EAGER: Identifying Drivers of Political Action amid Environmental Change

人们普遍认识到人类在环境变化中的作用，这激发了各种政治行动，包括极端主义运动。这个项目考虑了环境极端分子，他们提出革命行动将缓解环境压力。尽管迄今为止对极端主义的严肃调查对这些组织的手段有很多启示，但学者们对推动他们决心和发展的不切实际的愿景知之甚少。这一疏漏的风险很高：如果不能抓住这些组织的驱动力，解决极端主义的学术和政策努力都将受阻。这项研究致力于这样的理解。它还通过支持学生在科学收集和分析方法方面的培训，在定性的社会科学家中培养继续这项研究的能力。科学成果将传达给公众，以及对环境极端主义的驱动因素和发展感兴趣的政策利益攸关方。这一早期的探索性研究概念拨款(AGIRE)项目涉及网上极端主义环境团体的广泛工作。鉴于在线组织对极端组织的重要作用，这种研究本身是有价值的，但也是确保在极端组织之间进行实地考察所需的面对面访问的关键一步。通过档案研究、媒体分析、在线观察和对极端分子的采访，研究人员问：这些组织寻求什么样的环境未来，他们的历史先例是什么？这些令人向往的未来是否会激励当前的行动？如果是的话，会采取什么样的行动？极端分子在实现这些未来的道路上，如果有的话，对暴力来说扮演着什么角色？方法包括在线档案资源的文本分析；被动的在线观察和话语分析；在线参与者观察和访谈；以及一项试验性的面对面研究，以测试更大规模研究的可行性。调查结果将有助于更广泛地理解环境激进主义，同时也提供了对给予极端主义分量的肯定愿景的洞察。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The widespread recognition of the human role in environmental change inspires political action of all kinds, including extremist movements. This project considers environmental extremists who propose that revolutionary action will ease environmental pressures. While serious investigations of extremism to date have much to teach about these groups’ means, scholars know less about the utopic visions that fuel their resolve and growth. The stakes of this omission are high: both scholarly and policy efforts to address extremism will be hamstrung without a grasp on these groups’ driving aspirations. This study works toward such an understanding. It also builds capacity among qualitative social scientists to continue this research, by supporting students’ training in methods of scientific collection and analysis. Scientific results will be communicated to the public, as well as policy stakeholders interested in the drivers and development of environmental extremism.This early concept grant for exploratory research (EAGER) project involves extensive work among extremist environmental groups online. Such research is valuable in its own right, given the vital role of online organizing for extremist groups, but is also a crucial step toward securing the in-person access needed to conduct emplaced fieldwork among the same. Through archival research, media analysis, online observation, and interviews with extremist actors, researchers ask: What kinds of environmental futures do these groups seek and what are their historic precedents? Do these desired futures motivate action in the present and, if so, what kinds of action? And what role, if any, do extremists hold for violence in the path toward these futures’ realization? Methods include text analysis of online archival resources; passive online observation and discourse analysis; online participant observation and interviews; and a pilot in-person study to test the feasibility of a larger study. Findings will contribute to a more capacious understanding of environmental activism, while also providing insight into the affirmative visions that lend extremism its weight.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.