Environmental Activism in Ukraine: Everyday Concerns as Reasons for Civic Mobilization

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on the results of a representative survey and 30 semi-structured interviews with environmental CSO leaders, we argue that citizens in Ukraine are more likely to participate in public mobilization efforts when they relate to unmet day-to-day problems such as environmental protection. Despite the relatively weak professionalization of many environmental organizations and weak citizen involvement, environmental activism has been strengthened in recent decades by growing awareness of its importance and potential to bring desirable changes, especially locally. This problem-based research asks how civic potential to address everyday problems by citizens themselves and the evolving political opportunity structure including the new civil society development strategy and decentralization reform impact environmental activism and the condition of civil society in Ukraine. Our findings demonstrate that environmental and animal protection have a particularly strong impact on civic activism, which has several important public and social functions from service providing and raising awareness to advocacy. Yet this activism to be sustained requires supportive and collaborative relationship between civil society actors and the state.