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Networking local environmental groups in Germany: The rise and fall of the federal alliance of citizens' initiatives for environmental protection (BBU)

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 14; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09644010500257979

1743-8934

William T. Markham,

Abstract Abstract From the mid-1970s well into the 1980s, the Federal Alliance of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection (BBU) was one of Germany's most visible and influential environmental organisations, an unusual achievement for a network of local organisations. Lacking strong competitors, it was able to become a central movement organisation for Germany's rapidly growing anti-nuclear power and environmental movements. However, after institutionalisation of environmental concerns robbed the movement of some of its impetus, competing social movement organisations appeared, and government subsidies ended, familiar problems of grass-roots networks, which had plagued the BBU from the beginning, intensified. The resulting downward spiral cost the BBU most of its members and its prominence. Acknowledgements The author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the German Academic Exchange Service, and the German Fulbright Commission, facilities provided by Humboldt University, the Archive for the History of Nature Protection, and the University of Essen, and the comments of Christopher Rootes and three anonymous reviewers. Notes 1. I used numerous treatments of the history of German environmentalism to prepare the sections on social context. To avoid a plethora of repetitive citations, I list those used throughout the paper here and include citations in the text only when a source documents a specific fact or where citing page numbers is desirable. The only book-length history of German environmentalism in English is Dominick (1992 Dominick, Raymond H. III. 1992. The Environmental Movement in Germany, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar]) (see also his 1988 paper). Joppke (1993 Joppke, Christian. 1993. Mobilizing against Nuclear Energy: a Comparison of Germany and the United States, Berkeley, CA: University of California. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) contains a comprehensive history of the anti-nuclear movement. Koopmans's (1995 Koopmans, Ruud. 1995. Democracy from Below: New Social Movements and the Political System in West Germany, Boulder, CO: Westview. [Google Scholar]) book on new social movements and protest, Bramwell's (1994 Bramwell, Anna. 1994. The Fading of the Greens, New Haven, CT: Yale University. [Google Scholar]) treatment of green politics, and recent books on comparative environmental politics by Schreuers (2002 Schreuers, Miranda A. 2002. Environmental Politics in Japan, Germany, and the United States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]) and Dryzek et al. (2003 Dryzek, John S., Downes, David, Hunold, Christian and Schlosberg, David. 2003. Green States and Social Movements, New York: Oxford University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) also include relevant material. Articles on the history of German environmentalism in English include Schmid (1987 Schmid, Carol. 1987. The green movement in West Germany. Journal of Political and Military Sociology, 15: 33–46. [Google Scholar]), Riordan (1997 Riordan, Colin. 1997. “Green ideas in Germany”. In Green Thought in German Culture, Edited by: Riordan, C. 3–41. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. [Google Scholar]), Brand (1999a Brand, Karl-Werner. 1999a. “Dialectics of institutionalisation: the transformation of the environmental movement in Germany”. In Environmental Movements: Local, National, and Global, Edited by: Rootes, C. 35–58. London: Frank Cass. [Google Scholar]), Rucht and Roose (1999 Rucht, Dieter and Roose, Jochen. 1999. “The German environmental movement at the crossroads”. In Environmental Movements: Local, National, and Global, Edited by: Rootes, C. 59–80. 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Modernisierung und Neue Soziale Bewegungen, Frankfurt: Campus. [Google Scholar], pp. 235 – 290 passim; Oswald von Nell-Breuning-Insitut für Wissenschafts- und Gesellschaftsethik der Philosophisch-Theologischen Hochschule Sankt Georgen, 1996 Oswald von Nell-Breuning-Insitut für Wissenschafts- und Gesellschaftsethik der Philosophisch-Theologischen Hochschule Sankt Georgen. 1996. Die Rolle der Umweltverbände in den Demokratischen und Umweltethischen Lernprozessen der Gesellschaft, Stuttgart: Metzler-Poeschel. [Google Scholar], pp. 84 – 85; Bergstedt, 1998 Bergstedt, Jörg. 1998. Agenda, Expo, Sponsoring, Frankfurt: IKO – Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation. [Google Scholar], pp. 104 – 109) include information about the BBU. Also useful are two histories of the anti-nuclear power movement (Rucht, 1980 Rucht, Dieter. 1980. Von Whyl nach Gorleben: Bürger gegen Atomprogramm und Nukleare Entsorgung, Munich: C. H. Beck. [Google Scholar]; Joppke, 1993 Joppke, Christian. 1993. 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