Session 11 – Environmental and Green Movement, Manuel Castells

 Is the legacy of the 1960s – a NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENT

o Ronal Engelhard – green movements are likely to emerge in societies where individuals
have all that they need and are now interested in securing the environment around
them. There is no case of material deprivation.
o Conversations around the practices relating to the environment and nature have
changed with the consequences
o It led to the rise of Green Parties e.g. Scandinavia, France, UK
 Very few social movements have led to the emergence of political parties that h
 Manuel Castells
o The environmentalist movement has a lot of
o Personal vs. Political
o They all broadly conform to certain principles and theoretical ideals that can be cast into
a movement
 Environmentalism - a form of collective behavior that in their discourse and in their practices,
attempts to rectify the destructive relationship between humans and the natural environment.
 The principles of modernity and enlightenment was that human beings are supreme.
o Human beings encapsulate within them the knowledge and information that they need
to survive – this was an attempt to encourage people to rethink their beliefs in
reference to the Catholic Church and the Absolutist Monarchies
o Human being can use and transform nature into means of production
 Ecology – a collection of beliefs , human beings as a component of the ecosystem
o For the ecosystem to thrive in the long run, human beings need to act as a component
rather than the head of the ecosystem.

Each type of environmentalist movement (sub theme within can be defined using three particular
characteristics.

1. Identity
2. Adversary
3. Goal

Using this framework, her comes up with five typologies of environmentalist movement

1. Conservative of nature
a. Nature lovers, have a passion for life of outdoors, they have an interest in preserving it
b. Their main adversary is
c. Their goal is the wilderness. Nature should be left alone.
2. Defense of own space / not in my backyard movement
a. Celebrate local community, the geographic entities where people exist
b. Industries that pollute the environment.
c. Goal – to improve the life and quality of health of the members of their community
3. Counter-culture movement (amalgamation of movements that emerged in the 1960s)
 a. Identify themselves as a green self and citizen. Recasting yourself and society in another
mold
b. Industrialism, technology, patriarchy
c. Ecotopia – a society where the problems of industrialization and patriarchy
4. Save the Planet Movement – Green Peace
a. Internationalist approach
b. Larger institutions of global development
c. Sustainability – how to improve human political and economic practices to ensure that
planet is sustainable
5. Green politics
a. Concerned citizens about the environment
b. Existing parties that don’t care
c. Set up a system that sets up a counter system / centre of power that

Why did ecological ideas gain attention in the 1960s in the global west and why did these interests
diffuse to the east.

 It is challenging for us to understand because historically ecological/environmental ideas existed

in the elite classes. People with privilege possessed the resources needed to carry out
restoration activities
 Castells – environmentalism could have only appeared in the kind of society that existed in the
1960s.
o Network Society – the type of society that had developed by then. Main features:
 Moon landing was so emblematic of the time. Two countries in a macho race to
put a man on the moon.
 1. Seeks to use science and technology as the basic means and goals
 The way we construct dams and organize other stuff
 2. The idea of time. Human beings are enslaved
 Biggest difference between an urban and rural space is categorized by
how we view time
 3. Our interpretation of the world around us are ow being beamed in through
media. Television becomes the prime medium through which cultural identities
are created.
o How does a network society materialize from these features?
 Environmentalism creates an ambiguous relationship with science and
technology. It uses s&t to understand problems of the environment, come up
with solution to the
 Environmentalism embraces science as a tool rather than the end goal
 Control over space and control over time. Two fundamental flows of power,
wealth and information.
 You exist in a physical space but your life is controlled by forces that are
external to you Environment localism seeks to address this. Grassroot
political models.
  Environmentalists would argue for empowered local governments so
that they can control their local environment and economies.

The emphasis on time.

Throughout these fundamental struggles that the environmentalists work for, leads to the creation of a
socio-biological identity for humans. This identity does not imply

That our actions are deeply interconnected. State nationalism is the greatest enemy – nationalism
breaks the unity between people

Spectacle of climate change – Greta Thunberg

Outcome – reimagination of human beings as part of the larger environment, which contrasts to the
position of modernity (where human beings exist on the top of the

Why the media has become the voice of the people, media borrows the same principles as the activists
– humanistic values (the voice of the people, having the best interest of the people at large).

Future of the environmentalist movement

- The environmentalist movement has moved past its original geography, which included the
relatively richer countries (united states, Canada)
- Environmental justice against the interest of wealth, power and
- A lot of capitalist development that you in the west is predicated on the extraction of
resources from the east.
- Environment being used for the interest of the global west have been

- Conservation of the Manchar Lake, Environmental justice case of Attabad Lake

- Narmada bachao, dhola bajao – india
- DG Khan and Muzaffargarh: large scale water conservation plans were subsisted because they
challenged the current