To understand environmentalism in Ireland today, this book looks at different types of groups and organisations that make up the ‘movement scene’, and the dynamics and problems involved in developing appropriate collective practices. Focus is also given to the individual characteristics of participating individuals drawn into collective mobilisations, looking at their availability for recruitment, their life experiences, and their ideological orientations. The book goes on to examine the impact on them of acting within a group, in terms of the skills and knowledge gained, collective experiences, and formation of perspectives on Irish society and the Irish State. Finally, it considers the growing phenomenon of ‘personal environmentalism’, culminating in a discussion of environmental citizenship, and the diverse ways, collective and individual, in which this is practiced in environmental activism.
Author
Hilary Tovey is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Head of the Department of Sociology in Trinity College, Dublin. She is a frequent contributor to the International Sociological Association - Research Committee 24: Environment and Society. Her best-known publication, co-authored with Perry Share and Mary Corcoran is A Sociology of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan, 3rd edition, 2007).