The Czech Environmental Movement’s knowledge interests in the 1990s: compatibility of Western influences with pre-1989 perspectives

The conventional interpretation of the Czech environmental movement in the political science literature contrasts its role as part of the revolution of 1989, which is seen as a spontaneous and local role, with a period of Westernisation in the 1990s. This paper argues, primarily on the basis of interviews with key movement intellectuals, that this interpretation neglects the earlier history of the movement. This earlier history gave the movement a distinctly Czech identity, albeit one that was compatible with many of the Western influences brought to bear in the 1990s. The result was a movement based principally on the assumptions of 'liberal environmentalism', with limited development of more politically radical analyses and arguments