CAMFEM · Collective Action and Memory in the French Environmental Movement

This project investigates transformations in environmental protest strategies since the 1970s, placing them in the context of changing configurations of state power and legal and political norms. Undertaken within the CRAPE research centre on political mobilisation at the IEP in Rennes, the project focuses on the opposition to the construction of nuclear power plants in north-west France, comparing current mobilisations with the widespread opposition to reactor siting in the late the 1970s and early 1980s. The objectives are to (i) develop an updated approach to political opportunity, (ii) collect and provide empirical data for and theorise ‘judicial opportunities’, and (iii) embed movement strategies within an understanding of activist memory and identity. Empirical data will be gained through qualitative, actor-centred research, including the observation of meetings and a comprehensive series of semi-structured interviews with activists from current campaigns and those of the 1970s, and through local newspaper, police, and court archival searches. The data will enable us to explore the social, cultural, and political impacts over a generation of (i) norms of illegality and violence; (ii) the development of EC law and European institutions; (iii) the effects of global environmental change on the brokering of public consent; and (iv) the performance and representation of movement memory and identity in activist strategies. We anticipate that the findings will be valuable for the specific French case, and will further be testable across movements and states. The host will integrate the Fellow into the CRAPE research centre, and provide multi-disciplinary training in journalism methods and in interview fieldwork. The expected impact is enhanced career development: the training and collaborative experience will enable significant project/network funding bid development in the project’s final stage, preparing the Fellow for future international research leadership.