Local Environmental Struggles
Citizen Activism in the Treadmill of Production

The authors analyse the difficulties involved in local environmentalism.

Kenneth A. Gould (Author), Allan Schnaiberg (Author), Adam S. Weinberg (Author)

9780521555197, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 July 1996

256 pages, 3 tables
23.7 x 15.7 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

"The book takes an interesting look at the politics of environmentalism..." J.S. Schwartz, Choice

In recent years, environmentalism in the US has increasingly emerged at the community level, focusing on local ecological problems. Correspondingly, the American environmental movement has exhorted its supporters to 'think globally' but 'act locally'. The authors examine this modern environmental mantra by analysing the opportunities and constraints on local environmental action posed by economic and political structures at all levels. The difficulties involved in local activism are explored in three case studies - a wetlands protection project, water pollution of the Great Lakes, and consumer waste recycling. The final chapter then reflects on the challenges facing citizen-worker movements in each case study, and concludes that, despite the inherent difficulties, any successful attempt at mobilisation must have a local component.

Preface
1. Transnational structures and the limits of local resistance
2. The terrain of environmental conflicts: local wetland watchers and a national movement organization
3. Slights of hand: how public participation in remediation of water pollution fails to trickle down
4. Recycling: organizing local grass roots around a national cash-roots policy
5. From local to transnational strategies: toward a model of sustainable mobilization
References
Author index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Conservation of the environment [RNK]