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This thesis presents the analysis of environmental movements in Russia.Through a collective memory and discourse framework, this study reviews the overlap and disparity in perceptions of environmental movements in the Soviet Union and Russia.The portrait that emerges from the analysis of the environmental movements suggests that the impact of environmental movements in Russia may be limited in part because it has developed in contravention to existing discourses. More importantly, the context and underlying assumptions of environmental movements are not formulated in ways that are compatible with existing collective identities in Russian society.

The main purpose of this study is to understand the mobilization dynamics and impacts of the environmental opposition movement against the Black Sea Coastal Road Project in Turkey. The study is original in the sense that for the first time an opposition movement against a national road project was realized in Turkey. The Black Sea Coastal Road Project is one of the main infrastructure investments in Turkey. It covers a large geographical area, Eastern Black Sea Region, and some districts/provinces in the region formed an opposition movement against the project which objected to sea-filling method and destruction of coasts. The fieldwork of the study was conducted in seven districts/provinces of Eastern Black Sea Region. They were investigated in terms of their mobilization dynamics, tactics and the outcomes of the opposition movement. The main analysis is based on an evaluative approach and qualitative research. The fieldwork of the study was conducted in the periods of March 16, 2002 to March 24, 2002 and April 13, 2006 to April 20, 2006. In-depth-interviews and focus groups with local activists are used as data collection techniques. The seven cases-regions displayed some differences in their opposition movement in terms of the mobilization, tactics and the outcome. In the districts, most crucial for mobilization were the political party affiliation and the economic opportunity structures. The project being a part of governmental policy and the perception by the public, living in the region that the road is needed strongly affected dynamics, tactics and outcomes of the movement.

A case study of the first 35 years, 1945 to 1980, of the Swedish nuclear institution. The purpose is to discover which actors that have shaped the Swedish nuclear institution. By using the theories of historical institutionalism and advocacy coalition framework I have analyzed these 35 years in three separate parts. Historical institutionalism puts emphasis on the creation of an institution, and so have I. The creation phase goes from 1945 to 1972. The following two parts are critical junctures that spans the years 1973-1978 and 1978-1980. The first critical juncture deals with the Centre Party's reversal in their opinion on nuclear power, the 1976 election and the outcome of that election. The third juncture starts with the Harrisburg accident and ends after the 1980 referendum. Using the advocacy coalition framework to analyze the actions or actors and coalitions during these three phases, I have come to the conclusion that the industry actors, those that have built the reactors, have been the most successful in pushing their coalition's agendas, over the years. Their influence was considerable during the years of institutional creation, while the coalitions that opposed nuclear power were quite weak during this time frame, which is consistent with historical institutionalism's focus on the creation, and path dependence.

This thesis explores the environmental movement’s controversial use of spectacular media to incite socio-ecological change. An analysis of Al Gore’s 2007 Live Earth event forms the basis for an exploration, critique, and reformulation of spectacular theory within the context of the climate crisis. An exploration of Guy Debord’s influential theory of spectacular society, as articulated in his 1967 text The Society of the Spectacle, engages Live Earth’s spectacular environmentalism with the following theoretical problem: does the spectacle simply reiterate a discourse and mode of interaction that re-inscribes the destructive network of capital and consumption by existing as a consumable object, or are the effects of the spectacle less predetermined? In the first part of this thesis, Debord’s understanding of spectacular organization provides a forceful critique of an event such as Live Earth; however, three limitations to an Debordian understanding of the contemporary spectacular commodity are identified: the suggestion that the spectacle, in the last instance, produces and reproduces a universal homogeneity that erases and negates its underlying difference; the elision of the particularly ecological question of the technology of the spectacle; and the failure to adequately theorize human agency. Given these limitations, a turn to Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s 1987 publication, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, as well as Anna Tsing’s 2005 text, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection, is initiated in the second part of this thesis in order to construct a more fluid understanding of the way in which spectacular forms might disassemble and reassemble in both form and content. While still acknowledging the destructive influences of corporatized spectacular logic within the contemporary context of late capitalism and post-modernity, this alternative understanding of spectacle favors a more indeterminant understanding of society and spectacle. A spectacular event, such as Live Earth, is reformulated as an assemblage that contains both territories of capture and lines of flight that escape dominant codings. Contrary to Debord’s claims, a spectacular environmental event is consequently identifiable as a site of domination and oppression, as well as a site of resistance and escape.

Trade unions and environmental movements are often seen as political opponents most prominently discussed in the form of the "jobs vs. environment dilemma". Based on historical examples of the conflict relations between trade unions and environmental groups in the Austrian energy sector, this paper showcases how the relationship between the two groups has changed from enmity to first attempts at alliance building. Drawing from analysis of union documents and problem-centred interviews conducted with Austrian unionists, it shows that newly emerging alliances between unions and environmental movements contain the seeds for a broad societal movement that can help overcome the paradigm of growth and actively engage in the creation of policies that support a social-ecological transformation.

Previous research on social movements shows that as a consequence of social stratification, structurally privileged groups in society are more prone to engage in and take on leading positions in collective action than those who are structurally marginalised. This essay takes off in the puzzle of deficient inclusion in social movements that identify as inclusive, and looks at how that problem also appear empirically in the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion (XR). As attention to environmental issues and climate activism has increased significantly over the last years, many activists and scholars have pointed out the importance of tackling the problem with an intersectional feminist approach. Therefore, an interpretive discourse analysis with a “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach is applied to the strategically chosen case of XR, and the results are interpreted through an intersectional feminist lens as conceptualised by Angela Davis (1981, 2016). The analysis contributes to the research problem through identifying two parallel problem representations, one representing the problem as proximate, local and technical-environmental and one representing it as current, global and societal-environmental. It is concluded that part of XR’s discourse rests on a problem representation that risks reproducing structural power relations. According to Davis’s conceptualisation of intersectional feminism this could have dire consequences for a movement which has shown to have potential to influence politics.

This study compares repertoire and framing between two protests in the early Dutch environmental movement and two protests in the modern Dutch environmental movement. The aim of the study is to find differences and similarities between the two time periods the protests take place in. The four cases are studied using the comparative case study method, specifically doing a historical comparison. In each case, the theoretical concepts of repertoire and framing are analyzed. Each case is studied through a qualitative analysis of archival and secondary sources, including newspaper articles, publications and social media posts. Using the theoretical concepts of framing and repertoire, several similarities and differences are found between the four cases. All four cases use the frame of the threat to human health in their campaigns and aimed for a low threshold for people to join their campaigns. Frames differed more across campaigns with different topics than across campaigns from different time periods. In repertoire, cases differed across time periods more than within time periods. The contemporary cases focus on commitment by showing the willingness to bear great personal risk, whereas the historical cases focus on showcasing their worthiness through alliances with strategic actors. Overall, the comparative historical analysis employed in this research reveals that there are greater differences between time periods when it comes to repertoire than in framing, showing that repertoire is defined more by time period than framing for the chosen cases.

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This project examines the development of renewable policy in California and Germany through the theoretical lens provided by John Dryzek's democratic theory of social movement engagement with the liberal democratic nation-state. Specifically, this thesis considers the impact of social movements on what the theory identifies as five core imperatives of state. The argument uses a qualitative, comparative, process tracing methodology, supported by critical discourse analysis, to analyze environmental social movement engagements with the state in relation to the development of renewable energy policymaking in the state of California and in the Federal Republic of Germany between 2000 and 2017. Whereas Dryzek and colleagues argue that environmental movement activism may have prompted a new, sixth, environmental conservation imperative of state, this thesis differs. Rather, the analysis finds that if indeed such a sixth imperative is emergent, it might better be defined as a resource conservation imperative. That is, in California and in Germany, it is not so much the environment but rather access to abundant and economically sustainable natural resources that states aim to conserve. / Master of Arts