Environmental Movements in the Global South: Outline of a Critique of the ‘Livelihood’ Approach

Abstract

The burgeoning of environmental movements has been a major political development in the global South in the closing decades of the twentieth century. Their politics and practices have increasingly impacted upon the policy and political agendas of states and governments. Their rise to prominence has heralded a new consciousness around environmental issues, hitherto deemed insignificant, if not downright irrelevant in mainstream policy-making. More significantly, the growth of these movements has taken place at a time of unprecedented changes in power equations among states, markets and civil societies. With policy agendas of Southern states and governments structurally redefined in the processes of liberalization, privatization and globalization, collective actions around environmental issues gain additional significance as mechanisms of challenge and negotiation taking roots in the civil society.KeywordsCollective ActionSocial MovementRisk PoliticsEnvironmental MovementEpistemic DimensionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.