Agency, democracy, and nature : the U.S. environmental movement from a critical theory perspective / Robert J. Brulle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brulle, Robert J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmentalism--United States--History.

Environmentalism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 347 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Annotation In this book Robert Brulle draws on a broad range of empirical and theoretical research to investigate the effectiveness of U.S. environmental groups. Brulle shows how Critical Theory--in particular the work of Jürgen Habermas--can expand our understanding of the social causes of environmental degradation and the political actions necessary to deal with it. He then develops both a pragmatic and a moral argument for broad-based democratization of society as a prerequisite to the achievement of ecological sustainability. From the perspectives of frame analysis, resource mobilization, and historical sociology, using data on more than one hundred environmental groups, Brulle examines the core beliefs, structures, funding, and political practices of a wide variety of environmental organizations. He identifies the social processes that foster the development of a democratic environmental movement and those that hinder it. He concludes with suggestions for how environmental groups can make their organizational practices more democratic and politically effective.

Contents:

Agency, Democracy, and Nature

Contents

Acknowledgements

Agency, Democracy, and Nature

Ecological Degradation and Social Change

Communicative Action and the Social Order

The Social Dynamics of Environmental

Degradation

Social Learning for Ecological Sustainability

The Growth and Institutionalization of the

Environmental Movement

Manifest Destiny and the Development of

North America

The Early Development of the

Reform Environmentalism: Public Health and

Ecology

Alternative Voices

The Dynamics of the Environmental

Movement

Agency, Democracy, and the Environment

Appendix: Methodology

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [303]-341) and index.

ISBN:

0-262-26165-0

0-262-26940-6

1-4237-3083-6

OCLC:

49707787