Local Environmental Struggles
Local Environmental Struggles
Allan Schnaiberg, Northwestern University, Illinois
Adam S. Weinberg, Colgate University, New York
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.
- Offers a controversial critique of the 'think globally, act locally' slogan, providing a useful hook for class discussions
- Presents three compelling case studies, recycling, water pollution, and wetlands preservation
- A concise, well-focused book which is highly accessible
Product details
December 1996Paperback
9780521555210
256 pages
229 × 152 × 15 mm
0.38kg
3 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- 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.
