Skip to main content

Environmental Movements in the United States

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Handbook of Environmental Sociology

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Environmental movements have always been a core subject of research within environmental sociology (Dunlap & Catton, 1979). Once largely the near sole purview of environmental sociologists, organized and collective efforts at social change in the name of the environment are now a central object of inquiry among scholars interested in social movements, business organizations, civic participation, resource governance and other topics. The result has been a marked increase in sociological research on environmental movements over the past couple of decades.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    In 2018 the ASA section on the Environment established a Committee on Racial Equity, both recognizing the lack of and seeking to increase racial diversity within the section.

  2. 2.

    The Jevons’ Paradox suggests that increased efficiency, rather than leading to less consumption of a resource, increases consumption due to the increases in accessibility of that resource that efficiency also provides (Alcott, 2005).

References

  • Ackerman, G. A. (2003). Beyond arson? A threat assessment of the Earth Liberation Front. Terrorism and Political Violence, 15(4), 143–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agnone, J. (2007). Amplifying public opinion: The policy impact of the US environmental movement. Social Forces, 85(4), 1593–1620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agyeman, J., Schlosberg, D., Craven, L., & Matthews, C. (2016). Trends and directions in environmental justice: From inequity to everyday life, community, and just sustainabilities. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 41, 321–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alcott, B. (2005). Jevons’ paradox. Ecological Economics, 54(1), 9–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, K., Daro, V., & Holland, D. C. (2007). Becoming an environmental justice activist. In R. L. Sandler & P. C. Pezzullo (Eds.), Environmental justice and environmentalism: The social justice challenge to the environmental movement. Urban and industrial environments. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amenta, E. (2014). How to analyze the influence of movements. Contemporary Sociology, 43(1), 16–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • American Sociological Association. (2018). Newsletter of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Environmental Sociology. Environmental sociology news, Fall 2018. Accessed December 6, 2019, from http://envirosoc.org/Newsletters/Fall2018.pdf

  • American Sociological Association. (2019). Newsletter of the American Sociological Association’s Section on Environmental Sociology, Spring 2019. Accessed December 6, 2019, from http://envirosoc.org/Newsletters/Fall2019.pdf

  • Andrews, K. T., & Caren, N. (2010). Making the news: Movement organizations, media attention, and the public agenda. American Sociological Review, 75(6), 841–866.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, K. T., & Edwards, B. (2004). Advocacy organizations in the U.S. political process. Annual Review of Sociology, 30(1), 479–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, K., & Edwards, B. (2005). The organizational structure of local environmentalism. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 10(2), 213–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anguelovski, I., & Martinez-Alier, J. (2014). The ‘environmentalism of the poor’ revisited: Territory and place in disconnected global struggles. Environmental Economics, 102(2014), 167–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold, R. (1983, February). Eco-terrorism. Reason. Accessed December 5, 2019, from https://reason.com/1983/02/01/eco-terrorism/

  • Auyero, J., & Swistun, D. (2009). Flammable: Environmental suffering in an Argentine shantytown. In Oxford. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartley, T. (2007). How foundations shape social movements: The construction of an organizational field and the rise of forest certification. Social Problems, 54(3), 229–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner, F. (2006). Punctuated equilibrium theory and environmental policy. In R. Repetto (Ed.), Punctuated equilibrium and the dynamics of U.S. environmental policy (pp. 24–46). Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beck, C. (2007). On the radical cusp: Ecoterrorism in the United States, 1998-2005. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 12(2), 161–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, S. E. (2013). Our roots run deep as ironweed: Appalachian women and the fight for environmental justice. University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, S. E. (2016). Fighting king coal: The challenges to micromobilization in Central Appalachia. MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bell, S. E., & York, R. (2010). Community economic identity: The coal industry and ideology construction in West Virginia. Rural Sociology, 75(1), 111–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berkes, F. (2010). Devolution of environment and resources governance: Trends and future. Environmental Conservation, 378(4), 489–500.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bosso, C. J. (2005). Environment, Inc: From grassroots to beltway. University of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, R. H. W. (2018). Intermediacy and the diffusion of grassroots innovations: The case of cohousing in the United States. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 26, 32–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P., & Ferguson, F. I. T. (1995). ‘Making a big stink’: Women’s work, women’s relationships, and toxic waste activism. Gender & Society, 9(2), 145–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P., & Mikkelsen, E. (1997). No safe place: Toxic waste, leukemia, and community action. University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P., Morello-Frosch, R., & Zavestoski, S. (2011). Contested illnesses: Citizens, science, and health social movements. University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bullard, R. D. (1993). Confronting environmental racism: Voices from the grassroots. Southend Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullard, R. D. (2000). People of color environmental groups: 2000 directory. Environmental Justice Resource Center, Clark Atlanta University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullard, R. D. (2008). Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality. Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burstein, P., & Linton, A. (2002). The impact of political parties, interest groups, and social movement organizations on public policy: Some recent evidence and theoretical concerns. Social Forces, 81(2), 380–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cable, S., Shriver, T. E., & Mix, T. L. (2008). Risk society and contested illness: The case of nuclear weapons workers. American Sociological Review, 73(3), 380–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carmin, J. (1999). Voluntary associations, professional organizations and the environmental movement in the United States. Environmental Politics, 8(1), 101–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catton, W. R., & Dunlap, R. E. (1978). Environmental sociology: A new paradigm. The American Sociologist, 13(1), 41–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Catton, W. R., & Dunlap, R. E. (1980). A new ecological paradigm for a post-exuberant sociology. American Behavioral Scientist, 24, 15–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cawley, R. M. (1993). Federal land, western anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and environmental politics. University Press of Kansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clement, M. T. (2011). The Jevons paradox and anthropogenic global warming: A panel analysis of state-level carbon emissions in the United States, 1963–1997. Society & Natural Resources, 24(9), 951–961.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Climate Mirror. (2016). Climate mirror: An open project to mirror public climate datasets. Retrieved from http://climatemirror.org/

  • Cordner, A. (2016). Toxic safety: Flame retardants, chemical controversies, and environmental health. Columbia University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dalton, R. J., Recchia, S., & Rohrschneider, R. (2003). The environmental movement and the modes of political action. Comparative Political Studies, 36(7), 743–771.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, G. F., McAdam, D., Richard, W., Mayer, S., & Zald, N. (2005). Social movements and organization theory. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dillon, L., Walker, D., Shapiro, N., Underhill, V., Martenyi, M., Wylie, S., et al. (2017). Environmental data justice and the Trump administration: Reflections from the environmental data and governance initiative. Environmental Justice, 10(6), 186–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dokshin, F. A. (2016). Whose backyard and what’s at issue? Spatial and ideological dynamics of local opposition to fracking in New York State, 2010 to 2013. American Sociological Review, 81(5), 921–948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dowie, M. (1996). Losing ground: American environmentalism at the close of the twentieth century. MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap, R. E., & Catton, W. R. (1979). Environmental sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 5(1), 243–273.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunlap, R. E., & Mertig, A. G. (1991). The evolution of the US environmental movement from 1970 to 1990: An overview. Society & Natural Resources, 4(3), 209–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eady, V. (2003). Environmental justice in state policy decisions. In R. D. Bullard, J. Agyeman, & B. Evans (Eds.), Just sustainabilities development in an unequal world (pp. 168–182). Earthscan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, B. (1995). With liberty and environmental justice for all: The emergence and challenge of grassroots environmentalism in the United States. In B. Taylor (Ed.), Ecological resistance movements: The global emergence of radical and popular environmentalism (pp. 35–55). State University New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Emerson, K., & Nabatchi, T. (2015). Collaborative governance regimes. Georgetown University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ergas, C., & Clement, M. T. (2016). Ecovillages, restitution, and the political-economic opportunity structure: An urban case study in mitigating the metabolic rift. Critical Sociology, 42(7–8), 1195–1211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Estes, N. (2019). Our history if the future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the long history of indigenous resistance. Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, J. (2016). Network structure and influence of the climate change counter-movement. Nature Climate Change, 6(4), 370–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, D. R., Campbell, L. K., & Svendsen, E. S. (2012). The organisational structure of urban environmental stewardship. Environmental Politics, 21(1), 26–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freudenberg, N., & Steinsapir, C. (1991). Not in our backyards: The grassroots environmental movement. Society & Natural Resources, 4(3), 235–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frickel, S. (2004). Chemical consequences: Environmental mutagens, scientist activism, and the rise of genetic toxicology. Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frickel, S., Gibbon, S., Howard, J., Kempner, J., Ottinger, G., & Hess, D. J. (2010). Undone science: Charting social movement and civil society challenges to research agenda setting. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35(4), 444–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerlach, L. P. (2001). The structure of social movements: Environmental activism and its opponents. In Networks and netwars: The future of terror, crime, and militancy (pp. 289–310).

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb, R. (2005). Forcing the spring: The transformation of the American environmental movement. Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould, K. A. (1991). The sweet smell of money: Economic dependency and local environmental political mobilization. Society & Natural Resources, 4(2), 133–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, K. A. (1993). Pollution and perception: Social visibility and local environmental mobilization. Qualitative Sociology, 16(2), 157–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, K. A., Weinberg, A. S., & Schnaiberg, A. (1993). Legitimating impotence: Pyrrhic victories of the modern environmental movement. Qualitative Sociology, 16(3), 207–246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gould, K. A., Lewis, T. L., & Roberts, J. T. (2004). Blue-green coalitions: Constraints and possibilities in the post 9-11 political environment. Journal of World-Systems Research, 10(1), 91–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, P. W. (2013). Leaderless resistance, networked organization, and ideological hegemony. Terrorism and Political Violence, 25(5), 655–671.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, J. (2015). Coopted environmental justice? Activists’ roles in shaping EJ policy implementation. Environmental Sociology, 1(4), 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, J. (2019). From the inside out: The fight for environmental justice within government agencies. MIT.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hess, D. J. (2009). The potentials and limitations of civil society research: Getting undone science done. Sociological Inquiry, 79(3), 306–327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hess, D. J., & Brown, K. P. (2017). Green tea: Clean-energy conservatism as a countermovement. Environmental Sociology, 3(1), 64–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hiatt, S. R., Grandy, J. B., & Lee, B. H. (2015). Organizational responses to public and private politics: An analysis of climate change activists and US oil and gas firms. Organization Science, 26(6), 1769–1786.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, A. J. (2001). From heresy to dogma: An institutional history of corporate environmentalism. Stanford Business Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, A. J., & Bertels, S. (2009). Who is part of the environmental movement? In T. Lyons (Ed.), Good cop/bad cop: Environmental NGO’s and their strategies towards business (pp. 48–69). RFF Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huitema, D., & Meijerink, S. (2010). Realizing water transitions: The role of policy entrepreneurs in water policy change. Ecology and Society, 15(2), 26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacques, P. J., Dunlap, R. E., & Freeman, M. (2008). The organisation of denial: Conservative think tanks and environmental scepticism. Environmental Politics, 17(3), 349–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, J. C., Carmichael, J. T., Brulle, R. J., & Boughton, H. (2017). Foundation funding of the environmental movement. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(13), 1640–1657.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. W. (2008). Social movement size, organizational diversity and the making of federal law. Social Forces, 86(3), 967–993.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. W., & Frickel, S. (2011). Ecological threat and the founding of U.S. national environmental movement organizations, 1962–1998. Social Problems, 58(3), 305–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, E. W., Agnone, J., & McCarthy, J. D. (2010). Movement organizations, synergistic tactics and environmental public policy. Social Forces, 88(5), 2267–2292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, S. K. (2019). Leaking talent: How people of color are pushed out of environmental organizations. Green 2.0.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joosse, P. (2007). Leaderless resistance and ideological inclusion: The case of the Earth Liberation Front. Terrorism and Political Violence, 19(3), 351–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joosse, P. (2012). Elves, environmentalism, and ‘eco-terror’: Leaderless resistance and media coverage of the earth liberation front. Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 8(1), 75–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson, A. K., & Clark, B. (2012). Are the economy and the environment decoupling? A comparative international study, 1960-2005. The American Journal of Sociology, 118(1), 1–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kempton, W., Holland, D. C., Bunting-Howarth, K., Hannan, E., & Payne, C. (2001). Local environmental groups: A systematic enumeration in two geographical areas. Rural Sociology, 66(4), 557–578.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, M. R., Roberts, J. T., Huq, S., & Hoffmeister, V. (2018). The Paris framework for climate change capacity building. Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kimura, A. H., & Kinchy, A. (2019). Science by the people. Rutgers University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kinchy, A. (2017). Citizen science and democracy: Participatory water monitoring in the Marcellus shale fracking boom. Science as Culture, 26(1), 88–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, B. G., & Pearce, N. A. (2010). The contentiousness of markets: Politics, social movements, and institutional change in markets. Annual Review of Sociology, 36(1), 249–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, B. G., & Soule, S. A. (2007). Social movements as extra-institutional entrepreneurs: The effect of protests on stock price returns. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(3), 413–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, B. G., Bentele, K. G., & Soule, S. A. (2007). Protest and policymaking: Explaining fluctuation in congressional attention to rights issues, 1960–1986. Social Forces, 86(1), 137–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Konefal, J. (2013). Environmental movements, market-based approaches, and neoliberalization: A case study of the sustainable seafood movement. Organization & Environment, 26(3), 336–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kranjac, A. W., Denney, J. T., Kimbro, R. T., Moffett, B. S., & Lopez, K. N. (2021). Neighborhood and social environmental influences on child chronic disease prevalence. Population and Environment (forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

  • Krauss, C. (1993). Women and toxic waste protests: Race, class and gender as resources of resistance. Qualitative Sociology, 16(3), 247–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levi, M., & Murphy, G. (2006). Coalitions of contention: The case of the WTO protests in Seattle. Political Studies, 54(4), 651–670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levine, A. G. (1982). Love Canal: Science, politics, and people. Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liévanos, R. S. (2012). Certainty, fairness, and balance: State resonance and environmental justice policy implementation. Sociological Forum, 27(2), 481–503.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longhofer, W., & Schofer, E. (2010). National and global origins of environmental association. American Sociological Review, 75(4), 505–533.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longhofer, W., Schofer, E., Miric, N., & Frank, D. J. (2016). NGOs, INGOs, and environmental policy reform, 1970–2010. Social Forces, 94(4), 1743–1768.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • López, E. (2018). Water is life at standing rock: A case of first world resistance to global capitalism. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 17(1–2), 139–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lounsbury, M., Ventresca, M., & Hirsch, P. M. (2003). Social movements, field frames and industry emergence: A cultural-political perspective on US recycling. Socio-Economic Review, 1(1), 71–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lubitow, A. (2013). Collaborative frame construction in social movement campaigns: Bisphenol-A (BPA) and scientist–activist mobilization. Social Movement Studies, 12(4), 429–447.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacBride, S. (2012). Recycling reconsidered. MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKendrick, N. (2017). Out of the labs and into the streets: Scientists get political. Sociological Forum, 32(4), 896–902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Manes, C. (1990). Green rage: Radical environmentalism and the unmaking of civilization. Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, B. (2009). Cross-movement coalition formation: Bridging the labor-environment divide. Sociological Inquiry, 79(2), 219–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdam, D. (1982). Political process and the development of black insurgency, 1930–1970. University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdam, D. (2017). Social movement theory and the prospects for climate change activism in the United States. Annual Review of Political Science, 20(1), 189–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdam, D., & Boudet, H. (2012). Putting social movements in their place: Explaining opposition to energy projects in the United States, 2000–2005. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J. (2002). First world political ecology: Lessons from the wise use movement. Environment and Planning, 34(7), 1281–1302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J. D., & Zald, M. N. (1977). Resource mobilization and social movements: A partial theory. American Journal of Sociology, 82(6), 1212–1241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, J. D., Zald, M. N., & Turner, J. (2001). The enduring vitality of the resource mobilization theory of social movements. In Handbook of sociological theory (pp. 533–565). Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, S. (2009). No family history: The environmental links to breast cancer. Rowan & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, S., Brown, P., & Zavestoski, S. (2003). The personal is scientific, the scientific is political: The public paradigm of the environmental breast cancer movement. Sociological Forum, 18(4), 545–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2000). Challenging global warming as a social problem: An analysis of the conservative movement’s counter-claims. Social Problems, 47(4), 499–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2003). Defeating Kyoto: The conservative movement’s impact on US climate change policy. Social Problems, 50(3), 348–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDonnell, M.-H. (2015). Radical repertoires: The incidence and impact of corporate-sponsored social activism. Organization Science, 27(1), 53–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDonnell, M.-H., & King, B. (2013). Keeping up appearances: Reputational threat and impression management after social movement boycotts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 58(3), 387–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDonnell, M.-H., & Werner, T. (2016). Blacklisted businesses: Social activists’ challenges and the disruption of corporate political activity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61(4), 584–620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, P., & Khawaja, M. (2000). The organizational dynamics of the US environmental movement: Legitimation, resource mobilization, and political opportunity. Rural Sociology, 65(3), 422–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meckling, J., Kelsey, N., Biber, E., & Zysman, J. (2015). Winning coalitions for climate policy. Science, 349(6253), 1170–1171.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyler, D. (2003). Understanding diversity in the radical environmental movement. Ph.D. Diss., University of Nebraska ̶ Lincoln.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michalski, J. H. (2019). Terrorism and lethal moralism in the United States and United Kingdom, 1970–2017. British Journal of Sociology, 0(0), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12635.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minkler, M., Vásquez, V. B., Tajik, M., & Petersen, D. (2008). Promoting environmental justice through community-based participatory research: The role of community and partnership capacity. Health Education & Behavior, 35(1), 119–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minkoff, D., & McCarthy, J. (2005). Reinvigorating the study of organizational processes in social movements. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 10(2), 289–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, R. C., Mertig, A. G., & Dunlap, R. E. (1991). Twenty years of environmental mobilization: Trends among national environmental organizations. Society & Natural Resources, 4(3), 219–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mix, T. L. (2011). Rally the people: Building local-environmental justice grassroots coalitions and enhancing social capital. Sociological Inquiry, 81(2), 174–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mix, T. L., & Cable, S. (2006). Condescension and cross-class coalitions: Working class activists’ perspectives on the role of social status. Sociological Focus, 39(2), 99–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mix, T. L., Cable, S., & Shriver, T. E. (2009). Social control and contested environmental illness: The repression of III nuclear weapons workers. Human Ecology Review, 16(2), 172–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mol, A. P. J. (2000). The environmental movement in an era of ecological modernisation. Geoforum, 31(1), 45–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz, J., Olzak, S., & Soule, S. A. (2018). Going green: environmental protest, policy, and CO2 emissions in U.S. States, 1990–2007. Sociological Forum, 33(2), 403–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, G. (2005). Coalitions and the development of the global environmental movement: A double-edged sword. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 10(2), 235–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norgaard, K. M. (2011). Living in denial: Climate change, emotions, and everyday life. MIT.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Olzak, S., & Johnson, E. W. (2019). The risk of occupying a broad niche for environmental social movement organizations. Mobilization, 24(2), 177–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olzak, S., & Soule, S. A. (2009). Cross-cutting influences of environmental protest and legislation. Social Forces, 88(1), 201–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olzak, S., Soule, S. A., Coddou, M., & Muñoz, J. (2016). Friends of foes? How social movement allies affect the passage of legislation in the U.S. Congress. Mobilization, 21(2), 213–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oosterveer, P., & Spaargaren, G. (2011). Organizing consumer involvement in the greening of global food flows: The role of environmental NGOs in the case of marine fish. Environmental Politics, 20(1), 97–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2010). Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming (1st ed.). Bloomsbury Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pacheco, D. F., York, J. G., & Hargrave, T. J. (2014). The coevolution of industries, social movements, and institutions: Wind power in the United States. Organization Science, 25(6), 1609–1632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pellow, D. N. (1997). Popular epidemiology and environmental movements: Mapping active narratives for empowerment. Humanity and Society, 21(3), 307–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pellow, D. N. (1999). Framing emerging environmental movement tactics: Mobilizing consensus, demobilizing conflict. Sociological Forum, 14(4), 659–683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pellow, D. N. (2014). Total liberation: The power and promise of animal rights and the radical earth movement. University of Minnesota Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pellow, D. N., & Nyseth-Brehm, H. (2013). An environmental sociology for the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Sociology, 39(2013), 229–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pellow, D. N., Schnaiberg, A., & Weinberg, A. S. (2000). Advanced industrial countries: Putting the ecological modernisation thesis to the test: The promises and performances of urban recycling. Environmental Politics, 9(1), 109–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piven, F. F., & Cloward, R. A. (1979). Poor people’s movements: Why they succeed, how they fail. Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Porta, D., & Rucht, D. (2002). The dynamics of environmental campaigns. Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 7(1), 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. (1995). Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy, 6(1), 65–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roser-Renouf, C., Maibach, E. W., Leiserowitz, A., & Zhao, X. (2014). The genesis of climate change activism: From key beliefs to political action. Climatic Change, 125(2), 163–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salazar, D. J. (1996). The mainstream-grassroots divide in the environmental movement: Environmental groups in Washington state. Social Science Quarterly, 77(3), 626–643.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scarce, R. (1990). Eco warriors: Understanding the radical environmental movement. Noble Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlosberg, D. (1999). Networks and mobile arrangements: Organisational innovation in the US environmental justice movement. Environmental Politics, 8(1), 122–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schnaiberg, A., & Gould, K. A. (2000). Environment and society: The enduring conflict. Blackburn Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, L., & Johnson, E. W. (2017). From fringe to core: The integration of environmental sociology. Environmental Sociology, 3(1), 17–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Senier, L., Mayer, B., Brown, P., & Morello-Frosch, R. (2007). School custodians and green cleaners: New approaches to labor—Environment coalitions. Organization & Environment, 20(3), 304–324.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shellenberger, M., & Nordhaus, T. (2004). The death of environmentalism: Global warming politics in a post-environmental world. Breakthrough Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sine, W. D., & Lee, B. H. (2009). Tilting at windmills? The environmental movement and the emergence of the US wind energy sector. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54(1), 123–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skocpol, T. (2003). Diminished democracy: From membership to management in American civic life. University of Oklahoma Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, R. K. (2008). ‘Ecoterrorism’?: A critical analysis of the vilification of radical environmental activists as terrorists. Environmental Law, 38, 40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sonnenfeld, D. A. (2002). Social movements and ecological modernization: The transformation of pulp and paper manufacturing. Development and Change, 33(1), 1–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soule, S. A., & Roggeband, C. (2019). Diffusion processes within and across movements. In D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule, H. Kriesi, & H. J. McCammon (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to social movements (2nd ed., pp. 236–251). Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stretesky, P. B., Huss, S., Lynch, M. J., Zahran, S., & Childs, B. (2011). The founding of environmental justice organizations across U.S. counties during the 1990s and 2000s: Civil rights and environmental cross-movement effects. Social Problems, 58(3), 330–360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szasz, A. (1994). Ecopopulism: Toxic waste and the movement for environmental justice. Vol. 1. Social movements, protest, and contention. University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sze, J. (2011). Asian American immigrant and refugee environmental justice activism under neoliberal urbanism. Asian American Law Journal, 18(2), 4–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, S. G. (2011). Power in movement: Social movements and contentious politics. Cambridge studies in comparative politics. Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, B. (2003). Threat assessments and radical environmentalism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 15(4), 173–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, D. (1999). Mobilizing for environmental justice in communities of color: An emerging profile of people of color environmental groups. In J. Aley, W. Burch, B. Canover, & D. Fields (Eds.), Ecosystem management: Adaptive strategies for natural resource organizations in the 21st century (pp. 33–69). Taylor & Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, D. (2000). The rise of the environmental justice paradigm: Injustice framing and the social construction of environmental discourses. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(4), 508–580.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, D. (2014). The state of diversity in environmental organizations: Mainstream NGOs, foundations, government agencies. Green 2.0 and the Raben Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, C. (1978). From mobilization to revolution. Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, C., Tarrow, S. G., & McAdam, D. (2001). Dynamics of contention. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Under2 Coalition. (2019). About the Under2 coalition. Retrieved December 9, 2019, from https://www.under2coalition.org/about

  • Vasi, I. B. (2011). Winds of change: The environmental movement and the global development of the wind energy industry. Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vasi, I. B., Walker, E. T., Johnson, J. S., & Tan, H. F. (2015). ‘No fracking way!’ Documentary film, discursive opportunity, and local opposition against hydraulic fracturing in the United States, 2010 to 2013. American Sociological Review, 80(5), 934–959.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, E. T., & Rea, C. M. (2014). The political mobilization of firms and industries. Annual Review of Sociology, 40(1), 281–304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, E. T., Martin, A. W., & McCarthy, J. D. (2008). Confronting the state, the corporation, and the academy: The influence of institutional targets on social movement repertoires. American Journal of Sociology, 114(1), 35–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, E. T., McCarthy, J. D., & Baumgartner, F. (2011). Replacing members with managers? Mutualism among membership and nonmembership advocacy organizations in the United States. American Journal of Sociology, 116(4), 1284–1337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, E. J., & Warland, R. (1997). Don’t burn it here: Grassroots challenges to trash incinerators. Penn State Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, E., Warland, R., & Smith, D. C. (1993). Backyards, NIMBYs, and incinerator sitings: Implications for social movement theory. Social Problems, 40(1), 25–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, E. P. (2000). A new vanguard for the environment: Grass-roots ecosystem management as a new environmental movement. Society & Natural Resources, 13(3), 237–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, K., Heinze, K. L., & DeSoucey, M. (2008). Forage for thought: Mobilizing codes in the movement for grass-fed meat and dairy products. Administrative Science Quarterly, 53(3), 529–567.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whyte, K. P. (2016). Indigenous environmental movements and the function of governance institutions. In T. Gabrielson, C. Hall, J. M. Meyer, & D. Schlosberg (Eds.), Oxford handbook of environmental political theory (pp. 536–580). Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte, K. P. (2017). The Dakota access pipeline, environmental justice, and U.S. colonialism. Red Ink, 19(1), 154–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, W. (1992). Wild knowledge: Science, language, and social life in a fragile environment. University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • York, R., & McGee, J. A. (2016). Understanding the Jevons paradox. Environmental Sociology, 2(1), 77–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • York, R., Rosa, E. A., & Dietz, T. (2003). Footprints on the Earth: The environmental consequences of modernity. American Sociological Review, 68(2), 279–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zavestoski, S., Brown, P., McCormick, S., Mayer, B., D’Ottavi, M., & Lucove, J. C. (2004). Patient activism and the struggle for diagnosis: Gulf War illnesses and other medically unexplained physical symptoms in the US. Social Science & Medicine, 58(1), 161–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erik W. Johnson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Johnson, E.W., Burke, J. (2021). Environmental Movements in the United States. In: Schaefer Caniglia, B., Jorgenson, A., Malin, S.A., Peek, L., Pellow, D.N., Huang, X. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Sociology. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77712-8_24

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics