Responding to the Europeanisation of sustainable development

This thesis argues that the resource base of a civil society actor is a key determinant in any attempt to exploit opportunities within EU policy processes. Sustainable Development (SD) offers an exciting context to explore civil society actors' responses to traditional (biodiversity) and new (biotechnology) environmentally related policies. In this way, civil society is perceived as a collection of non-state actors that mobilise on policy-specific issues, guided by shared (and sometimes contrasting) principles of SD and more broadly Global Justice. The regulatory approach of the EU to SD issues is continually transforming domestic policies and politics. In this way, the thesis argues that misfit between EU and member state policy in key areas of SD is changing domestic and supranational opportunities for civil society. France is selected as a particularly interesting case for understanding civil society responses to a traditionally 'excluding state'. The case study on biodiversity reveals that the EU has generated significant domestic policy transformation, as well as favourable political opportunity structures for civil society actors. The second study on biotechnology shows that the EU did not substantially change French policy processes while further reinforcing unfavourable opportunities. In both cases, the resource base of a civil society actor remained paramount in its ability to attempt any opportunity exploitation. Moreover, it is contended that each resource category (material, human, network and moral) 'has a different explanatory potential in understanding mobilisation in both including and excluding oppornmity contexts. Diverging resource capabilities leading _ to the 'differential mobilisation' of civil society actors in Europeanised policy processes offers new insights into understanding state-society relations in France and the EU.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo