Logo image
Back
BUILDING ENVIRONMENTALISM: The Founding of Environmental Movement Organizations in the United States, 1900-2000
Journal article   Peer reviewed

BUILDING ENVIRONMENTALISM: The Founding of Environmental Movement Organizations in the United States, 1900-2000

Jason T. Carmichael, J. Craig Jenkins and Robert J. Brulle
Sociological quarterly, v 53(3), pp 422-453
01 Jun 2012
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.2012.01242.x

Abstract

Social Sciences Sociology
Between the 19th and the mid-20th century, the environmental movement transformed American culture, forcing a rethinking of the Manifest Destiny ideology that had long dominated political thinking toward an understanding of the need to protect and restore the balance between humans and nature. In 1900, there were only a few environmental movement organizations (EMOs), but by 2000, there were over 6,000 national and regional EMOs and over 20,000 local EMOs. What drove this phenomenal growth of EMOs? We examine a 100-year time series of EMO founding, showing that, in addition to the legitimation-and-competition effects of organizational density, EMO founding is facilitated by the discourse-creative activities of critical communities, objective threats in terms of air pollution, foundation giving, and powerful political allies in the presidency and Congress. Environmental discourses also legitimized and competed against one another, favoring early risers and preservationist discourse. Environmental mobilization needs to be understood in terms of the creation of new discursive frames that identify environmental problems, as well as objective environmental threats, resources, and political opportunities.

Metrics

29 Record Views
38 citations in Web of Science
50 citations in Scopus

Details

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Sociology
Logo image