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While political environmentalism played an important role in social mobilization against communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe before 1989, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s conservationism appeared to be in decline across the region, and external pressure from European institutions and Western donors influenced environmental policy. What explains the effectiveness of protest since the environmental movement emerged in the 1980s? We trace the emergence and evolution of Polish political environmentalism, looking at three levels of the environmental movement's legitimacy: the level of practices, societal support, and discourse. Each phase identified between 1980s and 2017 saw shifts on different levels of legitimacy, and each ended with a spectacular environmental protest or a decision, bearing implications for the following phase. Since 2010, we see a deep polarization of Polish politics, limiting the effectiveness of environmental protest despite the movement's regained triple legitimacy in large parts of the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research about the religion and environmental attitudes relationship in the United States has yielded mixed results. Some studies find that religion relates to heightened concern about environmental threats and greater environmental interest whereas others find religion relates to diminished concern and interest. A new perspective that applies ideas from psychology and sociology may help resolve these discrepant findings. It is hypothesized that religious meaning reduces concern with environmental threats since meaning helps people cope with distressing stimuli. This reduction is specific to threats and does not extend to environmental interest. Using the 2016 General Social Survey to test this hypothesis, after controlling for sociodemographic and political variables, structural equation modeling shows Americans who are more religious experience diminished sense of danger from environmental threats, yet exhibit heightened general environmental interest. These findings align with the proposed theory and suggest new ways to promote environmentalism and policy change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay seeks to open a conversation about multispecies justice in environmental politics. It sets out some of the theoretical approaches, key areas of exploration, and obvious challenges that come with rethinking a core plank of liberal theory and politics. First, we discuss some of the diverse scholarly fields that have influenced the emergence of multispecies justice. We then discuss core concerns at the centre of this reconfiguration of justice – including broadening conceptions of the subject of justice and the means and processes of recognition (and misrecognition). The importance of deconstructing and decolonising the hegemony of liberal political discourse is crucial, and is part of a larger project for multispecies justice to rework a politics of knowledge and practice of political communication. Finally, we begin to explore what a commitment to multispecies justice might demand of politics and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the future of 'environmental' policy in times of earth system transformations and the recognition of the 'Anthropocene' as a new epoch in planetary history? I argue that fifty years after the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, we need to revisit the 'environmental policy' paradigm because it falls short on five grounds. The paradigm (a) emphasizes a dichotomy of 'humans' and 'nature' that is no longer defensible; (b) is incompatible with more integrated research concepts that have overcome this human-environment dichotomy; (c) deemphasizes questions of planetary justice and democracy; (d) fails to deal with novel normative challenges of the Anthropocene; and (e) may risk political marginalization of central concerns of human and non-human survival. In the second part I discuss institutional implications, arguing for novel approaches in science collaboration, new institutional arrangements and a more central place for questions of planetary justice and earth-system risks in governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the status of public opinion research in the environmental politics field and how individuals assess cues of cooperative behavior from other actors before they decide to incur private costs for the production of an environmental public good. It mentions motivate social scientists outside the environmental policy field to use findings from environmental scholarship in their work. It also mentions understanding of environmental attitudes at specific national and subnational levels, and on how environmental concerns stack up against other policy issues.

The concept of prospective environmental (in)justice (PEJ) is proposed to make sense of situations in which development proposals and the actions of state and market actors create injustices even before the development projects become a material reality. Through this concept and its application to two cases of opencast gold-mining, a broader conceptualization of socio-environmental (in)justice is invited that considers multiple forms of injustice of rural communities in Romania and Bulgaria during more than a decade of waiting for the 'actual harm' of mining to happen. The mere prospects of opencast gold-mining have, in fact, shed light on deep-seated and ongoing dimensions of socio-environmental injustice such as, land-grabbing, slow community disappearance and marginalization, daily psychological damage, disavowal of alternatives and disqualification as political subjects. These injustices experienced collectively could be seen as constitutive moments of systemic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on environmental nongovermental organizations (ENGOs). It refers to the support of activities of less-institutionalized, more radical activists by ENGOs in various ways. It describes the symbiotic relationship between ENGOs and radical environmental activists. It explains the role of ENGOs in some sociologists of social movements. It highlights the external institutionalization of ENGOs which did not eclipse less institutionalized forms of direct action and should not be exaggerated.

The work of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) has contributed to the institutionalization of environmentalism. Putting environmental INGOs in comparative perspective, it is argued that differences in authority among INGOs are an important determinant of the strategies that INGOs adopt and the ultimate influence they are able to achieve. This claim is illustrated through an examination of the changing political opportunities for INGOs and a case of a recent private governance initiative, The Sustainability Consortium. The status maintenance concerns of leading INGOs encourage them to adopt incrementalist and pro-market policies that help launch weak governance schemes and frustrate many other environmental INGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear energy was a defining topic of German environmentalism from the 1970s to 1990s. An analysis of the transformation of Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) shows that anti-nuclear protests, which are frequently depicted as a prototypical example of ‘new’ social movement activism, were only a temporary phenomenon. From the 1970s, NABU gradually transformed from a traditional nature conservation organization into an environmental lobby organization that addressed nuclear energy, other health hazards and environmental risks. These topics were perceived through the notion of mutual assured destruction that emerged with the cold war nuclear arms race. With the end of the cold war and the government’s decision to phase-out nuclear energy, NABU began to rediscover its neglected focus on nature conservation. Nature walks and wildlife monitoring schemes replaced sit-ins, political rallies and civil disobedience against the construction of nuclear reactors. Since 2000, the goals and strategies of German environmentalism have increasingly turned back to the ‘old’ social movement activism of traditional nature conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European environmental movement has been reconfigured since the introduction of the pan-European public interest environmental law group based on the model founded in the USA around 1970. Yet it has been claimed that there is a low degree of success in transplanting legal practices from one national space to another. Examination of the successful transplantation of a US legal model to the European context by the law group ClientEarth shows both that this claim is false and why it is false. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Friends of the Earth’s (FoE) ‘Big Ask’ campaign played a critical role establishing the path-breaking UK Climate Change Act (CCA) 2008. FoE exploited the window of opportunity that opened in climate politics during 2006, first to win cross-party support for the Bill and then to strengthen its content. It then rolled-out the ‘The Big Ask’ across Europe, helped by an innovative collaborative seminar programme with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Multiple Streams Framework is used to identify FoE as an effective policy entrepreneur shaping the agenda-setting process. This contributes to the policy entrepreneurship literature where there are relatively few examples of effective collective entrepreneurship by environmental non-governmental organizations and makes an original empirical contribution through a detailed analytical narrative about a remarkably successful environmental non-governmental organization campaign. Qualitative methodology is employed, drawing on public and private documentary sources and interviews with key campaigners, politicians and officials involved in climate policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tackling China's grave environmental problems increasingly turns on questions of sub-national interjurisdictional relations. What are the conditions under which neighbouring localities cooperate in stewardship of the natural environment? What factors give rise to interjurisdictional conflict such as pollution spillovers? Through a combination of empirical and theoretical reflections, a research agenda to better understand these issues is outlined. First, China's recent innovative approaches to the promotion of interjurisdictional cooperation are examined. An in-depth case study of interjurisdictional ecological protection 'redline' zones underscores the difficulties of inculcating environmental neighbourliness between local governments. Yet, a precise diagnosis of the problem remains elusive because too little is known about the underlying drivers of interjurisdictional relations in China. An analytical framework that draws insight from contemporary China studies and comparative environmental governance scholarship is offered for the study of inter-jurisdictional environmental relations in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Anthropocene raises two interrelated problems for the Australian environment movement. The first concerns the movement’s normative and political relationship to non-human nature: climate change in particular is forcing an urgent reconsideration of how nature is to be understood and managed. The second problem concerns the implications of full recognition of the rights of First Peoples for environmental justice. These issues may lead to crises of identity, legitimacy, and effectiveness for the Australian movement. The normative bases upon which Australian environmentalists may draw in order to ‘protect nature’ in the Anthropocene are discussed. Setting aside the simple emancipatory ambition of preservationist environmentalism and the Australian movement’s earlier Romantic protectionism, a new pragmatic, pluralistic environmental politics – based on precaution, the avoidance of pain and suffering, and protection of the most vulnerable – is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the ‘green state debate’ has primarily focused on a narrow range of usual suspects in the developed world, the debate can be enriched and challenged by considering more diverse cases. Viewing African states from a green state perspective invites empirical reassessment of the geographical scope of the concept, and introduces a new set of conceptual questions about the political significance of transitions in environmental governance. Ecological modernisation theory has largely neglected African states because it is assumed that African states are weak, failing, or failed, and that environmentalism is a post-materialist phenomenon. Whilst both assumptions can be challenged empirically, a biopolitical perspective on the African environmental state, drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, can both position African state development within a longer-term context and challenge some assumptions of ecological modernisation. Examples from Egypt, South Africa, and the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area highlight underestimated continuities in environmental state practices. The international and transnational drivers of the green state in Africa are emphasised, as well as the political dangers of a green ‘state building’ project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Public demand for environmental policies can only influence policies when political parties incorporate environmentalism into their platforms. The economic downturn that began in 2009 may have caused European parties to abandon their commitment to environmentalism as they focused on solutions to the economic crisis. Particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, where commitment to the environment is not as central to party competition, public environmental concerns may have been placed on the periphery of the policy agenda. Examining this issue, this study finds that political parties, especially mainstream parties, in Western Europe represented economic and environmental preferences of voters about equally as well in 2013 as they did prior to the economic crisis. However, in Central and Eastern Europe, parties tended to be less responsive to environmental preferences, presumably because economic differences dominate political divisions in newer democracies. It is concluded that environmental interests are well protected by mainstream actors in the West, though less so in Europe’s newer democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The causal processes that shape the emergence of environmental attitudes in post-Communist Europe are examined. We describe the widening gap in environmental policy orientations between West and East, and then cite two factors to explain the lower support for environmentalism in this region: first, citizens still evaluate environmental issues through a distinctive ideological lens carried over from the Communist era; and, second, they do not connect environmental issues to other (more salient) economic and political questions in a consistent way. Using the three waves of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) environmental module, these questions are explored with individual-level and multilevel models. It is concluded that the post-Communist effect is unlikely to disappear until environmental issues comprise a component of citizens’ ideological orientations and the programmes of political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the agenda released by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the concerns raised by the environmental non-governmental organization Green 10 regarding a lack of clear environmental agenda. Issues include the merger of the climate change and energy portfolios under the Energy Union team, the 7th Environmental Action Programme's call for environmental policies to be integrated into all policy areas, and alleged possible weakening of biodiversity protection.

Numerous scholars have used political philosophy to characterise the US environmental justice (EJ) movement’s conception of justice. I build upon that work by identifying and critically evaluating the ideas of justice that manifest in mainstream (non-EJ) environmental politics. I do so through a comparative analysis of two groups of activists concerned with the threats posed by pesticides to human health in California. Mainstream agri-environmental activists’ narratives and practices evince libertarian and communitarian ideas of justice that support the neoliberalisation of an already compromised regulatory system, as they motivate and legitimise policies, practices, and discourses that undermine the state’s environmental protections and shift environmental responsibility to individuals. In contrast, California’s EJ activists, like the broader EJ movement, marshal a pluralist notion of justice as distribution, recognition, participation, and capabilities, which rejects the neoliberal project and explicitly criticises the social inequalities and relations of oppression that help produce environmental inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situating the ‘post-ecologist turn’ within the framework of post-politics, we not only investigate why environmental issues are so easily represented in consensual and technocratic terms, but also seek avenues for repoliticisation. We thereby try to avoid the pitfall of a voluntaristic or substantively normative approach to what repoliticisation can mean. By pointing to the subtle polemic on a meta-level which lurks beneath even the most consensual discourse, a potential starting point for repoliticisation is uncovered, which also enables a political rereading of the ‘post-ecologist turn’. Finally, we argue that the same characteristics that make the environmental question liable to depoliticisation can also turn it into a field of politicisationpar excellence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancing internationalisation of environmental politics has triggered increasing interest in factors that lead countries to participate in international environmental agreements. But do partisan differences matter for such ratification decisions? An analysis of the ratification responses of 21 OECD countries toward 64 treaties shows that partisan environmentalism matters for ratification behaviour whereas left–right differences do not play a significant role. More precisely, while the likelihood of ratification increases when overall government positions are more pro-environment, pro-environment veto players and environmental ministers are not found to play a role. These results hold against a number of controls and correcting for potential error in the measurement of party positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visual imagery in environmental politics can be an effective way to engage the public. However, research based on 21 interviewees with activists from nine environmental non-governmental organisations (ENGOs) in China suggests that the value of images in promoting environmental initiatives is not limited to the exhibition of them, but is also seen in the making of them. Increasingly in China, ENGOs are offering free natural photographic tutoring to the public. Camera lenses are seen as conduits to recast self-nature relations, which has the potential to raise environmental awareness and promote ENGO membership. Drawing on both theories of social movements and contemporary Chinese subaltern political sociology, this paper provides new insights into grass-roots environmental mobilisation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a peak in activism against climate change in the UK, new environmental direct action networks have not yet received much academic attention. Taking perhaps the most prominent of such networks – the Camp for Climate Action – which held several high-profile protest events between 2006 and 2011 as a case study, and using a theoretical framework that understands society as being distinctly ‘post-political’ in character, we ask questions about the knowledge claims that form the foundations of radical environmental politics. Drawing on published statements and press releases, as well as from our insights as active participants in the Camp, we analyse the strategy of environmental protest where climate change has become its focus. The Camp for Climate Action was a contested political arena. We argue that the Camp's strategy was characterised by ‘scientised’, ‘post-political’ politics which operated within an ethical framework that prescribed individual responsibility as the primary basis for action. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Willingness to pay to address environmental problems is influenced by partisanship in Australia. Ceteris paribus, the support base of environmental concerns is generally much stronger among Labor and Green supporters, postmaterialists, those who engage in eastern spiritual practices and professionals. Women are more likely than men to favour environmental protection over economic growth, to pay extra tax to protect the environment and to believe global warming will pose a serious threat during their lifetime. Support for renewable energy is stronger among younger Australians, suggesting demand may increase with generational replacement. Political leaders influence public concerns over global warming and other environmental issues across the partisan divide, yet while political elites remain divided over the implications of climatic change, the shift in public opinion and behaviour necessary to avert such problems is unlikely to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental movement is no longer a 'new' movement and what passed as 'new' and unconventional forms of action have waned, increasingly displaced by cyber campaigns and conventional lobbying of governments by environmental movement organisations. Examination of the social and political backgrounds of Australian environmental group members shows that members of protest-oriented environmental groups tend to be leftwing and younger than average. However, those who play active roles in environmental groups are not young and are far less likely to join protest groups. While young Australians are more environmentally aware than ever before, they may associate participation in environmental groups beyond monetary donations and virtual activism with the behaviour of their protest-oriented parents and grandparents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technologies display unusually strong growth and are well on the way to establishing a 'mega-trend' in technology development. To exploit the associated economic opportunities, many industrialised countries have started to follow an innovation-oriented approach to environmental policy. Against this background, the ways are examined in which environmental policy can effectively 'govern' technological change and secure environmental improvements. What is needed is a clear focus on prioritising the ecological effectiveness of environmental innovations, devising 'smart regulation' through instrument mixes and addressing the inherent limitations of innovation-oriented policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of green political theorists now base their arguments on some form of deliberative, or discursive, democracy. Some of these argue that through its commitment to the all-affected principle, deliberative democracy requires contemporary deliberators to be able to justify their decisions to persons in future generations, which would lead to significant environmental protections. This article cautions against such a strategy. It argues that the green deliberative democrats propounding it have paid insufficient attention to Derek Parfit's 'Non-Identity Problem'. It is claimed that a reading of the basic principles of deliberative democracy shows that it is based on a narrow person-affecting view, and is hence vulnerable to the non-identity problem. It therefore cannot by itself justify inclusion of future persons. An alternative approach, based on broadly Rawlsian lines, is offered as a solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that James Gustafson's 'modes of moral discourse' framework is highly valuable for conceptualising the ethics of climate politics, or 'climate ethics'. The moral-philosophical task of developing principles of climate justice, or the issue of how the burdens (and benefits) of global climate change should be distributed between and within generations, is essential to climate ethics, but it is also insufficient. Climate ethics should avoid focusing too exclusively on '(technical-)ethical' discourse, but also incorporate insights from 'narrative', 'policy', and 'prophetic' discourses about or relevant to climate change politics. Climate ethics is to be conceived as pluralist: broad and interdisciplinary, but presumably conflictual and tragic as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on changes which have been seen in governmental and consumers attitudes towards environmental justice as a result of an increase in awareness of global warming and climate change. An overview of climate related obligations and environmental policies that have been developed as a result of global warming is offered. A discussion of the scope and content of climate justice, and of the impact global and intergenerational democracy may have on climate change in the future, is presented.

Environmental scepticism denies the seriousness of environmental problems, and self-professed 'sceptics' claim to be unbiased analysts combating 'junk science'. This study quantitatively analyses 141 English-language environmentally sceptical books published between 1972 and 2005. We find that over 92 per cent of these books, most published in the US since 1992, are linked to conservative think tanks (CTTs). Further, we analyse CTTs involved with environmental issues and find that 90 per cent of them espouse environmental scepticism. We conclude that scepticism is a tactic of an elite-driven counter-movement designed to combat environmentalism, and that the successful use of this tactic has contributed to the weakening of US commitment to environmental protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are consensus democracies more likely to enact environmentally friendly policies than majoritarian democracies? The relationship between democratic type and environmental effectiveness is more complex than previously assumed. What matters are not only institutions but also the nature of the policy issues, the types of institutions and veto players in the system. Four measures of effectiveness emerged from the data: mundane environmentalism; environmental taxation; conservation; and nuclear energy production. Environmental effectiveness in democratic systems differs depending upon which measure of effectiveness is examined and whether or not one looks at representational or organisational aspects of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of the thirteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 13), a conference on global environmental issues which was held in the Balinese resort village of Nusa Dua on December 3 to 15 in 2007. A discussion of a lack of involvement concerning environmental issues which was seen in U.S. representatives at the conference, and of the unwillingness of the U.S. to develop strategies which would slow or prevent global warming, is presented.

The article offers perspective on the challenges to environtalism in the U.S. It suggests that the American environmental movement has been quite energetic. From the growth of state and local groups and to the development of a variety of alliances and approaches, environmentalism in the country remains alive, active and vibrant. Moreover, the environmental movement to which it refers not only the professional interest groups focused on national environmental policy, but also the multitude of additional groups, organisations, and networks, from mainstream to environmental justice to radical environmentalisms.

The United States has failed to develop an effective policy to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for climate change. This policy failure is the result of many factors, one of which is the inherent limitations of 'interest group politics' in producing the kinds of broad political and economic changes required to reduce the threat of disruptive climate change. This article first examines interest group politics in environmental policymaking, emphasising the role of groups in institutionalising the broad social movement that produced modern environmentalism in America. It then explores the nature of climate change and its political and policy implications, and explains why an interest-group-centred model of policymaking is insufficient to address the threat posed by climate change. It then analyses what kind of political actions might be better suited to produce the kinds of dramatic policy developments the likely consequences of climate change compel us to make. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the intersectional, coalition politics forged by activists in US environmental justice and women's rights organisations. This coalitional politics articulates environmental and feminist concerns and rejects the limitations of a narrow-focused politics in favour of a more strategic, relational vision of social and environmental change. Framed by the Marxist-feminist concept of 'social reproduction', the analysis addresses the complex ways that globalised capitalism has transformed state and corporate responsibilities for social reproduction. The neoliberal policies of privatisation and deregulation have eroded the assurance of a liveable wage, affordable healthcare, decent education, breathable air, and clean water. Drawing on several examples from grassroots movements and community-based organisations, the essay discusses how diverse women activists conceptually link environmental justice and reproductive rights issues in their communities' struggles to sustain everyday life (or, to accomplish 'social reproduction'). The innovative coalition politics of organisations such as Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice and the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Coalition are generating dynamic 'living environmentalisms' with enough political vision and community 'groundedness' to build broadly-based social-environmental collaborations that stand a chance at compelling people to take stronger action to curb problems as big as global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The varying ways in which environmental politics takes place in Russia are analysed by discussing the potentiality of the processes of ecological modernisation. The focus is on the forest industry sector of the Russian economy, which has, like Russia in general, undergone considerable transformations. First, the premises of ecological modernisation theory are discussed, and four potential scenarios for ecological modernisation in Russia are discussed. The recent transformation of environmental politics and the forest industry sector of the economy are then explored. Six empirical case studies from the European part of the Russian Federation are introduced and their analysis pays attention to factors that have proven to be significant in bringing about environmental improvements: state regulation, implementation of technological solutions, pressure from the environmental movement, and enterprise ownership. Based on this framework, the different directions generating incentives, motivations and driving forces for environmental improvements in Russia are analysed, as well as the contradictions arising from these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local environmental campaigns are ubiquitous and recurrent, even in times when environmental issues are not salient on national agenda. Yet their relationship to translocal environmental movements and issues has been relatively neglected. Local environmental campaigners are variously related to national and local organisations, and the peculiarities of place are one factor in that variation. But place itself acquires meaning through campaigns, and communities forge identity even as they mobilise against threats to their survival. The relationship between local campaigns and global environmental issues is problematic, but the ways in which local mobilisations often combine issues of environment, economic justice and democracy mirror the emerging agenda of transnational environmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of an emerging effort to explore environmental justice in the forms in which it is appearing in Latin America, both as a discourse of popular mobilisation and as a set of principles for analysis and interpretation. It explores the promise and limits of environmental justice on the US-Mexico border, drawing its lessons from a study of trans-border energy politics. In the wake of the California energy regulatory crisis, energy companies set their sights on northern Baja California as an ideal production platform to meet US energy demand through the construction of new power plants and receiving terminals for liquefied natural gas. This paper explores the emergence of environmental justice as a banner of community resistance to Baja's energy boom, as well as its utility as an analytical framework that highlights underlying issues of distributional inequity and procedural injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the concept of governance states in relation to environmental politics in Madagascar. Governance states can be regarded as a new development in North–South relations. The concept denotes a move towards the politics of post-conditionality, where states are defined as 'stakeholders' and drawn into 'partnerships' with global public–private networks. This article uses Madagascar as a case study through which to examine the politics of post-conditionality. In particular, it examines the politics of environmental governance through complex networks of actors, especially international environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the World Bank. It focuses on how such transnational networks deeply affect conservation policy-making within Madagascar in particular, and the developing world more generally. It examines the complex and increasingly close relationships between states in the developing world, global environmental NGOs and the World Bank. It argues that such relationships are at once reflective of and constitutive of emerging forms of global environmental governance, namely the production of governance states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational aid and assistance for the environment and civil society development is underscored by assumptions that the transfer of expertise and technical assistance will ultimately make environmental movements in new democracies more like their Northern counterparts. However, recent research on green movements across post-socialist Europe has called into question the extent to which environmental non-governmental organisations in receipt of donor aid are actually on course to replicating west European modes of political interaction and civil society engagement. From the perspective of environmental politics in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article further challenges the embedded assumptions about the impact of transnational donor assistance and, through empirical analysis, asserts that structural contexts continue to exert a profound impact on movement behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1970s well into the 1980s, the Federal Alliance of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection (BBU) was one of Germany's most visible and influential environmental organisations, an unusual achievement for a network of local organisations. Lacking strong competitors, it was able to become a central movement organisation for Germany's rapidly growing anti-nuclear power and environmental movements. However, after institutionalisation of environmental concerns robbed the movement of some of its impetus, competing social movement organisations appeared, and government subsidies ended, familiar problems of grass-roots networks, which had plagued the BBU from the beginning, intensified. The resulting downward spiral cost the BBU most of its members and its prominence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of public opinion on environmental issues have been influenced by theories of class conflict and of value change resulting from economic security, but not much by dependency theories. This paper argues that the economic dependence of developing nations on wealthier nations and international lending institutions can substantially affect public opinion within developing nations. Specifically, in developing nations, citizens' awareness of their country's dependence on foreign investment and loans, and of the state's limited sovereignty over domestic environmental issues, can combine to tamp down national support for and knowledge of environmental campaigns even when such campaigns find strong local support, and even when environmental concern is generally strong. A review of two environmental movements and of public opinion in Turkey since the early 1980s suggests that an explanation based on dependency theory, rather than on theories of class conflict or postmaterialism, can best account for how economic processes influence public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental NGOs are increasingly involved in the development and implementation of EU marine policy. However, there is a shortage of information about, and understanding of, the European marine NGO sector. Postal and Internet surveys were conducted across the 32 European maritime nations. Self-assessment by the organisations identified their main strengths and weaknesses. The most effective approaches were perceived as involving the use of the media, scientific research and political lobbying, with legal challenge being one of the least effective. Structured interviews with a number of high-profile NGOs provided an insight into the choice of campaign tactics and the perceived benefits of collaboration. The use of direct action was still considered to be an important part of the NGO armoury, but active participation in policy making was perceived as the route to long-term change. In many cases, NGOs employed a combination of approaches, suggesting that the traditional insider/outsider paradigm is no longer applicable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both Italy and Greece experience considerable problems in adjusting to the underlining logic and the precise requirements of EU environmental policies. Their poor record of compliance with EU environmental legislation is often attributed to an alleged weakness of civil societal activism in environmental matters. Recent literature challenges these conventional assumptions by offering evidence of high levels of grassroots environmental mobilisations. This article seeks to add a new dimension to the study of societal impact on policy outcomes in terms of domestic compliance performance with EU environmental legislation. It suggests a number of empirical indicators related to the use of opportunities offered by EU institutions, such as the complaints procedure, that allow such an assessment in comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accession to the European Union is shaping the development of environmental movements in Central and Eastern Europe by defining much of the agendas of environmental NGOs and by moulding the context in which groups act and, therefore, their means of activism. Individual organisations and the mix of organisations in a movement, in turn, evolve to tackle these agendas and engage in these means of activism. This study outlines several paths of direct and indirect EU influence over the evolution of these movements. While such an evolution strengthens the movements' ability to engage in political processes at the national and EU levels, both these movements' internal decision-making mechanisms and the EU's policy processes must allow for input from grassroots groups. Avenues exist for grassroots input into the policies national movements pursue, but these paths of influence are weak. The EU's decision-making processes are even more remote. Balancing external and internal influence is crucial, however, if these movements are to serve as channels of citizen participation in politics and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illustrates a problem faced by environmental groups to gain acceptance into the policy-making program, Lands for Life process of the Ontario government. Background on the establishment of the Lands for Life process in February 1997; Information on several considerations for pressure groups' choice of strategies and tactics; Goals of the Lands for Life project.

Challenges the depiction of generalized trends within the Czech environmental movement by considering the extent to which professionalism and 'Europeanization' have become endemic features of environmental movement organizations (EMO). Types of EMO; Factors that have influenced the theory and practice of environmental politics in the Czech Republic; Analysis of the evolution of environmental movement in the Czech Republic; Discussion on the political role, function and strategies of EMO; Problems associated with the application of the political process approach to the study of EMO activity.

Presents information on a symposium on environmental politics in Australia. Options when it comes to µ-foundations of environmental political economy; First task of environmentalists; What the proliferation of academic environmental journals reflects.

Compares the Belgian and European environmental interest representation configurations and examines whether the integration process has changed the Belgian configuration. Environmental policy in Belgium; Environmental policy in the European Union; Clear distinction between the European and Belgian decision making process; Belgian versus the European configurations.

The article looks at the state of environmental politics in Great Britain in the 1990s. The author argues that neither of the two major British political parties takes the environmental agenda seriously in spite of the Rio-imposed requirement of an environmental reoprt to the nation. Environmentalism in the 20th century is characterized as a period in which there is an important linkage between environmentalism and mainstream political agendas. Environmental assessment and appraisal techniques are also discussed, such as the Environment Act of 1995.