Abstract
Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) exist worldwide, and since the 1980s they have increasingly influenced global environmental politics and environmental discourse. We analyze an original dataset of 679 ENGOs participating in global environmental conventions in the mid-2010s, and we apply quantitative content analysis to ENGO mission statements to produce an inductive typology of global environmental discourse. Discourse categories are combined with ENGO attribute data to visualize the political topology of this globally-networked ENGO sector. Our results confirm some common assertions and provide new insights. ENGOs are more diverse than conventionally recognized. Quantitative evidence confirms strong North-South disparities in human and financial resources. Four primary discourses are identified: Environmental Management, Climate Politics, Environmental Justice, and Ecological Modernization. We compare our typology to existing literature, where Climate Politics and Environmental Justice are under-appreciated, and we discuss ways to expand on the data and methods of this study. Synoptic empirical ENGO research is essential to accurately understanding the ENGO sector and global environmental politics.
Highlights
The increasing number and importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been a central feature of international politics since the 1980s [1,2]
While our dataset captures a core of globally-networked Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), it does not represent the full diversity of the ENGO universe, and we propose directions for future research to expand on our approach and develop a more complete empirical understanding of the global ENGO sector
Our results offer confirmation for some common assertions about ENGOs and environmental discourse as well as new insights
Summary
The increasing number and importance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has been a central feature of international politics since the 1980s [1,2]. NGOs are especially prominent in environmental politics, where the expansion of environmental NGOs (ENGOs) has both driven and responded to shifts from state-centered environmental regulation to polycentric ‘governance’ configurations that include governments, ENGOs, intergovernmental organizations, corporations, and social movements [3,4,5,6]. ENGOs have substantial impacts on people and their environments, both on the ground through project implementation [7,8,9,10,11] and through influence on policy from the local to international levels [3,12,13,14,15]. From the 1950s to 1990s, ENGOs comprised a growing proportion of the international NGO sector [12] (p.11).
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