Greening of New Zealand Case Study on an Institutionalising Social Movement

The thesis examines the phenomenon of social movements in general and the modern environmental movement in specific. After an overall analysis of the environmental movement, the focus of the study shifts to the environmental movement in the context of New Zealand. The bulk of the New Zealand specific research material is composed of publications of the country's environmental groups and of country's current environmental legislation. The object of the study is twofold. On the one hand the aim was to explore the implications of social movement activity to a society's prevalent institutional order. On the other hand the study aims at examining the main features of social movement institutionalisation and to seek evidence of this process in the case of New Zealand. The general methodological and analytical framework chosen for this study is social constructivism, which upholds an understanding of our social reality as being a sum of ongoing social processes, of peoples' social interaction. As a more specific method of analysis the thesis applies the theory of speech acts, based on the view of language as a functional rather than as a merely descriptive element. As an overall hypothesis of the study one could identify the assumption that environmental movement in New Zealand has been subject to a process of social movement institutionalisation and this has implications to its activities and influence in the country. The theoretical framework is based on the social movement theory, which offers insight into the process of movement institutionalisation. The main findings of the thesis, as regards the implications of social movement activity to the societies' institutional order, are that social movements take part in the processes that construct social reality by virtue of producing social knowledge and they can thus as socially constructive forces with potential to bring about change in the social construction of reality and the prevalent institutional order. As for the environmental movement institutionalisation in New Zealand, the findings are twofold. The movement's access points to the political system have increased significantly, but it has also become increasingly difficult for the environmental movement to get its voice heard in a situation where environmentalist values and concerns already appear to be everywhere.1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK: SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM AND SPEECH ACTS 3 2.1. SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM AS THE GENERAL FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS 3 2.1.1. How are institutions formed? 4 2.1.2. Institutional facts 5 2.1.3. Role of language in the formation of institutions 8 2.1.4. Process of legitimation 9 2.2. SPEECH ACTS AS THE SPECIFIC METHOD FOR ANALYSIS 10 2.2.1. Types of Speech Acts 11 2.2.2. Speech acts as creators of rules 13 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY 16 3.1. DEFINITIONS OF A SOCIAL MOVEMENT 16 3.2. RESEARCH ON SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 18 3.3. INSTITUTIONALISATION OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 21 3.3.1. Weber-Michels model 21 3.3.2. Social movement lifecycle 22 3.3.3.The 'double-edged sword'of institutionalisation 24 3.3.4. Transformation in movement organisation, activities and goals 26 3.4. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AS COGNITIVE PRAXIS 30 3.4.1. Production of concerns 30 3.4.2. Spreading of scientific knowledge 31 4. ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT 33 4.1. ENVIRONMENTALISM AS CRITIQUE OF MODERN SOCIETY 33 4.1.1. Environmentalist values 35 4.1.2. Different strands of environmental movement 37 4.1.3. Environmentalism and social construction of knowledge 39 4.1.4. Environmental movement and the national setting 40 4.2. INSTITUTIONALISATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT 42 4.2.1. Working dialogue or demise of environmentalism? 43 4.2.2. 'Spill-over of greenness' 46 5. ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT IN NEW ZEALAND 49 5.1. DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT 49 5.1.1. Connecting different strands of the movement 50 5.1.2. The national setting 51 5.1.3. Transformation in environmental movement organisation, activities and goals 53 5.2. GREEN NEW ZEALAND? 57 5.2.1. Spread of environmental knowledge 57 5.2.2. Diffusion of environmentalist values 61 6. CONCLUDING REMARKS 67 BIBLIOGRAPHY 7