Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the polluted Great Lakes became a central focus of the North American environmental movement. A majority of this pollution stemmed from phosphate-based laundry detergent use, which had become the primary product households used to wash fabrics after World War II. The large volume of phosphorus in these detergents discharged into the lakes caused excess growths of algae to form in waterways, which turned green and smelly. As the algae died off, it reduced the oxygen in the water, making it less habitable for fish and other aquatic life, a process known as eutrophication. As primary consumers of laundry detergents during the time period, women, particularly white, middle-class housewives in the United States and Canada, became involved in state/provincial, national, and international discussions involving ecology, water pollution, and sewage treatment alongside scientists, politicians, and government officials. Their work as volunteers, activists, and lobbyists influencing the debate and ensuing policies on how best to abate this type of pollution, known as eutrophication, has often been ignored. This thesis recognizes the work women completed encouraging the enactment of key water quality regulations and popularizing the basic tenets of environmentally-conscious consumption practices during the environmental movement in the early 1970s.

The diploma thesis is focused on the Czech and Polish environmental policy. The aim of the thesis is to reflect internal environmental policy from the point of view of the organization Greenpeace which is a non-governmental environmental organization. The thesis analyses how the Czech and Polish branches of the organization reflect the environmental issues of both national policies. The theses also analyses whether the branches consider the topics of environmental issues in the current policy to be sufficient and what activities they do to draw attention to possible shortcomings in environmental policy. In the opening chapters, the thesis is focused on the similarities and differences in the Czech and Polish environmental policy. There is also written whether the policies deal with global or local issues, or whether they reflect the present-day environmental topics. The thesis also mentions the Czech and Polish environmental movement, its establishment and development in the 80s and 90s in the 20th century. The thesis is mainly focused on the current period (since the year 2017) - it's the period of the government of Andrej Babiš and Mateusz Morawiecki. This is the period when the climate crisis is considered as the biggest topic of world environmentalism.

The Dark Green World. Radical environmentalism in Czech republic after 1989 Arnošt Novák ABSTRACT Since 1970' environmental movement has been an important social actor. However it never has been an homogeneous and monolithic movement, but it has represented conglomerate of different approaches and currents, strategies and tactics which they were often in mutual contradictions too. This thesis focus on czech environmental movement after 1989 and especially on the radical ecologist activities. By using qualitative research it tries to map and to re-construct radical ecologist activites within a framework of international radical environmentalism. The thesis strives to open critical discussion about radical ecology in the czech context.

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This dissertation sought to develop a grounded theory explaining how ENGOs assess the environmental performance of firms, select target industries and firms, and influence those targeted industries and firms. A preliminary model based on research in the fields of social movements, neo-institutional theory, stakeholder theory, and corporate social performance was developed. The model contained 21 propositions: seven regarding assessment, nine regarding targeting, and five regarding influencing. Interviews were conducted with 33 representatives of five ENGOs: Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Greenpeace, Environmental Defense (ED), World Resources Institute (WRI), and Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). NRDC and WRI served as pilot studies. NRDC, Greenpeace, and ED were considered case studies for the purpose of drawing inferences about the propositions. Insufficient interviews were conducted at WRI and UCS to draw inferences from them; however, data from these interviews was included in the dissertation to the extent it provided additional support for the inferences drawn. Qualitative methods were used to analyze the data. Results regarding the propositions were presented, as well as additional findings going beyond the propositions. A grounded theory of how ENGOs assess, target, and influence firms was developed based on the results; a model to accompany the grounded theory was also developed. / Ph. D.

The Appalachian Power Company is an operating company of the American Electric Power Company, the largest electricity producing private electric system in the United States since 1953. The Appalachian Power Company held almost exclusive development rights along the New River since its 1911 charter. From then until the 1940s, it built a few small dams, a very large hydroelectric dam with the highest generating capacity of its time, and the largest steam plant in Virginia on the New River. Besides a few navigation issues, conflicting developments, and brief clashes with the federal government, seen in Chapter Two of this thesis, the Appalachian Power Company's developments along the New River went largely unchallenged until the late-1960s. The Blue Ridge Project was the utility's next large hydroelectric project on the New River. It was slated to impound the waters of the upper New River in Grayson County, Virginia, with two reservoirs extending into the river's headwaters in the counties of Ashe and Alleghany in northwestern North Carolina. Though the initial project met no serious opposition, environmental lawyers and the State of North Carolina defeated a considerably enlarged version of the proposal after a legal battle lasting over a decade. Why was this double impoundment not successfully constructed? What had changed in the last decades to influence Appalachian Power's previously unchallenged right to generate electricity along the New River? The purpose of this thesis is to answer these questions. / Master of Arts

Nas últimas décadas do séc. XX, mais precisamente a partir do final da década de 80, uma questão fundamental começa a ser discutida multisetorialmente na Região Metropolitana de São Paulo (RMSP): Como lidar com as questões relacionadas à infra-estrutura urbana e aos limites do crescimento, considerando a necessidade de preservar o Cinturão Verde da RMSP? O objetivo principal desta dissertação de mestrado é descrever e analisar as ações coletivas e o movimento socioambiental, tomando como estudo de caso o movimento liderado por moradores do entorno da Cantareira que culminaram no reconhecimento internacional do Cinturão Verde da Cidade de São Paulo como Reserva da Biosfera pela UNESCO em 1994. Após mais de 20 anos de resistência, ainda hoje, este movimento persiste na forma de abaixo assinados, passeatas e ações judiciais, o que o transforma em uma das mais expressivas formas de ativismo ambiental em favor da preservação de uma floresta urbana. Ao traçarmos um panorama histórico, até os dias de hoje, das ações coletivas e do movimento ambiental em prol da Cantareira temos como objetivo investigar as razões pelas quais as populações urbanas participam de arenas políticas que decidem o futuro e a preservação de uma grande floresta dentro de uma cidade / In the last decades of the twentieth century, more precisely from the end of the decade of the eighties, a key issue started being discussed multisectorally in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (MASP): how to deal with the issues related to urban infrastructure and the limits of growth considering the need to maintain the green belt around the metropolitan region of São Paulo. The main objective of this master thesis is to describe and analyze the collective actions and the environmental movement taking as case study of the movement led by the Cantareira Park`s entour inhabitants, which resulted in the in international recognition of the Green Belt of the City of São Paulo as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1994. After more than 20 years of resistence, still today, this movement continues in the form of undersigned, parades, lawsuits, which makes it one of the most expressive forms of environmental activism in favor of preserving an urban forest. When we draw a historical overview, until today, of collective action in environmental movement in favor of Cantareira, we have as objective to investigate the reasons for which the urban populations participate in policies that decide the future and the preservation of a great forest within a city

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo central analisar os processos educativos envolvidos na luta por direitos sociais ou políticos, mais especificamente, os processos de socialização e formação relacionados ao engajamento político nas chamadas causas coletivas. Acreditamos que o engajamento político em causas coletivas está relacionado a duas dimensões educativas diversas e, ao mesmo tempo, entrelaçadas: de um lado, o modo como os sujeitos foram socializados está na base das condições de possibilidade do surgimento da militância política, visto que seriam capazes de formar determinadas disposições que conduziriam à militância política ou, pelo menos, à crença na organização coletiva como mecanismo para o enfrentamento de problemas também de ordem coletiva. De outro lado, no interior mesmo dos movimentos de caráter político, desenvolvem-se diferentes processos educativos, de formação e ressocialização dos militantes. Assim, tendo em vista analisar tais dimensões educativas, esta pesquisa assumirá como objeto de estudo a disputa entre o Movimento dos Trabalhadores SemTeto (MTST) e a Sociedade Ecológica Amigos de Embu (SEAE) em torno de uma Área de Proteção Ambiental (APA) situada no município de Embu das Artes. Esse conflito começou em 2012, tendo como foco a disputa em torno dos diferentes usos que poderiam ser feitos desse terreno, mais especificamente, tratava-se da disputa entre duas propostas concretas: o MTST reivindicava a preservação de um trecho da mata, associada à construção de moradias populares na área já desmatada, enquanto a SEAE defendia a preservação total da área como parque ambiental e, portanto, o seu uso exclusivo para esse fim. A análise dos conflitos em torno da questão ambiental, no campo ou na cidade, pode ser muito produtiva para se pensar diferentes dimensões das relações sociais nas sociedades contemporâneas, na medida em que coloca em destaque indivíduos com distintas concepções de sociedade e de natureza e os modos como estas podem ou devem se relacionar. Essas posições a respeito das questões ambientais não são gratuitas, tratase de concepções gestadas em grupos com diferentes origens e posições sociais, bem como com diferentes níveis de escolarização, acesso a informação e condições objetivas de vida, e, por esse motivo, tais conflitos podem também se tornar um exemplo privilegiado para compreensão de como grupos, com origens sociais diversas, se engajam nas chamadas causas coletivas. Os objetivos desta investigação serão alcançados por meio (i) de análise documental de materiais produzidos pelos dois movimentos acerca da disputa pelo terreno acima citado; (ii) de observações de reuniões e atividades que ambos os grupos realizam; (iii) de reconstituição das trajetórias dos sujeitos da pesquisa (militantes dos dois movimentos citados) para a qual lançaremos mão de entrevistas em profundidade, com ênfase sobre a educação recebida em diferentes instâncias anteriores à entrada no movimento (por exemplo: família, escola, igreja, bairro) e, posteriormente, nos processos de formação e ressocialização promovidos no interior dos dois movimentos em questão. / The main objective of this research is to analyze the educational processes involved in the struggle for social or political rights, more specifically, the processes of socialization and formation related to political engagement in the so-called \"collective causes\". We believe that political engagement in collective causes is related to two different and at the same time \"intertwined\" educational dimensions: on the one hand, the way in which the subjects were socialized is the basis of the conditions of possibility of the emergence of political militancy, Who would be able to form certain dispositions that would lead to political militancy or, at least, to \"belief\" in collective organization as a mechanism for coping with collective problems as well. On the other hand, in the interior of the movements of political character, different educational processes are developed, of formation and resocialization of the militants. Thus, in order to analyze such educational dimensions, this research will take as the object of study the dispute between the Movement of the Homeless Workers (MTST) and the Ecological Society Friends of Embu (SEAE) around an Environmental Protection Area) Located in the municipality of Embu das Artes. This conflict began in 2012, focusing on the dispute over the different \"uses\" that could be made of this terrain, more specifically, the dispute between two concrete proposals: MTST claimed the preservation of a section of the forest, associated To the construction of popular housing in the already deforested area, while SEAE defended the total preservation of the area as an environmental park and, therefore, its exclusive use for this purpose. The analysis of the conflicts around the \"environmental question\" in the countryside or in the city can be very productive to think about different dimensions of social relations in contemporary societies, since it highlights individuals with different conceptions of society and nature And the ways in which these can or should relate. These positions on environmental issues are not free, they are concepts conceived in groups with different backgrounds and social positions, as well as with different levels of schooling, access to information and objective living conditions, and, for that reason, such conflicts can also become a prime example for understanding how groups with diverse social origins engage in so-called \"collective causes.\" The objectives of this investigation will be achieved by means of (i) documentary analysis of materials produced by the two movements on the above ground dispute; (Ii) observations of meetings and activities that both groups carry out; (Iii) reconstruction of the trajectories of the subjects of the research (militants of the two movements cited) to which we will give in-depth interviews, with emphasis on \"education received\" in different instances prior to entry into the movement (eg family, school, church, neighborhood) and, later, in the processes of formation and resocialization promoted within the two movements in question

<p>This study is a comparative historical analysis of the link between environmental activism and state-society relations in 20th century Russia and Mexico. It explores the three main currents of environmentalism that originated in these two countries under non-democratic political systems that originated in the social revolutions of 1910 (Mexico) and 1917 (Russia) and the roles that each current has played in the process of democratization that began in the 1980s. It is based on critical evaluation and synthesis of the following theoretical fields: collective action, social movements, political regime change and democratic transition. Scholarly literature and press sources are used to corroborate and evaluate findings from in-depth qualitative interviews with environmental activists, researchers, lawyers, and journalists as well as data from participant observation conducted by the author in Russia and in Mexico. The main findings of the study are two-fold. 1) Environmental activism affects social rather than political democratization. 2) The type of environmental activism that has the most significant impact on social democratization is social environmentalism - the current that emphasizes the synergy between the struggles for social justice and civil rights on the one hand and against environmental degradation on the other.</p> / Dissertation