8
MOBILIZING FOR GREEN
TRANSFORMATIONS
Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones
Introduction
In building green transformations, vital sources of energy, imagination, knowledge,
experience and practice lie in citizen action and mobilization. However, such
movements take on different forms in different places and at different moments in
history. As argued elsewhere in this book, there are clearly multiple green
transformations required today, but how can they come about, and what role do
collective organization, mobilization and activism play in this process?
Social movement theory identifies the framing of issues, the construction of
identities, the mobilization of resources and the galvanization of networks as key
features of movements (Leach and Scoones, 2007). Yet the capacity to contribute
to green transformations also depends critically on the relationships between
movements, networks and their institutionalization, and on the relationships
between particularistic, locally grounded practices, and claims and action focused
on wider forms of transformation. Green transformations, as argued elsewhere in
this book, involve challenges to investment and infrastructure, practices and
power relations that involve both private and public sector actors, and extend up
to global scales. We argue here that the effectiveness of mobilization in the politics
of green transformation hinges on how far vibrant local action and agendas that
make space for citizens’ own concerns are able to articulate with and mount
challenges to global forces.
In this chapter, we explore and evaluate these dimensions in relation to case
studies where movements have emerged to urge green transformations of different
sorts – in small farm production and markets, in agricultural technology, and in
urban design and living. In each of these cases different types of movements have
formed and evolved, framing the green transformation challenge in different ways
and navigating tensions along the movement institutionalization and particularism
DOI: 10.4324/9781315747378-8
MOBILIZING FOR GREEN
TRANSFORMATIONS
Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones
Introduction
In building green transformations, vital sources of energy, imagination, knowledge,
experience and practice lie in citizen action and mobilization. However, such
movements take on different forms in different places and at different moments in
history. As argued elsewhere in this book, there are clearly multiple green
transformations required today, but how can they come about, and what role do
collective organization, mobilization and activism play in this process?
Social movement theory identifies the framing of issues, the construction of
identities, the mobilization of resources and the galvanization of networks as key
features of movements (Leach and Scoones, 2007). Yet the capacity to contribute
to green transformations also depends critically on the relationships between
movements, networks and their institutionalization, and on the relationships
between particularistic, locally grounded practices, and claims and action focused
on wider forms of transformation. Green transformations, as argued elsewhere in
this book, involve challenges to investment and infrastructure, practices and
power relations that involve both private and public sector actors, and extend up
to global scales. We argue here that the effectiveness of mobilization in the politics
of green transformation hinges on how far vibrant local action and agendas that
make space for citizens’ own concerns are able to articulate with and mount
challenges to global forces.
In this chapter, we explore and evaluate these dimensions in relation to case
studies where movements have emerged to urge green transformations of different
sorts – in small farm production and markets, in agricultural technology, and in
urban design and living. In each of these cases different types of movements have
formed and evolved, framing the green transformation challenge in different ways
and navigating tensions along the movement institutionalization and particularism
DOI: 10.4324/9781315747378-8