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The Climate Movement As Agent of a Societal Transformation Towards A Wageningen University and Research – Department of Environmental Sciences MSC Thesis chair Group Forest and Nature Policy (FNP) The climate movement as agent of a societal transition towards a more sustainable society Climate movement organisations in the Netherlands October, 2020 Name of student: Lianne Slagter MSc Program: Forest and Nature Conservation Specialization: Policy and Society – Sustainable Development Diplomacy Name of supervisor: Dr. Arjen Buijs Second reader: ? Thesis code: FNP-80436 ‘This is a story of our changing planet, and what we can do to help it thrive..’ (Sir David Attenborough) 2 Summary Despite the growing need of climate movement organisations to be one of the fundamental drivers of social change, not much research has been done on how these climate movement organisations contribute to social change. This study aimed to fill this gap of knowledge by analyzing how Extinction Rebellion and The Youth Climate Movement as part of the Dutch climate movement aim to be effective in the transition towards a more sustainable society in the Netherlands by identifying their strategies and organisational capacity through a theoretical framework of (New) Social Movement Theory and the theory of Organisational Capacity. It appears that their strategies differ from each other. Extinction Rebellion performs massive civil disobedience in order to conduct non-violent direct action against local and national governments in which disruption, creativity and outreach are very important. Their strategy is science-based and has a very strong visual part. The Youth Climate Movement on the other hand is a umbrella organisation that represents the united voice of Dutch youth in the climate debate. The organisation is a non-activist lobby organisation, that aims to be a constructive dialogue partner for the government and to come up with solutions for a more ambitious climate policy. It is suggested that a successful movement should consist of a spectrum of strategies in order to be effective. By choosing both a different type of strategy, Extinction Rebellion and The Youth Climate Movement strengthen the Dutch climate movement as a whole. Second, concerning the organisational capacity, Extinction Rebellion’s challenges lie in making their decentralized organisation more efficient, streamlining their evaluation and creating efficient feedback loops, integrating both internal and external communication and strengthen collaboration with other organisations in the Dutch climate movement. For The Youth Climate Movement challenges lie in giving structure to the governance of their organisation, enhancing the quality of their evaluation and also strengthen collaboration with other organisations in the Dutch climate movement. In addition to that, for both additional challenges are securing a structural financial income, which threatens not only the continuity and projects of the organisations, but also the inclusive and diverse culture within the organisations. Having a diverse and inclusive organisation will provide the organisations with several benefits, such as a more successful decision-making, better ability to support their strategy and to reach organisational goal(s) and a lower turn-over of participants. It will also narrow the gap between their organisation and (local) realities. For both organisations it is also important to look at the possibilities for collaboration and block formation within the Dutch climate movement. The Dutch climate movement is then more likely to achieve their common goal(s), since it will provide the Dutch climate movement with opportunities to organize events with a bigger number of participants and also have a greater change of influence the transition to a more sustainable society. Keywords: Dutch climate movement, Extinction Rebellion, The Youth Climate Movement, (New) Social Movement Theory, Strategy, Organisational Capacity 3 Preface In front of you lies my thesis report, which marks the completion of my master Forest and Nature Conservation at Wageningen University and Research. The special track Sustainable Development Diplomacy that I followed during my masters, together with the year of climate activism in 2019, inspired me to dive deeper into the topic of the Dutch climate movement as an agent of a societal transition towards a more sustainable society. We live in most exciting times, in which climate activism plays a very important role in shaping our future society. This research project has appeared to be the most challenging part of my degree, not because of the topic I have been studying, but because I had to overcome great personal insecurities and challenges. I identify myself as a biologist, but as one who sees the importance of the social sciences in her discipline. Even though I feel more at home in quantitative research, I really wanted to broaden my knowledge, expand my skills and challenge myself in qualitative research and social sciences. I feel that this journey has enabled me to partake more easily in societal debates about sustainable development. However, during this exciting journey I also had to face a lot of great personal insecurities about my abilities as a scientist and huge challenges about conducting a, for me, new type of science. Even though it was a really difficult experience at some times, I feel like I have learned and grown both as a scientist and as a person. This growth would not have been possible without the never ending support I received of many people during my thesis journey, of which I am very grateful. First of all, and especially, I would like to thank my supervisor dr. Arjen Buijs. His down to earth supervision has not only enabled me to complete my master thesis and to obtain my master degree, but also to overcome my own insecurities and personal challenges. Additionally, I would like to thank my closest friends, and especially Eirini, Tommaso, Renske and Elise. Without any questions they were always there for me as my sounding boards, for making me laugh and for making my thesis journey more enjoyable. Also in difficult times. Furthermore, I would like to thank my family: Cor, Annemieke en Jordy. They are my biggest inspiration and always make me believe in myself, no matter what. Last, but certainly not least, my biggest thank you goes to my partner Dennis. He supported and encouraged me unconditionally throughout my entire thesis journey. Lianne Slagter Wageningen 12-10-2020 4 Table of content Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Preface ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Research questions........................................................................................................................ 9 2. Theoretical context and framework .................................................................................................. 10 2.1 (New) Social Movement Theory .................................................................................................. 10 2.1.1 Social Movement Theory and New Social Movement Theory ............................................. 10 2.1.2 Strategies of (New) social movements ................................................................................. 11 2.2 Organisational capacity ............................................................................................................... 14 2.3 Conceptual framework ................................................................................................................ 17 3. Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 18 3.1 Research design ........................................................................................................................... 18 3.2 Case studies ................................................................................................................................. 19 3.2.1 Extinction Rebellion .............................................................................................................. 20 3.2.2 Young Climate Movement .................................................................................................... 21 3.3 Data collection and Processing .................................................................................................... 22 3.3.1 Data collection ...................................................................................................................... 22 3.3.2 Sampling method ................................................................................................................. 23 3.3.3 Respondents ......................................................................................................................... 23 3.3.4 Data processing and analysis ................................................................................................ 24 3.4 Limitations ................................................................................................................................... 24 3.4.1 Researcher bias and researcher expectations.....................................................................
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