Economic opportunities and threats in contentious environmental politics: A view from the European South

Abstract

Aiming to contribute to the discussion of how opportunities and threats are put into motion by focusing on the understudied economic factors, this article presents four illustrative accounts from the post-dictatorial experience of environmental contentious politics in Greece, Spain and Portugal, selectively. First, it documents that the incorporation of professional environmental organizations into dominant sustainable development practices in Greece is tied to an economic opportunity spiral that merges from contemporary economic liberalization policies and practices. Secondly, on the basis of protest-event analysis it shows how economic liberalization in Greece acts as a constraint for environmental protests, but an opportunity for anti-privatization ones. Third, via protest-case analysis it documents how economic dependency performs as a spiral of opportunities and constraints for groups tied to different interests in Crete. For example, tourism interest groups appear to opt for environmental protest more often when these interests are threatened by non-tourism-related environmentally damaging activities. Finally, using protest-case analysis the article illustrates how in Southern European local environmental conflict, spirals of economic opportunities and constraints portrayed in state responses to protesters, play a significant role in shaping the dynamics of local environmental contentious politics.