Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 On the ambiguities of greening
- 2 Social movements and knowledge-making
- 3 The dialectics of environmentalism
- 4 National shades of green
- 5 The challenge of green business
- 6 On the dilemmas of activism
- 7 Concluding reflections
- References
- Index of Names
6 - On the dilemmas of activism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 On the ambiguities of greening
- 2 Social movements and knowledge-making
- 3 The dialectics of environmentalism
- 4 National shades of green
- 5 The challenge of green business
- 6 On the dilemmas of activism
- 7 Concluding reflections
- References
- Index of Names
Summary
Finally the tables are starting to turn …
Tracy Chapman, “Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution” (1988)With prevailing economic systems in various degrees of disarray, the worldwide environmental movement seems uniquely positioned to serve as a vehicle for a civilization ordered on a new basis. It is clear now that both capitalism and socialism, in all their experimental forms, have failed to create ecologically sustainable economies.
Mark Dowie, Losing Ground (1996: 262–263)From critique to resistance
With the coming of green business, or ecological modernization, or whatever it is we choose to call it, the more radical, or critical, components of the ecological culture have tended to be marginalized. And yet everywhere we look there are signs of resistance, of activism, some new and some not so new, some merely updating the environmental critique of the 1970s to changing times, and some contending that they represent a new movement, or a new generation, or a new strategy, or a “new age” altogether.
There are those who foresee the abrupt demise of green businessmen and the coming of a grand synthesis of, among others, deep ecologists, ecofeminists, the “left” and “true democrats” (Dowie 1996). There are those who are aggressively “reclaiming” the streets on behalf of a generally vague sense of dissatisfaction with the workings of transnational, corporate capitalism (Wall 1999).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Making of Green KnowledgeEnvironmental Politics and Cultural Transformation, pp. 147 - 175Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001