EAGER: Identifying Drivers of Political Action amid Environmental Change

对人类在环境变化中的作用的广泛认识激发了各种政治行动，包括极端主义运动。这个项目考虑的是环境极端主义者，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认真调查可以让我们对这些组织的手段有所了解，但学者们对推动他们决心和成长的乌托邦愿景知之甚少。这一疏忽的风险很高：如果不把握这些团体的驱动愿望，应对极端主义的学术和政策努力都将受到阻碍。这项研究就是朝着这样一个方向努力的。它还通过支持学生在科学收集和分析方法方面的培训，培养定性社会科学家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相关者。这个探索性研究（EAGER）项目的早期概念资助涉及极端环保组织在网上的广泛工作。考虑到在线组织极端组织的重要作用，此类研究本身就很有价值，但也是确保在这些极端组织中进行实地调查所需的亲自访问的关键一步。通过档案研究、媒体分析、在线观察和对极端分子的采访，研究人员提出了这样的问题：这些团体寻求什么样的环境未来，他们的历史先例是什么？这些期望的未来是否激励了现在的行动，如果是，是什么样的行动？在实现这些未来的道路上，极端分子认为暴力有什么作用（如果有的话）？方法包括：在线档案资源文本分析；被动在线观察与话语分析；在线参与观察与访谈；还有一项试点的亲自研究，以测试更大规模研究的可行性。研究结果将有助于更广泛地理解环境行动主义，同时也为赋予极端主义力量的积极愿景提供洞见。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.