The Environmental Movement Between Institutionalization and Conflict

Abstract

This chapter aims to explore the development of this movement in Sweden in the 1980s, i.e. in that “middle-earth” between the formative period of a renewed environmental movement (1960s–1970s) and the completion of its institutionalization at global level in the 1990s. Theories of political opportunities structure have overlooked that the relation between the political arena and the complex galaxy of environmental groups was far from being uncomplicated. The chapter focuses precisely on this multifaceted interplay, which is studied through two cases of bottom-up mobilization, one at national level, the anti-nuclear campaign, and the other at local level: the struggle against the Scandinavian Link. How were institutions regarded by these activists? How did they experience the relation between representative and direct democracy, both in principle and in concrete terms (dialogue/confrontation with institutional representatives)? By addressing these issues, this chapter aims to contribute research on social movements with a more nuanced understanding of their oscillation between the institutional and the confrontational level. The sources are, besides secondary literature, bulletins and publications of the groups and associations involved in the two campaigns examined in this chapter as well as media articles.