Environmental Activism

Defining Social and Environmental Movements

It is first important to consider what is meant by the terms social movement and environmental movement. Scholars typically group together the phenomena of collective action and social movements. Considered in a broad sense, collective action refers to a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. When this [Page 264]common goal involves creating or resisting social change, then the phenomenon is frequently referred to as a social movement. Collective action and social movements are seen as being relatively informal in that the main players and organizations operate outside governments and corporations in what is often referred to as civil society.

Formal organizations that are part of a social movement are referred to as social movement organizations, and thus those involved in the environmental movement are referred to as environmental social movement organizations or environmental movement organizations. Another synonym that is frequently used is nongovernmental environmental organization (ENGO), although not all ENGOs are environmental movement organizations. Environmental movement organizations vary in terms of their level of formalization or institutionalization, from formal hierarchical institutionalized organizations with formal members to informal networks of individuals with no formal membership criteria.

It is a convenient fiction to refer to “the environmental movement.” There are multiple environmental movements that exist at different scales, with different foci, and with different identities. Also, there is an enormous array of environmental organizations that are linked to environmental movements from time to time through social ties (in coalitions) but that are not necessarily part of the movement. As well, there are some environmental organizations that exist in relative isolation of “the movement.”

Traditionally, a distinction has been made between conservation organizations and preservation organizations. Conservation organizations are concerned with ensuring that natural resources are used in a sustainable manner, but these organizations are typically not opposed to the exploitation of nature per se. For example, there are many organizations whose members are primarily hunters and fishers, whose main concern is protecting habitat so that their members can continue to engage in their pastimes (such as Ducks Unlimited). Preservation groups, by contrast, are opposed to harvesting of many types of resources and often mobilize to maintain landscapes in their pristine state. For example, in the Pacific Northwest, the wilderness preservation movement has mobilized in an effort to preserve old-growth temperate rain forests (one group involved in these activities is the Wilderness Committee). Notions like wilderness and pristine are contested terms, as Aboriginals have lived (and in many cases still live) in “pristine” areas and have modified landscapes that are known as “wilderness.”

In recent decades, other streams of the environmental movement have arisen. Perhaps the most important of these is the environmental justice movement, which has formed in response to pollution and environmental hazards (often in urban centers) and the unequal distribution of exposure experienced by different classes and ethic/racial groups. More recently, a climate justice movement has arisen in response to environmental politics around global climate change.

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