Description

The environmental movement in Australia is an
enduring and influential social phenomenon comprising
a myriad of organisations, groups, small cells and
non-affiliated activists and sympathisers. Spawning
green politicians on the federal and state level it
remains influential after several decades, as new
issues such as climate change emerge and established
issues like the protection of old growth forests
remain salient.
Attempts have been made to link environmental
concerns with the rise of new classes, the formation
of new status groups, the ascendancy of postwar
generations, postmaterial value shifts and media
exposure of environmental hazards. Yet systematic,
empirical studies of environmentalism remain
relatively rare. In this book political sociologist
Bruce Tranter seeks to bridge this gap by critically
examining key sociological accounts of
environmentalism and systematically assessing their
efficacy. Drawing upon nationally representative
survey data, he considers the explanatory value of
major sociological accounts of politics when applied
to the most influential element of new politics ,
the environmental movement.