Penina M. Glazer and Myron P. Glazer
17 James Avenue
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
USA
During the last several decades grass roots environmental activists have emerged as new agents of social reform in the United States and are beginning to do so elsewhere. Scholars, such as Alberto Melucci, have labeled these groups as "new social movements", which are characterized by their indigenous roots, small size, and democratic orientations. Unlike traditional environmental groups, the new social movements in the United States, for example, are based in local neighborhoods rather than in Washington, D.C. and the state capitals. In these groups, local residents develop a "culture of solidarity" with their neighbors, which derives from their strong belief that they will only achieve their goals by united action with community members directly threatened by environmental danger. They confront industries and public agencies for neglecting the dangers of toxic dumps, nuclear contamination, or polluting industries in their neighborhoods.
In other parts of the world, such as Israel and the Czech Republic and Slovakia, environmental issues have largely been defined by political and industrial leaders as a luxury for wealthy, advanced societies. Despite strong resistance to defining environmental health as a primary social and political objective, grass roots groups have emerged in these countries inrecent years to ensure that environmental issues are on the national agenda during these periods of rapid change.
Many women have been major leaders among grass roots groups. In part, women have resonated so clearly to environmental activism because it often has centered on an issue threatening to the home. In many cases, the desire to protect children is the leading motivation for joining a group or the principal means of explaining the significance of their cause. Children become the perfect ideological rationale for demanding action: they represent a legitimate reason for mothers to go beyond their conventional behavior - engaging in sit-ins, picket lines or missing dinner or failing to clean the house. Children provide not only a public rationale, but also a private form of legitimacy for other family members and for the women themselves.
This paper will be based on a study of environmental activists in different regions of the United States, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Israel. The project, funded by the John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation, is one of the first full-length historical and sociological studies to examine an international sample of citizens who have dedicated themselves to the amelioration of environmental hazards in their communities. The study focuses on the historical context in which the problems unfolded, and the transformation of non-involved citizens to concerned community activists, who develop the skills and organizational strengths to call attention to serious environmental hazards and require accountability from responsible officials. This study parallels a previous book by Myron and Penina Glazer, The Whistleblowers: Exposing Corruption in Government and Industry, (New York: Basic Books, 1989).
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