Clare Saunders

Using social network analysis to explore social movements: a relational approach

This paper uses a ‘relational’ approach to network analysis to demonstrate the linkages between different types of environmental organizations in London. A ‘relational’ approach was used to avoid problems associated with ‘positional’ approaches such as structural determinism, subjectively defined and misleadingly labelled blocks of ‘approximately’ equivalent actors, and reification of the action/issue basis of networks. The paper also explores definitions of social/environmental movements. Whilst broadly agreeing with Dianis consensual definition of a social movement, it argues that we need to be much more precise about the type and intensity of networking required; it must be more than informal or cursory, and should bind individuals and organizations into collaborative networks. Evidence from a survey of 149 environmental organizations and qualitative interviews with key campaigners suggests that whilst many organizations might share information, it is often stockpiled or ignored, hardly creating the kinds of network links that might lead to shared movement identity. The kinds of links that do bind movements are collaborative. In practice, in the environmental movement in London, conservationists tend neither to share information nor to engage in the collective action events of reformist or radical organizations, suggesting that conservationists should perhaps not be considered part of the movement.

One person's eu-topia, another's hell: Climate Camp as a heterotopia

Climate Camp, or, more properly, the Camp for Climate Action, has almost become an institution within the UK’s environmental movement. It developed from direct action networks, most prominently those brought together at Stirling by the anti-G8 protest in 2005, networks which increasingly realised the need to tackle the urgent issue of climate change in the face of policy promotion of ‘clean’ coal and airport expansion. In response, activists have organised and set up three well-publicised week-long camps focused on direct action targeted against carbon-intensive infrastructures: Drax, the largest coalfired power station in Europe (2006), Heathrow airport (2007) and Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent (2008). Although these three infrastructural projects have been the main foci of the Camps, simultaneous, decentralised autonomous actions have taken place outside of the Camps. The objective has not only been to facilitate direct action motivated by a desire to prevent catastrophic climate change, but also to be an exemplar of sustainable living and a site for alternative education. Thus, the Camp manifests itself as a campsite that brings together between 800 and 2000 novice and experienced activists. It is run according to ecological and anarchist principles, replete with consensus decision-making, direct action training and educational workshops. A fourth objective, that of ‘movement building’, was new for the 2008 Camp. Despite these shared objectives, Climate Campers are far from being a homogenous group. In almost every sense, the Climate Camp is a heterotopia (Hetherington 1997, p. 41). It is a space of alternative social ordering through which participants seek to radically re-imagine and create an idealised society: a eutopia, or ‘good place’ (Hetherington 1997, p. viii). As with all heterotopia, it is

Unemployment and attitudes to work: Asking the "right" question

Attitudes research has repeatedly demonstrated that the vast majority of unemployed people want a job and that their employment commitment is generally at least as strong as employed people’s. However, until now it has not asked if they are more likely than employed people to prefer unemployment to an unattractive job. While this oversight reflects a noted widespread reluctance to respond directly to right-wing authors’ assertions, this article argues that it is partly attributable to existing studies using survey questions inappropriate for researching unemployment. Responses to the British Cohort Study/National Child Development Study agree/disagree statement ‘having almost any job is better than being unemployed’ were analysed. Being ‘unemployed and seeking work’ associated strongly with disagreeing with the statement across all recent datasets in both studies, even when a number of relevant variables were controlled for.

The stop climate chaos coalition: climate change as a development issue

Abstract After the Working Group on Climate Change and Development recognised the challenge that climate change poses to development, a number of environmental and aid, trade and development organisations formed a new politically active coalition, Stop Climate Chaos (SCC), to demand that stronger climate laws be adopted in the UK. The coalition now frames the issue of climate change as a ‘global climate justice’ one, emphasising the severity of the issue for people in poor countries, who will suffer the worst consequences, but have contributed least to it. The extent to which SCC member organisations address climate change as a global justice issue is explored through a content analysis of their websites, and a survey of participants in the SCC I-Count march, London, 3 November 2006. There is certainly evidence that environmental organisations are ‘facing South’, just as aid, trade and development organisations are ‘turning green’.

Anti-politics in Action? Measurement Dilemmas in the Study of Unconventional Political Participation

There are good reasons to test more refined measures of protest to better understand protesters’ disaffection with and disconnection from politics. This article assesses whether disaffection and disconnection predict each of: protest participation (aggregated), participation in demonstrations, and differential participation in demonstrations. Failure to vote does not predict participation in demonstrations but positively predicts participation in “protest” (aggregated). Those who demonstrate more frequently are more likely to participate in electoral politics than less frequent demonstrators. Most protesters are at least moderately engaged with formal politics, despite lacking trust in political institutions. Protest is not, therefore, a straightforward expression of anti-politics.

Reformism and radicalism in the Climate Camp in Britain: benign coexistence, tensions and prospects for bridging

Data from in-depth interviews with participants in the 2008 Camp for Climate Action, participant observation and documents written by participants, are used to illustrate the tension that developed between reformists and radicals within the Climate Camp. Contrary to surface appearances and expectations derived from previous studies of environmental direct action groups, it is found that Climate Campers do not share a radical approach. The consequent drift towards reformism caused tension and contributed to the demise of Climate Camp as a national network. One way to avoid future tension might be for all participants to recognise the value of a multi-pronged approach to solving climate change. Allowing the Camp to act as a bridging organisation would reduce potential for fragmentation and collapse.

Conflicting Climate Change Frames in a Global Field of Media Discourse

Reducing global emissions will require a global cosmopolitan culture built from detailed attention to conflicting national climate change frames (interpretations) in media discourse. The authors analyze the global field of media climate change discourse using 17 diverse cases and 131 frames. They find four main conflicting dimensions of difference: validity of climate science, scale of ecological risk, scale of climate politics, and support for mitigation policy. These dimensions yield four clusters of cases producing a fractured global field. Positive values on the dimensions show modest association with emissions reductions. Data-mining media research is needed to determine trends in this global field.

The national and the local: Relationships among environmental movement organisations in London

Abstract It is frequently asserted that national environmental movement organisations (EMOs) have, as an unintended consequence of their public relations strategies, a tendency to ignore local activists. Using a variety of research methods – participant observation, semi-structured interviews, a survey and network analysis of national, regional and local EMOs in London – we explode that myth. Although national EMOs cooperate mostly with other national EMOs, they do not turn their backs on local campaigners. On the contrary, several highly influential national EMOs (Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Campaign to Protect Rural England) seek to involve grassroots activists. Local campaigners make surprisingly few demands on national EMOs, understand that national EMOs have resource constraints, and do not generally feel marginalised.

In the streets with a degree: How political generations, educational attainment and student status affect engagement in protest politics

Using survey data collected at 52 major street demonstrations across five European countries during 2009–2012, this article contributes to the debate on the (contentious) politics of the highly educated in Europe. In particular, it explores which of the theories explaining student activism better capture differences in motivations and ways of engaging in protests between protesters who have a university education and those who do not. The findings build on the literature explaining student participation in protest in terms of campus-based politicization. Some support for the liberal education theory comes from the finding that protesters with a university degree are more likely to be left-wing than those without a university education. The article also provides some insights on the importance of political generations.

It's Not Just Structural: Social Movements Are Not Homogenous Responses to Structural Features, but Networks Shaped by Organisational Strategies and Status

Political opportunity structures are often used to explain differences in the characteristics of movements in different countries on the basis of the national polity in which they exist. However, the approach has a number of weaknesses that are outlined in this article. The article especially stresses the fact that such broad-brush approaches to political opportunity structures fail to account for the different characteristics of movement organisations within the same polity. The article therefore recommends using a more fine-tuned approach to political opportunities, taking into account that the strategies and status of organisations affect the real political opportunities they face. This fine-tuned approach is used to predict how the status and strategy of environmental organisations might influence the extent to which different types of environmental organisations in the UK network with one-another. We find that organisations that face an open polity - those with a moderate action repertoire and a constructive relationship with government institutions - tend not to cooperate with those with a radical action repertoire and negative relations with government institutions. On the other hand, those that vary their action repertoires, and which have variable status according to the issues involved or campaign targets, have a much broader range of network links with other types of organisations. Thus, there is much more diversity in types of environmental organisation in the UK than the broad-brush to political opportunity structures would account for. Nonetheless, it does seem that environmental organisations are aware of how their own behaviours might influence (non-structural) political opportunities, and that they mould their strategies and networking patterns around this awareness.