Tangled Roots: Personal Networks and the Participation of Individuals in an Anti-environmentalism Countermovement

Abstract

We focus on the personal networks of members of an anti-environmentalism countermovement in a small town in Canada (Port Alberni, B.C.) that mobilized against the environmental movement. Drawing primarily from social survey data, we investigate the effects of network-based mobilization processes, and contending-movement ties (ties to the environmental movement), on level of participation in the countermovement. We add to the literature on networks and social movements, and movement-countermovement dynamics by 1) comparing network processes amongst a counter movement with those amongst a corresponding social movement, and 2) comparing personal network structures and mobilization processes between countermovement members and the general public. We find a similar pattern of network-based micromobilization processes amongst movement and countermovement participant networks. We find both similarities, and key differences between the counter movement and the general public in terms of activism and social network ties. Theoretical predictions have suggested that individuals who have ties to opposing groups will moderate their participation in a social movement. However, in this study of a community countermovement organization in a small town in Canada that mobilized against the provincial environmental movement we find that the number of contending movement ties (the range of ties to environmental organizations) held by individuals in the countermovement has a significant positive association with countermovement activism, and is the strongest statistical predictor of countermovement activism. Drawing upon both theory and substantive information we discuss the implications of this novel finding.