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AbstractThis paper argues that current academic approaches to environmentalism in developing countries understate the role of class in either dominating political alliances, or in constructing underlying environmental discourse. The paper uses examples of various social movements in Thailand to illustrate the diverse ways in which environmental activism may represent or support different political objectives. It is proposed that analysts need to pay more attention to the origin of much environmental discourse from new, or identity-based social movements both within Thailand and elsewhere, and to seek ways to understand the 'co-production' of social activism and environmental knowledge.

The negative impacts of market on environment after 1970s and environmental movements that tried to stop market have been studied in different research projects. However, focusing on different political economic systems are need more studies to show differences and similarities of this issue in different societies. This dissertation contributes to this body of research through understanding of two different environmental movements that have been formed against water transfer projects in two different political economies. More specifically, comparative study provides an opportunity to understand how marketization of water and resistance of environmental movements have been formed in two different political economic systems, a capitalist democracy (the U.S.) and a centralized statist system (Iran). My findings help clarify the nature of local resistances around water issues and reveal the similarities and differences that both communities have experienced with regard to these proposed projects. In addition, this research illuminates the public's concerns regarding the impacts of these projects on local communities in terms of environmental degradation and social problems resulting from the projects. This understanding will help to illuminate the contours of the social, political, and economic contexts of environmental movements surrounding water issues in these cases. I conducted 47 interviews (21 for the U.S. case and 26 for the Iranian Case), with key informants who were involved either in development of the water project or in resistance to the project. I also analyzed different documents for both projects. In the first paper, I show the perception of environmental movements in two case studies on water transfer projects. I argue how the movements have understood water projects as new water markets. The role of the States in two different political economies are so important regarding using of different means and mechanism to form new water markets through water transfer projects. In the second paper, I argue about reasons of forming environmental movements and illustrate how environmental opposition movements look like in these two different political economic systems. I show different means and mechanism that environmental movements used in different societies and argue the reasons these similarities and difference. In the last paper, I show how this Iranian environmental movement, as a social movement, cannot be entirely explained through the dominant western narrative of social movement stages and we need to attention to different political economies for developing of narrative of social movement's stages.

Since Gamson's (1975) landmark study of social movement organizations, scholars have debated whether it is more advantageous to concentrate on a narrow or diverse set of issues. This paper recasts this debate in terms of organizational survival. Drawing on ideas from theories of category spanning and social movements, we argue that an organization that occupies a distinct niche conveys its purpose more effectively, which increases its chances of survival when compared to more diverse SMOs. Using a longitudinal dataset on environmental social movement organizations (ESMOs), we find organizations that span multiple and distant issue categories are significantly more likely to disband, compared to those with a more specialized focus. Other characteristics of ESMOs affect their survival rate in ways that are strikingly similar to for-profits and other types of nonprofits. Larger and more complex ESMOs benefit from economies of scale, while younger, less established organizations are more likely to perish.

Since Gamson's (1975) landmark study of social movement organizations, scholars have debated whether it is more advantageous to concentrate on a narrow or diverse set of issues. This paper recasts this debate in terms of organizational survival. Drawing on ideas from theories of category spanning and social movements, we argue that an organization that occupies a distinct niche conveys its purpose more effectively, which increases its chances of survival when compared to more diverse SMOs. Using a longitudinal dataset on environmental social movement organizations (ESMOs), we find organizations that span multiple and distant issue categories are significantly more likely to disband, compared to those with a more specialized focus. Other characteristics of ESMOs affect their survival rate in ways that are strikingly similar to for-profits and other types of nonprofits. Larger and more complex ESMOs benefit from economies of scale, while younger, less established organizations are more likely to perish.

During the last decade, processes of constitutional change in different parts of the world have taken place in response to massive mobilizations, in contexts of social and political crises. What do social movements do when they participate in a body created to formulate a new constitution? The constitutional change process of 2021–2022 in Chile provides a unique opportunity to analyze how social movements act when they actively intervene in the constitutional arena. For the first time, activists from independent social movements participated as representatives in a constitutional body and significantly influenced the content of the new proposal. The movements analyzed in this article succeeded in incorporating most demands that have been collectively developed over the past 10 years in the context of a new cycle of mobilizations in Chile into the final proposal. Yet, the proposed constitutional draft was rejected. How did they attempt to influence the constitutional debate within the convention? What were the consequences of these strategies? Based on qualitative research, which included interviews, observations during the constitutional debate in the Constitutional Convention, and document analysis, this article examines the strategies and consequences of the constitutional mobilization carried out by these movements. We argue that some of the conditions for the success of these social movements within the Convention partially explain the failure of the process.