synthesis of subjective aesthetic judgment and collective reason. In spite of the tension, we conclude that the Marcusean spiritual sensitivity and rational interest could more fruitfully serve as a more solid foundation for contemporary environmentalism and ecological theory.

This study looks at the role that liberal economic norms are playing in international environmental negotiations on hazardous chemicals (including wastes), and the implications of these norms for the protection of the environment and human health from the thousands of chemicals on the market. The key trait of liberal economic norms in relation to global environmental governance is their assumption that the liberalisation of trade and finance and economic growth are both consistent with and necessary for environmental protection. From this assumption follows, for instance, the idea that states should adopt the "least-trade restrictive" measures required to protect the environment and human health. I argue that liberal economic norms are "hegemonic," in a Gramscian sense, in chemicals-related international environmental negotiations. This means that a wide range of actors, including those that do not necessarily accept the liberal economic perspective, are upholding liberal economic norms in their statements and proposals if not out of conviction then out of a perceived need to be realistic or persuasive. The most important implication of liberal economic hegemony is that it is widely assumed that human health and the environment can be effectively protected from the negative effects of hazardous chemicals even though the volume of chemicals and chemical-containing products being consumed is increasing at a spectacular rate. The issue of growing consumption of chemicals is therefore consistently framed as a problem of quality (hazardousness) rather than quantity. To understand consumption in this narrow sense is problematic, however, because there is considerable scientific uncertainty concerning the environmental and health effects of most of the chemicals on the market and because chemicals that pose minimal risks to the environment and human health might be very hazardous when they are being manufactured or upon becoming waste. In order to address the problem of hazardous chemicals effectively, it is necessary to challenge the hegemony of liberal economic norms in international environmental negotiations. This can be done, I conclude, by deepening a number of fissures in the hegemony of the liberal economic perspective that can be detected in the context of chemicals-related instruments.

John Rawls's stated intergenerational justice scheme, known as the just-savings principle, does not include an institutional concern for the environment and is therefore incomplete and incapable of maintaining meaningfully just relations between generations. The theory's emphasis on economic theory and capital accumulation demonstrates a misinterpretation of environmental issues and concerns as well as their underlying causes and repercussions. This lapse in Rawls's intergenerational scheme exposes flaws in his larger theory of justice by leaving the stability of society in question and placing arbitrary burdens on generations and peoples without institutional recourse. However, by supplementing justice as fairness (JAF) with Rawls's other writings, such as The Law of Peoples, a more satisfactory outline for justice between generations can be achieved and a more comprehensive scheme of intergenerational justice can be incorporated into Rawls's theory of justice.
ID: 030422932; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-65).
M.A.
Masters
Political Science
Sciences

This thesis takes issue with the claims of the radical centre that political ecology is a domain which can be negotiated by the formation of a broad but radical consensus. It uses studies of three contemporary and historical social/ political movements which have linked environmentalism and social inequality to develop a focus on the ‘ineradicablity ofantagonism’ in political ecology. It argues that this necessitates a stress on the constitutive role of power and spatiality. These movements are firstly, the UK land rights campaign, the Land is Ours and its mobilisation of a diverse political constituency around a site of ‘waste land’ in Wandsworth, London. Secondly, a project called the Inter-continental Caravan, which united activists from the Indian New Fanner’s Movements and activists from Western European green movements to contest the unequal social and environmental relations of contemporary neo-liberal globalisation. Thirdly, the political activity of the Whiteboys, an eighteenth century Irish peasant movement which contested the enclosure of common land. This case-study is written with particular emphasis on the relation of the Whiteboys to Atlantic routes of radical ideas and experience and develops an account of their influence on the London Port Strikes of 1768. This approach has enabled a focus on the agency of marginalised groups in contesting the unequal processes shaping the production of environments and on the complex histories and geographies of such agency. The thesis seeks to open up and scrutinize questions about the political identities formed through linlung environmental questions with concerns relating to social justice. It seeks to engage with how movements imagine and contest spatially stretched power relations. It argues that the way these power relations are imagined and the way movements perform distinctive ‘spaces of politics’ has effects on the kinds of political identities that emerge through their activities.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-53).
In recent months, evangelical environmentalism has been the subject of much media coverage and debate. The central questions are whether evangelical environmentalists could be potential allies for the mainstream environmental movement, and what impact pro-environment evangelicals might have on politics. I argue that evangelical environmentalists do not seek alliances with the mainstream environmental movement because the perception in the wider evangelical community is that environmentalism is liberal and un-Christian. This perception is the result of a confluence of theological, political, and cultural developments that have taken place over the past 30 years. As a result, the leaders of evangelical environmentalism do not want to risk forming coalitions with civic or political groups that would alienate members of their own political and religious communities. Instead, they work from within their own religious community to reframe environmentalism as a Christian duty, and they seek to change the Republican Party's stance towards environmentalism to align with their own.
by Marina Sophia Psaros.
M.C.P.

Within the space of a battle to halt ski resort expansion and snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks, a mountain in northern Arizona, a coalition has emerged of indigenous activists (primarily Diné), Euroamerican environmentalists, and anarchists. The resulting collaboration, Mountain Defense, goes beyond usual models of environmentalist-indigenous alliances as temporary and incommensurate. This dissertation explores the development of the Mountain Defense movement over time, the motivations of activists from divergent backgrounds in opposing snowmaking, the social interactions and negotiations of identity within this group, and the public discourse by which they construct a message about this space and threats to it. Ethnographic fieldwork was undertaken from 2009 to 2015; key methods of data collection included participant observation, interviews, archival research, and collection of spoken, print, and online communication. This data was analyzed for emergent themes as well as the ways in which meaning was produced between parties. Situating Mountain Defense within scholarship on place-making, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and social constructionism, this dissertation explicates how the movement has articulated a hybrid knowledge, including layered conceptualizations of sacred land and syntheses of sacred and scientific idioms in expressing the dangers of snowmaking technology. This research also speaks to the complex dimensions and continuing salience of Diné relationships with the San Francisco Peaks and the ways in which snowmaking and expansion threaten these.

In the last 30 years, Iran has experienced mounting environmental problems, such as air and water pollution, that are perceived as in need of redress. In order to address and confront these problems, Iran has recently adopted the language and framework of ecological science. Subsequently, the prestige of science in the country has been growing through extensive applications of ecological science at various levels of Iranian society. Viewing this development as a socio-cultural process of modernity in Iran, this dissertation addresses two major issues: First, it investigates the discursive historical conditions of Iran in which modern science, including ecological science, has been developed and practiced since the nineteenth century. Second, it explores the cultural dimensions of environmentalism in Iran through examining its reception by Iranian environmentalists, researchers, and non-expert citizens in Tehran and their attitudes toward it. The analyses of the genealogies of science in Iran show that modern science has provided Iranians with a conceptual framework through which to govern the objects that state authorities, with accuracy and efficiency, wish to identify, analyze, and organize. I argue that the "population" has been a prominent object in the governance of Iran in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and that, more recently, "the environment" has become such an object. Scientific knowledge and management have played a vital role in establishing these mechanisms of governance, thereby the status of science is kept intact in Iran. Drawing on thirteen months of fieldwork in Tehran, I also examine the recent development of environmentalism in urban Iran through changing conceptions of "nature." With Iran's utilization of ecological science, a new conception of nature is recently introduced to society: a scientific formulation of nature. I demonstrate how this notion of nature has become influential along with growing environmental discourses in Iran, and yet, argue that another conception of nature--relating to Iranian nationhood--also makes a key contribution to Iranian environmentalism. In particular, I engage the anthropological perspectives of "materiality" and "heteroglossia" to highlight this point.

Friends of the Earth International (FoE!) is a federation of 76 'national' non-governmental organisations. The overall question of the thesis is: What are the processes by which FoEI activists come to accept that FoEI, and national FoE member-groups, exist and have effect as entities? The thesis is an ethnographic exploration of how these organisations are constituted, maintained and have effects in the world. The project addresses two shortcomings in current social science. First, studies of environmentalism in anthropology have so far largely focused on subordinate groups or on the inhabitants of particular areas facing environmental issues, rather than on international arenas of environmental activism. Second, much of the literature on globalization in social theory remains detached from people's daily experiences. This thesis compensates for these shortcomings by focusing on an international environmental federation and by grounding theoretical discussions of globalisation in which environmentalism is given a central place. The thesis interrogates claims of 'global environmentalism' ethnographically through a phenomenological framework. Anthropological approaches to macro-scale issues have either discarded or struggled with phenomenology due to its apparently inherent micro-scale approach. I propose a synthesis of the approaches of Ingold, Latour and Haraway that I call ecological phenomenology. This synthesis provides a theoretical framework within which a range of scales can be taken into account. In the course of my argument, I develop three concepts to map and explore the simultaneous workings of impersonal structure and personal agency. These are: fields offorces, vectors and direction of attention. I propose to substitute these notions for the more traditional notion of 'relations' in anthropology. The interplay of vectors more precisely explains how the various types of entities (including supra-personal institutions) that FoE activists encounter are formed, the agency they exert, as well as the effectiveness of activists' personal power in dealing with them.

The proliferation of green parties on the European political landscape in recent decades has prompted much debate concerning the explanation of their emergence and the factors considered to influence their varying levels of electoral success. This thesis critically examines a number of perspectives and concepts drawn from the sociological and political studies literatures which shed light on these two key issues. Through a comparison of green party politics in Austria, Britain and the Netherlands, the thesis challenges the assessment of those who maintain that the emergence and/or electoral success of green parties can be understood principally in terms of the theory of 'post-materialist' value change, or in terms of the shift to 'post-industrial' society. Drawing on contemporary studies of 'high-consequence' risks, it argues for an alternative approach to understanding the emergence of green parties which is rooted in processes of social and global environmental change that have taken place during the post-war period. The question of green party electoral success is examined by means of the organisation of a variety of political and institutional factors into four overarching themes: political state-institutional structures, electoral dealignment and political competition, modes of interest representation, and internal dynamics. It is contended that attention to each of these can yield important insights into the conditions which have impacted on the electoral significance of green parties in Austria, Britain and the Netherlands. The final part of the thesis develops a new, ecologically informed approach to the emergence of green parties based primarily upon a reworking and synthesis of themes explored in previous chapters.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2005.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-04, Section: A, page: 1455. Adviser: Beverly J. Stoeltje. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Nov. 15, 2006)."

This study considers the way in which Margaret Atwood’s post-apocalyptic MaddAddam Trilogy functions as an environmental project. The main focus is on how the three novels, Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013), simultaneously draw on and destabilise the apocalypticism inherent in so much environmental discourse, primarily through the use of satire. The trilogy is securely anchored in the concerns of contemporary readers, and transposition of the action to the near future is integral to Atwood’s environmental project: attention is focussed on the present causes of anticipated environmental catastrophe, which readers implicitly are implored to avoid. Atwood’s environmentalism is performed in the interplay between her literary stature, the equivocal content of her work, and the irreverence with which she metaleptically blurs distinctions between fact and fiction, art and commodity, and activism and aesthetics. Whereas the satiric mode serves as a way of avoiding some of the limitations of apocalyptic thinking by maintaining and even creating complexity, it also renders the entire project ambiguous. Uncertainty about the exact environmental injunction presented in the trilogy creates doubts about the degree to which Atwood’s extradiegetic environmental activism should be taken seriously, or conversely. Storytelling is foregrounded in all three novels, and through its concurrent critique of and reliance on market forces and the political potential of art, the MaddAddam Trilogy demonstrates that there is no external position from which the imagination can perform environmentalist miracles. As such, Atwood’s environmental project furthers a profoundly ecological understanding of the world.
Margaret Atwood routinely eludes her readers, and the MaddAddam Trilogy is no exception. These three novels, Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013), are ostensibly written in the tradition of environmental apocalypse, yet they constantly undermine its conventions through satire. This study considers the trilogy as an environmental project, performed in the interplay between Atwood’s literary stature, the ambiguous content of her work, and the irreverence with which she blurs distinctions between fact and fiction, art and commodity, and activism and aesthetics. Atwood’s use of the MaddAddam Trilogy in her real-world environmental activism creates uncertainty about how seriously both her art and her activism should be taken. Her opinions on environmental matters are legitimised, but at the same time an urgent environmental ‘message’ is presented as entertainment. Atwood’s message often appears circular: her art carries no message, but Margaret Atwood the writer does have an important message, which she gets to deliver precisely because of her art. Storytelling is a central theme in all three novels, and through both critiquing and relying on commercialism, the MaddAddam Trilogy demonstrates that there is no external position from which the imagination can perform environmentalist miracles. As such, Atwood’s environmental project furthers a profoundly ecological understanding of the world.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Cincinnati, 2008.
Advisor: David Stradling. Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Sep. 5, 2008). Keywords: civil rights; environmentalism; social movements; urban crisis. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

This research focuses on the involvement of chemists in professional Canadian environmentalism. We confront opposed research and development sector perspectives (government, industry, and university) to describe how incompatabilities between them resist cross-sectoral interaction and limit disciplinary greening. We then refer to original questionnaire and interview data to discuss the greening force of professional associations on a multisectoral discipline (chemistry). Finally, we consider plausible research avenues in the sociology of environment to address the current and future status of environmental chemistry.

This thesis explores the interrelationships between class and gender and the conduct of everyday domestic practices in climate changing times. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the thesis presents qualitative empirical data generated from the domestic narratives of seventeen respondents living in Yorkshire, England. The male and female respondents are evenly distributed within three cohorts: working-class, middle-class and green-identified. Focusing on everyday domestic life and individual performances of domestic agency - especially in relation to domestic foodwork and waste practices - the thesis analyzes the ways in which the respondents' negotiate the ethics and labour involved in 'greening' the domestic sphere. Additionally, three UK government-sponsored eco-campaigns - Act on C02 (DECC, 2008-2009); Love Food Hate Waste (WRAP, 2007 - present); and War Time Spirit (EST, 2009) - are analyzed in relation to the empirical data as a means of evaluating the efficacy of the state's approach to promoting the mainstreaming of green domestic practice. A central claim of the thesis is that the specificities of classed, gendered locations intimately inform the processes of what I term 'domesticating environmentalism'. The thesis theorizes a range of themes and core concepts that enable or hinder processes of domesticating environmentalism. These include processes of dis-identification, ascetic hedonism, incidental greenness, domestic distancing and eco-domesticity. The thesis identifies the emergence of a 'green shift' of domestic labour that holds the potential to transform as well as harden existing classed and gendered relationships to domestic labour. The green shift readily coordinates with the existing gendered double shift and the gendered division of household labour: it is therefore predisposed to feminization. It is argued that specific performances of the green shift cross-cut socio-culturallocations to both destabilize and reassert the habits of class and gender. In the context of detraditionalization processes, some aspects of the green shift respond to shifting household arrangements and economies, or to desires for capital accrual, rendering them amenable to masculinization. However, as intimately connected to respectability, the green shift has classed, gendered dimensions which presently work to intensify working-class women's experiences of domestic labour - notably in its capacity to traverse private and public spheres.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references.
This paper analyzes the process of civic environmentalism in brownfield redevelopment. A single "best case" scenario, the Empire Laundry project in Lynn, Massachusetts, illustrates key features of a citizen-led cleanup and redevelopment effort. The in-depth analysis traces key events and milestones of the community-based process and evaluates the important decisions that led to a successful result: the development of five single-family houses. This research revealed two main factors that were important in creating a successful outcome: strong civic leaders and neighborhood stability. These two factors were pivotal in fostering community involvement, but raise important questions regarding the balancing of community desires with environmental protection.
by Abigail Harrison Emison.
M.C.P.

Andrew Feenberg, a philosopher of technology, argues for a democratic rationalization of technology, whereby subjugated actors intervene in the design process to achieve their interests. He claims that environmentalism represents one of the greatest opportunities for this kind of intervention. His suggestion seems viable; most if not all of the current environmental problems stem from maladaptive technologies. Transforming these technologies is therefore imperative if we are to move toward more sustainable societies. Feenberg, however, does not address the details of his proposal or offer more than a few brief examples of what he is advocating. I use Feenberg's Critical Theory of technology to analyze and assess various environmentalisms. Along the way I expose the deficiencies of his theory and attempt build on his work. One problem, however, is that environmentalism is by no means a homogonous entity; rather, it is composed of numerous strands with their own unique histories, aims, and strategies. I argue that of the various environmentalisms grassroots environmental justice resonates most with Feenberg's theory. To illustrate, I present a case study of the toxics movement that emerged out of the Love Canal incident. I conclude by showing how grassroots environmental justice could enhance their effectiveness by employing the suggested Critical Theory of technology.
Ph. D.