Tactics and Targets: Explaining Shifts in Grassroots Environmental Resistance

Abstract

Corporate misconduct is often associated with environmental, political, and social problems, and the effects are often felt at the local level where disenfranchised residents may have less access to political power. We know that grassroots movements can take various tactical paths as they challenge elites, yet we aim to map the specific pathways that lead to shifts in tactical repertoires, especially as groups transition to increasingly confrontational tactics. Drawing from social movement theory on tactics and targets, along with environmental sociology literature on grassroots environmental organizing, we examine how the interplay with institutional movement targets affects local environmental resistance. The data for this research come from numerous sources, including in-depth interviews, archival materials, and news coverage of petrochemical contamination. Our findings show that grassroots shifts from insider to outsider tactics stem from a loss of trust in elite institutions and citizens’ understanding of the organization of power in society. We conclude by discussing how our research informs future social movement research by adding an important dimension to analyses of movement tactics—namely, the perceived relationship between activists and their institutional targets.

Assessments of Environmental Injustice among Black Americans

“…At the individual level, such behaviors encompass environmental risk avoidance (O’Neill 2003) and may include restricting time outdoors, using indoor air purifiers, and taking other precautions to avoid health risks associated with pollution. At the collective level, communities may pressure political and corporate institutions to engage in risk reduction, primarily via remediation or relocation (Adams and Shriver 2017; Buday 2017; Čapek 1993).…”

Local Community Tactics to Decline the Mining; Evidence from West Sumatra, Indonesia

“…The recent studies on conflicts between local community and companies have been widely carried out. The main issues discussed in the study included land use seizure, declination of mine development plans, exposure to mining wastes that threatened local communities and demands for post-mining recovery [4], [5], [9], [12]. The majority of study's findings examine the issue of land ownership seizure and exposure to mining waste.…”

“…Conflict studies between local communities and companies focus on local communities effort to fight for their interests [4], [5], the government as a mediator in suppressing escalation of conflict through companies power [9], Non-Government Organization (NGO) as a mediator and community facilitator [13]. The study of Adams and Shriver (2017) on the local community strategy in paying compensation for the pollution by the company is crucial in this article as they equally focused on the local community tactics in dealing with the companies.…”

“…A simple example is computer electronic equipment that extremely necessary in everyday life, but the entire assembly process from distribution to the hands of consumers uses natural resources and produces thousands of tons toxic and radioactive waste [1]. On the other hand, mining activities lead to various declination in the community, from the issue of seizing mining area, which was originally controlled by the local community [3], [4], declination of mining development plans, exposure to mining waste that is agitating the community around the mine [2], [5], as well as the arising issues following the mining (such as demands for post-mining environmental improvements).…”

The enduring legacy of black lung: environmental health and contested illness in Appalachia

“…In their research on an industrial town polluted by an oil refinery, Adams et al . () found that residents reporting health problems were subjected to threats and intimidation from those supporting the facility. Similarly, workers at the U.S. Government's Oak Ridge Nuclear facility were subjected to job loss and demotions, retaliation, and on‐the‐job harassment when they spoke out about environmental health concerns (Cable et al .…”