The New Environmentalism?: Civil Society and Corruption in the Enlarged EU

by Davide Torsello, Italo Pardo, Giuliana B Prato

Overview

Comparative in approach, The New Environmentalism? provides new insights into the emergence of strong civic movements at local and trans-local levels, in resistance to citizens' sense of increasing alienation from political participation and decision making. As such, it will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists concerned with questions of legitimacy, corruption and activism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781409495116
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	01/28/2013
Series:	Urban Anthropology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Davide Torsello is Associate Professor, CEU Business School, Hungary

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction; Environmentalism; Civil society: ambiguities and opportunities; The ethnographic study of corruption; Case 1: the motorway transport project in Povazskà Bystrica, Slovakia; Case 2: road transport development in the Czech Republic - the Brno-Vienna highway; Case 3: railway transport project in North-Western Italy - the TAV; Case 4: the Budapest M0 ring-road; Case 5: illegal waste export to Central Eastern Europe; Conclusions: inside the Green Commando; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'Torsello's work is rich in stimulating analysis of the theoretical literature on contentious social movements yet firmly grounded in his ethnography of environmentalist organizations in Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Italy. His deliberate attention to historical local/global boundaries and relations gives new meaning and utility to concepts of civil society and political corruption.' Peter Schneider, Fordham University, USA 'In making the case that we cannot understand environmental activism without analyzing the politics of the 'in-between, ' Torsello brings to light the complex layers of decision making that preceded each of the large-scale projects discussed... Torsello has arrived at an original discovery. Based on interviews and participant observation, he proposes that environmentalist activists have much to gain from raising corruption as an issue. Discursive strategies that expose corrupt practices are often more compelling than appeals to environmental degradation when it comes to mobilizing a wide public, politicizing citizens' demands for 'sustainable' development, and forcing politicians, otherwise pressured by the hegemony of neo-liberal capitalism, to take notice. Why this is, and what it means, are among the fascinating questions this book engages; its author is correct to position himself as introducing a 'new perspective' on environmentalism.' Urbanities: The Journal of the IUAES Commission on Urban Anthropology

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