Is the Political Personal? Everyday Behaviors as Forms of Environmental Movement Participation

Abstract

Most studies of behaviors associated with social movements focus on activists and are limited to conventional forms of social movement participation (e.g. movement organization membership and event participation). We argue for an expansion of the forms of movement participation beyond those carried out by activists to include the everyday behaviors of the general public. We examine five behaviors (conserving water, gasoline, energy, and purchasing products made from recycled materials, and purchasing such products when they are more expensive) and explore whether they are being carried out as expression of social movement adherence. Using data from a telephone survey conducted by The University at Albany's Center for Social and Demographic Analysis we explore this issue. Factoring in stated motivations for actions taken and employing continuation-ratio logistic regressions examining the relationship between forms of social movement participation (conventional vs. everyday) and movement identity, we found strong support for conceptualizing everyday behaviors as sites of social movement participation. Significant (though varying) percentages of individuals reported environmental motivations for their everyday behaviors. Additionally, results indicate that self-reported environmentalist identity is associated with both conventional movement and everyday behaviors, although the relationship with everyday behaviors is more complex. We argue that the relationship between personal identity and everyday behaviors is in part governed by the inconvenience associated with the behavior as well as the presence of alternate motivations for engaging in the behavior.