Producing political climate change: the hidden life of US environmentalism

Abstract

Despite strong public support for environmental goals, critics of the US environmental movement are so frustrated by the apparent paralysis of the movement in recent years that some have suggested that environmentalism must die so that something better can replace it. This essay offers a different assessment of the situation. It argues that pessimistic assessments of the environmental movement may be a function of limitations in the way we understand the political life of social movements. It suggests that shifting our analytical gaze from the tactical activities of environmental groups – success in what we call traditional ‘ledger’ politics – to a more strategic understanding of the political activity of social movements reveals the largely hidden ways in which environmental categories enact meaningful social change by creating and changing public consciousness through movement framing and the discursive construction of new coalitions of ideas. It then explores these possibilities in the context of climate change and biodiversity conservation debates. Although the authors do not dismiss the importance of success in ledger politics, they conclude that greater attention to the hidden life of social movements may help analysts better understand how largely invisible movement framing activity is important strategically for agenda-setting. Despite nearly a century of propaganda, conservation still proceeds at a snail's pace. On the back forty we still slip two steps backward for each forward stride. (Leopold 1949/1970, p. 243) The environmentalists' job is to move the goalpost. Whenever you get near them (the goal posts), they celebrate briefly, and then they say you haven't done enough. It's part of the job. (Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in Marston 2001, p. 1)