The Economic Circuits of Social Movements

Abstract

This chapter uses Zelizer’s work to analyze environmental social movements in the Brazilian Amazon. I look at networks supporting environmental leaders facing death threats from those involved with illegal logging, mining, and other destructive activities. This chapter identifies a new economic circuit used to financially support social movement activities, particularly the protection of these leaders. This chapter is also an effort to advance Zelizer’s work in two fronts. First, I discuss how boundaries in economic circuits are not binary—I identify a few important characteristics of these boundaries in social movement settings, and I argue that boundaries are layered. Social movements have a process of evaluating and vetting new members, and subsequent decisions allow them to get closer to the core or to stay at the periphery. The second contribution I offer is identifying the process of how social movement actors distinguish between different kinds of monies depending on the kinds of social relations they have with one another.