(Non)Environmental Alternative Action Organizations under the Impacts of the Global Financial Crisis: A Comparative European Perspective

Maria Kousis,Katrin Uba

doi:10.3390/su13168989

Maria Kousis, Katrin Uba

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168989

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Abstract

Hard economic times have been considered obstacles for environmental activism by many environmental scholars, yet works, mostly based on case studies, on alternative action organizations (AAOs) during times of increasing livelihood vulnerability show considerable environmental activism. We explain this inconsistency by arguing that AAOs mobilizing at times of crisis opt for direct action, using strategies of citizens’ solidarity initiatives centering on meeting basic needs and sustainability goals and thereby carry on the environmental claim-making in a new way. To this end, we compare environmental AAOs (EAAOs) with non-environmental ones using a cross-national dataset of 4157 hubs-retrieved AAOs active during the economic crisis (2007–2016), in France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Given that EAAOs constitute more than one-third of all AAOs, it is clear that environmental protection or sustainable development are not neglected even at times of economic hardships. Instead, the crisis provides an opportunity to broaden the scope of action for existing organizations that can adopt sustainability activities focusing on alternative practices and lifestyles, improving societal resilience. We further show that EAAOs tend to be informal and, to an extent, more concentrated on contention and protests than non-environmental organizations.

Highlights

Times of economic crises have been considered as periods of decreasing environmental concern and initiatives by many scholars [1] and as periods of humanitarian crises [2].Political institutions have been delaying environmental compliance in Europe and the US, as reflected in delays in auctioning of CO2 certificates in the EU-emissions trading system or the CO2 limits on automobiles, as well as in “midnight regulations relaxing environmental legislation” [3,4,5]
We propose that environmental AAOs (EAAOs) organize direct collective actions, at times combined with contentious actions, both leading to empowerment and common goals, which are important for collective resilience [59,60,61]
In order to get a better view of the character of our EAAOs, we have examined their type (Table 1) and solidarity approach (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Times of economic crises have been considered as periods of decreasing environmental concern and initiatives by many scholars [1] and as periods of humanitarian crises [2].Political institutions have been delaying environmental compliance in Europe and the US, as reflected in delays in auctioning of CO2 certificates in the EU-emissions trading system or the CO2 limits on automobiles, as well as in “midnight regulations relaxing environmental legislation” [3,4,5]. Times of economic crises have been considered as periods of decreasing environmental concern and initiatives by many scholars [1] and as periods of humanitarian crises [2]. Civil society and citizens’ environmental concerns for the crisis period show a notable decrease [6,7]. Development issues absorb environmental NGO activities with the environment becoming a non-central issue at times of economic downturns. The environment has played a very marginal role in the national elections as the public is more concerned about austerity policies and cuts in government expenditures [8], or welfare retrenchment and the economic crisis [5]. Scholars have shown how even in times of crises citizens’ pro-environmental attitudes can remain important [9]. The latest youth protests for climate justice [10,11]

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