An Analysis of Activist Responses to Environmental Controversies in West Virginia.

Abstract

This study examines activism against environmental hazards caused by coal and chemical industry corporations in West Virginia from the 1980s to 2010. The purpose of the study is to understand the factors that influence activism toward corporations causing environmental harm. Three cases studies are presented; two examine conflicts around mountaintop removal mining and one involves the production of the insecticide methyl isocyanate (MIC). Using a primarily qualitative, exploratory data analysis of interviews, newspaper articles, and stakeholder publications, this study investigates the factors influencing activists who are challenging environmentally-hazardous corporate practices or products. Findings include differences in activist mobilization based on whether an individual is from the area in which activism is occurring, whether she currently lives in the activism area, or whether she is neither living in nor from the activist area. Further, the study examines why people in some areas facing environmental hazards fight them, while others do not. In keeping with prior social movement theorist work, the perceived need for jobs provided by environmental hazard-causing industries coupled with long-term reliance on an industry hinders mobilization efforts. Activists varied in terms of cognitive factors that motivated opposition to environmental hazards. This suggests a need for within-movement idea-sharing and attempts to create mobilization that is ideologically salient to multiple activist sub-groups within a movement. Idea-sharing and improved ideological salience may increase recruitment and retention, aiding in effectiveness. Said findings are relevant to those studying or participating in the environmental justice movement that blends labor organizing, social problem amelioration, and ecosystem protection. More broadly, the findings are relevant to social movement scholarship, especially that involving multiple problems and activist identities within the same movement, and for environmental sociology.