GREEN POPULISM IN NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS - A QUALITATIVE TEXT ANALYSIS ON EXTINCTION REBELLION'S DISCOURSE - DIVA PORTAL
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Green Populism in New Social
Movements
A qualitative text analysis on Extinction Rebellion’s discourse
Jacob Fransson
Master Thesis, 15 credits Supervisor:
Media and communication studies Paola SartorettoSustainable Communication Examiner:
Spring 2021
Jönköping University Master thesis, 15 credits
School of Education and Communication Course: Master Thesis in Media and
Communication 1
Term: Spring 2021
ABSTRACT
Writer: Jacob Fransson
Title: Green populism in new social movements
Subtitle: A qualitative text analysis on Extinction Rebellion’s discourse
Language: English
Pages: 34 (49)
This thesis aims to explore the new concept of green populism and to explore if Extinction
Rebellion can be seen as a new social movement. The concept of green populism is based on
Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism and Dobson’s approach to green ideology. The
theories will form a categorization of green populism to see if any of these elements are
visible in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse. The combination of the two theories helps to
define the elements or categories of green populism: Ecological Crisis of Cosmic Proportion,
Victimizing “the People”, Identifying and/or blame the antagonist, Green Action, Scientific
Evidencing, and Intergenerational Justice.
The theories on new social movements is based on theories from scholars such as Alberto
Melucci, Alain Touraine and Manuel Castells to help us understand what characterizes a new
social movement. The four following characteristics of new social movements was
highlighted: They focus on non-material issues, they tend to emphasize different protest
tactics, they often have a horizontal organization, and they often use symbolic action.
To answer the research questions in this thesis, a qualitative text analysis will be conducted. A
qualitative text analysis focuses on certain selected aspects of the material which are
determined by the aim and research questions. The qualitative text analysis is applied to the
captions of eight selected Instagram-posts from Extinction Rebellion’s official account.The analysis leads to the conclusion that Extinction Rebellion can be seen as a new social movement, with a few exceptions regarding their focus on non-material issues. Another conclusion is that we were able to find elements of green populism in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse. The final conclusion is that green populism should be seen as a theoretical and analytical tool for analyzing communication rather than a label of environmental actors. Keywords: green populism, populism, green ideology, new social movements, qualitative text analysis, Extinction Rebellion.
1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 CONNECTION TO SUSTAINABLE COMMUNICATION ................................................................................................... 2
2. AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ........................................................................................................... 3
2.1 AIM ....................................................................................................................................................... 3
2.2 RESEARCH QUESTION ................................................................................................................................. 3
3. BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................................... 3
3.1 EXTINCTION REBELLION .............................................................................................................................. 3
4. RESEARCH REVIEW ................................................................................................................................ 4
4.1 GLOBAL ACTIVISM AND THE LOGIC OF CONNECTIVE ACTION................................................................................ 4
4.1.1 #MeToo, Networked Acknowledgement, and Connective Action: How “Empowerment Through
Empathy” Launched a Social Movement ....................................................................................................... 6
4.2 POPULISM AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION ................................................................................................. 6
4.3 ARE LIBERAL STATES GREENER? POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AND CO2 EMISSIONS IN AMERICAN STATES, 1980-2012 .......... 7
4.4 THE EMERGING CONCEPT OF GREEN POPULISM ............................................................................................... 7
4.5 EXTINCTION REBELLION AND NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTION ............................................................................... 8
5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................................. 9
5.1 CAS MUDDE’S IDEATIONAL APPROACH TO POPULISM ....................................................................................... 9
5.2 DOBSON’S APPROACH TO GREEN IDEOLOGY .................................................................................................. 10
5.3 GREEN POPULISM ................................................................................................................................... 11
5.4 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ............................................................................................................................... 13
5.5 NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THEORY ............................................................................................................. 14
5.5.1 Criticism of new social movements theory .................................................................................... 16
6. METHODS............................................................................................................................................ 17
6.1 QUALITATIVE TEXT ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................... 17
6.1.1 Motivation for selection of method............................................................................................... 17
6.2 MATERIAL ............................................................................................................................................. 17
6.2.1 Motivation for selection of material ............................................................................................. 18
6.3 OPERATIONALIZATION.............................................................................................................................. 19
6.3.1 Coding frame ................................................................................................................................. 19
6.4 LIMITATIONS .......................................................................................................................................... 20
6.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ......................................................................................................................... 21
7. INTERPRETATION AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS .......................................................................... 21
7.1 ECOLOGICAL CRISIS OF COSMIC PROPORTIONS ............................................................................................... 22
7.2 VICTIMIZING “THE PEOPLE” ...................................................................................................................... 23
7.3 IDENTIFYING AND/OR BLAMING THE ANTAGONIST .......................................................................................... 25
7.4 GREEN ACTION ....................................................................................................................................... 27
7.5 SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCING ............................................................................................................................ 28
7.6 INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE .................................................................................................................... 29
8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................... 30
8.1 THEORY CONTRIBUTION............................................................................................................................ 33
8.2 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ......................................................................................................... 331. Introduction
In countries all around the globe, we can see that contemporary politics are influenced by
populistic ideas and beliefs on all sides of the political spectra. The votes for “populists right”
parties in the European Parliament election has doubled from less than 7 percent in the 1960s
to 14 percent in the 2010s, while the votes for “populist left” parties went from 3 percent to
13 percent in the same period (Inglehart & Norris, 2016). The rise of populism might be a
dangerous development since it politicizes science and tends to give simple answers to
complex questions, but on the other hand, it can also help us focus and highlight important
issues and illuminate the complex relationship between science and democracy (Davies,
2020). A report published by Stanford University shows that populism poses three major
threats to democracies around the world. These three threats are that populism threats to
undermine formal institutions, exclude vulnerable groups and minorities, and erode the
informal norms of democracy (Grzymala-Busse, Kuo, Fukuyama & McFaul, 2020). Since
populism is such an important and established phenomenon in the global political arena we
must study it to truly fathom its effects and consequences, especially as a means of
communication. Although it is easy to see the connection between populism and politics,
some scholars such as Aalberg, de Vreese, Esser, Reinemann and Stanyer (2018), define
populism as a communications phenomenon, meaning that communication is at the very heart
of populism. Communication needs to be considered in relation to populism since the
intermediation of the populistic message exists in the realms of communication. We must
therefore study communication at the levels of political actors, social movements, the media,
and the citizens (Aalberg et al, 2018).
In the latest decades, green ideology has risen to be one of the most debated and important
ideologies on the contemporary political agenda. We can see this in the creation of the United
Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, more environmental-friendly parties getting
seats in the European Parliament, new international agreements like the Paris Agreement, and
new established environmental movements like Extinction Rebellion. Extinction Rebellion is
a global environmental movement created in 2018, who aims to stop mass extinction and
avoid ecological and social collapse (Extinction Rebellion, 2020). The movement has gained
media attention through its non-violent direct actions and has received backing from scholars
and academics (The Guardian, 2018). But how are they organized and what type of movement
1can we define them as? New social movement theories suggest that new social movements are
horizontally organized, relies on symbolic and collective action, and tend to focus on non-
materialistic issues rather than materialistic things such as resources and money. Extinction
Rebellion has its roots in green ideology which is a political ideology mainly focusing on the
climate crisis as well as preservation and conservation of nature and natural resources
(Heywood, 2017). Green ideology and environmental questions are complex matters while
populism tends to give simple answers and solutions to complex issues. The potential
combination of these two terms should therefore be studied further. Recent studies (Davies,
2020) show that we in fact today have a new concept called green populism - a combination
of green ideology and populism. It is important to understand what green populism is and how
we can identify it in the contemporary discourse. The current research of green populism is
limited since the concept of green populism emerged so recently and should therefore be
studied further.
To gain a better understanding of what new social movements are and how they
communicate, Extinction Rebellion’s official Instagram-account will be examined. The
analysis will focus on characteristics for new social movements as well as elements of green
populism. The new concept of green populism will be tested in order to analyze the discourse.
Instead of just focusing on green populism, this thesis also analyze what type of social
movement Extinction Rebellion can be considered as. Since this study examine if green
populism is visible in a social movement’s discourse, it is also needed to have theories that
explain what a social movement is. It is important to examine social movement both from the
organization and mobilization perspective, but also at its communicative processes such as the
logic of connective action (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012) and what type of medium they use to
communicate.
1.2 Connection to Sustainable Communication
This master thesis is within the field of media and communication studies, with a special
focus on global sustainability. Sustainability can be divided into three different dimensions:
social, ecological and economic. Social sustainability refers to aspects such as human rights,
working environment, healthcare and equality. The ecological dimension of sustainability
focus on issues regarding the environment and the climate such as preservation of nature and
ecological systems, global warming, over-population and so on. The dimension of economic
sustainability refers to issues regarding financial questions such as the formation of economic
2systems that can sustain the life and prosperity of human lives and nature, without neglecting
other aspects of sustainability such as environmental or societal issues (Hedenus, Persson &
Sprei, 2018).
Firstly, this thesis is connected to the studies of media and communication since it studies a
new type of populism, called green populism. As mentioned earlier, populism needs to be
considered in relation to populism since the intermediation of the populistic message exists
within the realms of communication (Aalberg et al, 2018). This is reinforced since this study
examines the communicative processes of a social movement. The media aspect is that the
selected material of this thesis comes from Instagram which is a social media. For the
sustainability aspect, this thesis mostly focus on ecological and social sustainability.
Ecological because it studies green ideology and how discourses are formed in relation to
green populism. Social because it studies how social movements are organized but mostly
how they communicate.
2. Aim and research questions
2.1 Aim
This thesis aim to broaden the understanding of how green populism is used by Extinction
Rebellion who is one of the largest global environmental movements in the world.
2.2 Research question
1. What characterizes Extinction Rebellion as a new social movement?
2. What elements of green populism, if any, are visible in Extinction Rebellion’s
discourse?
3. Background
This chapter aim to give the reader an extended overview of Extinction Rebellion as a social
movement and to give the reader an understanding of what they do and what their aims are.
3.1 Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement founded in 2018 in the UK. The
movement aims to stop mass extinction and avoid social and ecological collapse (Extinction
Rebellion, 2020). The movement often talks about tipping points in the climate system that
can potentially become points of no return when we can no longer reverse the effects
humanity has on the ecological environment. The movement has gained a lot of attention in
3the latter years and has strong support from academics and scholars. In 2018, 94 academics
signed a declaration where they declared their support for Extinction Rebellion (The
Guardian, 2018).
Extinction Rebellion has three main demands, and within these demands there are more
specific objectives and goals. The three demands are “tell the truth”, “act now” and “go
beyond politics”. Tell the truth means that governments should tell the truth about the climate
by declaring a climate and ecological emergency. Act now means that governments must act
now to stop the climate crisis and halt biodiversity loss to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to
net-zero by 2025. Go beyond politics means that government should give more power to their
citizens through creating citizens’ assemblies and act on their recommendations. Other
examples of Extinction Rebellion’s objectives are to mobilize 3.5% of the population to
achieve system change and to create a world that is fit for the next seven generations to live in
(Extinction Rebellion, 2020).
Extinction Rebellion is a decentralized, loosely networked movement, meaning there is no
chain of command. An example of this is that anyone who follows the principles and demands
of Extinction Rebellion, can claim that they are doing it in the name of the movement Kobie,
2019). Extinction Rebellion uses non-violent direct action to protest. Non-violent direct
actions can be both active and passive. An example of an active non-violent direct action is to
create road blockades to stop traffic while a passive approach could be to boycott a certain
product (Thöresson, 2020).
4. Research review
This chapter accounts for the important previous research conducted in the areas of this thesis.
All the research in this chapter relates to, or explains, previous research in fields of study as
well as concepts such as global activism, populism, green ideology, and green populism to
give the reader an overview of the relevancy of the previous research. The research review
concludes that a research gap exists on how the environmental discourse of important actors
in the political and environmental arena is constructed in relation to green populism.
4.1 Global activism and the logic of connective action
Global activism is a field of study which studies how activism influences people, politics, and
media in fundamental global issues such as the environment, gender equality, animal rights,
4and so forth (Jong, Shaw & Stammers, 2005). Jong et al (2005) states that world politics was,
and still is, saturated by large violent conflicts especially in the first decade of the 21st
century, with September 11 as a catalyst. But behind and around these conflicts, other actors
are operating. Today, more peaceful forms of social and political activism are at work in all
regions of the world. This type of activism is fueled by a vision of change and contest both
local and global power structures and offers alternatives to the current decision-makers. Jong
et al (2005) also states that since the start of the 21st century, politics and communication are
no longer two different subjects, but politics is communication. Politicians making a
statement, workers going on strike, or people going out in the streets for peaceful protests are
all examples of ways of communication.
With the rise of the internet and the development of the global mediascape, new types of
activism such as networked activism saw their first light (Bennett, 2003). The internet and
social media let people and activists all around the globe connect, discuss, and mobilize
important global issues. Social media has given the people an opportunity to also circumvent
traditionally state-controlled media in oppressive countries and communicate directly with the
outside world (Tufekci, 2017). The networked activism can facilitate campaigns, the growth
of big networks and transform individual member organizations to a collective identity
(Bennett, 2003).
Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg (2012) studies networked activism and explains it
through the logic of connective action. Connective action is built on the principles of
collective action, but is different since connective action involves increased individualization
without the need for a collective identity (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). Digital media such as
social media is viewed as organizing agents, used by the activists to facilitate and organize
action. For example, sharing personal content on social media in a networked way is an
individualized form of political expression. People who connect and network around political
issues on social media does not necessarily need to have collective ideas in common, since the
political actions are individual and personal (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). In other words,
connective action is when activists take action together, connected, through digital media,
with or without a collective identity (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). Collective action on the
other hand, is when activists take action based on a collective identity.
54.1.1 #MeToo, Networked Acknowledgement, and Connective Action: How
“Empowerment Through Empathy” Launched a Social Movement
Suk, Abhishek, Zhang, Ahn, Correa, Garlough and Shah (2021) has studied the movement of
#MeToo with the logic of connective action, where people shared their personal experience of
trauma on social media, creating connective action. The study analyzes a 1% sample of tweets
from the 5-month period following the accusations of Harvey Weinstein in early October
2017. The authors uses natural language processing and dependency analysis to conduct the
study. The study concludes that people from different cultures and backgrounds were able to
build a sense of shared experience and identity with the testimonies of their traumas. The
connective action was built on personal experiences which transformed to collective action.
4.2 Populism as a means of communication
The concept of populism is a relatively modern term that can be related to the spread of
democracy during the 19th century (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017). Populism is commonly
referred to as a simplified approach to politics that is built around a basic set of assumptions
about the world, in other words: populistic ideas tend to give rather simplified answers to
complex questions (Canovan, 1981).
Aalberg, de Vreese, Esser, Reinemann and Stanyer (2018) define populism as a
communication phenomenon, meaning that the intermediation of the message is at the very
heart of populism. Communication needs to be considered in relation to populism since the
intermediation of the populistic message exists in the realms of communication. It is therefore
crucial to study communication at the levels of political actors and parties, the media, and the
citizens. The means of communicating the populist ideas are as important as the populist ideas
themselves (Aalberg et al, 2018). The aim of Aalberg et al’s study is to push research agendas
about populism to a more systematic and interactive approach but in particular a comparative
approach. Aalberg et al (2018) use a theoretical comparative approach to the study of populist
political communication to unfold new perspectives. Aalberg et al motivate their choice of
method by stating that populism and its broad appeal cannot be fully understood if not studied
comparatively. The authors state in their conclusion that the communicative aspects can only
be studied through a comparative approach since it can explain and reveal differences
between countries and cultures (Aalberg et al, 2018). Further, they also conclude the
following:
6“…not only including but focusing on the communicative aspects of populism will
help us to better understand one of the hallmarks of contemporary politics” (Aalberg
et al, 2018, p. 431).
Aalberg et al (2018) also conclude that further research should not only view media as a
platform for transmitting messages and populist ideas. In other words, we should not
view populist ideas through the media, but also by the media.
4.3 Are liberal states greener? Political ideology and CO2 emissions in American
states, 1980-2012
While some researchers such as Heywood (2017) and Dobson (2000) mean that green
ideology is a political ideology, Smith and Connelly (2012) states that green ideology not
necessarily is an ideology by itself. It can also be expressed through various traditions of
political thoughts. It may in fact be more of critical thinking towards existing political
thoughts and traditions than an independent political ideology (Smith & Connelly, 2012).
Gokkir and Barkin (2019) did a study on panel data from American states to investigate if the
levels of C02 emissions per capita across states in the USA differ between states that are
considered liberal versus other states. The findings of their study suggests that states with
more liberal citizen ideology emit less C02. Further the study concludes that the popular
perception of the climate change is that it is connected to ideological alignment. Instead, it
should be seen as an American matter. The authors therefore suggest that a change in the
popular perception on environmental questions should change from an ideological matter to
an American matter to further decrease the C02 emissions.
4.4 The emerging concept of green populism
Green populism is a new and fairly unexplored concept as an academic field. One can briefly
describe green populism as a combination between populism and green ideology. Kaltwasser
and Mudde state that populism needs an ideology as a “host” (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017),
which in this case is green ideology. Ariana Carvalho (2020) has in her thesis examined what
elements green populism consists of. Carvalho’s research question is “What elements of green
populism, if any, are present in Greta Thunberg’s discourse?” (Carvalho, 2020, p. 4).
Carvalho’s study aims to test Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism in order to create
a new subclass of populism (Carvalho, 2020). To do this, Carvalho has used a qualitative
7content analysis to reduce redundant data and to create a systematic analysis. The analyzed
material consisted of six public speeches by environmental activist Greta Thunberg. The
theory in Carvalho’s study is based on Mudde’s ideational approach to populism in
combination with theories regarding green ideology. The result of Carvalho’s study is that
Greta Thunberg can be considered a populist actor that uses green ideology and populism to
convey her message (Carvalho, 2020).
Another scholar who has been studying green populism is Will Davies. Davies’ paper aims to
illuminate green populism from a viewpoint that the distance between science and politics has
become smaller (Davies, 2020). The paper uses Arendt’s analysis of the tension between
science and politics in order to consider how the relationship between science and politics
could be re-imagined in a time when environmental questions are high on the political
agenda. In his paper, Davies concludes that people and politicians are politicizing science,
concluding that three different types of movements are shrinking the distance between science
and politics. The first movement is social movements which are the mobilizations of physical
people. This means it is more important that the people are physically present themselves,
rather than the people being just represented. The second movements are affective movements
which are built upon emotions. This means that emotions are playing a crucial part in
shrinking the distance between science and politics. The third movement is called the slow
movement in the physical world. This can in a simple way be explained as tracking what is
lost, such as finite resources and extinct species, or what might be lost in the future (Davies,
2020).
4.5 Extinction Rebellion and Non-violent direct action
Thöresson has in her study examined non-violent direct action used by Extinction Rebellion
intending to analyze its discourse. To do so, Thöresson (2020) has used critical discourse
analysis as a theory and method. Using critical discourse analysis lets the author examine
textual features as well as discourse and social practices. Thöresson concludes that the manner
Extinction Rebellion applies non-violent direct action creates tension between the movement
and certain audiences since the action is exclusionary in its nature and that it reinforces power
structures in society (Thöresson, 2020).
85. Theoretical framework
5.1 Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism
The term populism has been contested and debated for many years, with different scholars
explaining and interpreting the term differently. Defined by the previous research presented
earlier in the thesis, populistic ideas tend to give rather simplified answers to complex
questions (Canovan, 1981; Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017; Valberg et al, 2018). One of the most
adopted and common approaches to populism is Cas Mudde’s ideational approach. Mudde
studies populism with three core aspects where the first two core aspects are based on a
Manichean antagonism between “the People” and “The Elite”. Manichaeism is a religion
and/or a philosophy that breaks everything down to good or evil. The first core aspect is that it
is thin-centered and can therefore not be studied on its own since it is always connected with a
certain ideology. In other words, populism needs an ideology as a host. Ideology is where the
ideas come from, but populism is used to convey the message (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017).
Thin-centered is also connected with the societal division of two antagonistic groups, which is
also the second core aspect. On one side, the pure people who are the agents of “common
sense”, and on the other side, the corrupt elite, consisting of politicians and other people of
power, or in other words, the political establishment (Mudde, 2004). This antagonism can
sometimes be based on aspects such as nationality, socioeconomic situation, class, and
economic power, but it is commonly based on morality differences where the people are the
“good” and the elite are the “evil” (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017, p. 9). The third core aspect of
populism is the expression of the general will. The general will belongs to the people with
“the common sense” and is used to unite the people (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017). The people
who do not agree with the general will are commonly viewed upon as part of the elite
(Mudde, 2004).
Although some scholars such as Grzymala-Busse, Kuo, Fukuyama & McFaul (2020) view
populism as a threat to democracy, Mudde views populism as a sign of liberty, giving voices
to groups who normally are not listened to in the society (Mudde, 2004).
Cas Mudde’s ideational approach has laid the foundation for other scholars to develop the
theory. Two of the most known developments of the ideational approach are Paris Aslanidis
(2018) and Kirk Hawkins (2009). Aslanidis development of Mudde’s approach focuses more
on reach and extent rather than on classification, meaning Aslanidis approach expands the
9scope of populism studies, focusing on grassroots mobilization and political parties
(Aslanidis, 2018). Aslanidis also refers to populism as a strategic frame. Hawkins’ (2009)
development of Mudde’s approach focusing on populism as a discourse. Instead of focusing
on the antagonism between the elite and the people and different ideologies, Hawkins focuses
on ideas shaped by culture (Hawkins, 2009). This means Hawkins does not focus only on
ideologies such as liberalism or socialism, but focuses on the combination of ideology and
rhetoric (Hawkins, 2009).
5.2 Dobson’s approach to green ideology
Green ideology can be seen as an evolution from ecology as a philosophical concept to a
modern political ideology (Heywood, 2017). The origins of the term “green” in relation to
political ideas derive from preservation and conservation movements, often regarding
forestry, in the 19th century. The growth of the term has changed and developed through the
years but became more established by the advance of urbanization and industrialization in the
20th century. During the 20th century, more and more movements and organizations started to
label themselves as green or eco-friendly and today we can see that green or environmental
questions are high on the political agenda in many industrialized countries (Heywood, 2017).
Some scholars, such as Connelly and Smith (1999), argue that there is no such thing as a
green ideology, but a green political thought. With this Connelly and Smith (1999) means that
green political thought is a type of critical thinking towards contemporary politics. But
Andrew Dobson (2000) contradicts these claims. According to Dobson (2000), green
ideology or ecology is in fact an ideology, since it urges changes in society, contemporary
politics, and in people’s habits and practices. Dobson also argues that modern green ideology
is based on the idea that there are natural limits to economic growth, meaning that the Earth
has finite resources and limited capacity to absorb pollution and carry population. To control
these limits, we need to change, therefore, green ideology should be seen as an ideology
(Dobson, 2000).
Green ideology must according to Dobson (2000) be studied through a maximalist approach
(i.e. deep ecology) in order to fully fathom the complexities. The maximalist approach refers
to the green ideologists who define ecologism after a strict set of principles and make claims
that humanity should help sustain nature and not the other way around. The focus should be
on nature and not on humans since we are not a superior species in relation to other species or
10nature as a whole. Examples of deep ecology are anti-growth, animal rights, and ecocentrism
(Dobson, 2000).
The minimalist approach (i.e. shallow ecology) refers to the green ideologists who define the
term less strict and more “shallow”, meaning they have an anthropocentric view which means
if humans care for the natural world, the natural world will continue to sustain human life.
Examples of shallow ecology are sustainable growth, animal welfare, and environmentalism.
Both the maximalists and minimalists are however sprung out of the environmental
degradation but adopt different strategies when taking action (Dobson, 2000).
5.3 Green populism
Green populism is a fairly new concept and has its roots in Cas Mudde’s ideational approach
to populism and Andrew Dobson’s approach to green ideology. In order to understand what
green populism is and what elements it consists of, we must highlight the connections
between populism and green ideology.
Green ideology
Populism - The relationship between
- Society is divided in two society and nature is based
antagonistic groups: "The on ecological principles.
People" and "the Elite". The - Nature is connected to
division is based on everything.
morality. Green - Unconventional means of
- Victimizing "the People" Populism emancipation might be
and blaming the antagonist. encouraged.
- Expression of the general - Anti-consumerism and
will, i.e. the will of "the anti-materialism
people". - Recognizing that Earth has
(Mudde, 2004) finite resources.
(Dobson, 2000)
Figure 1 – Venn diagram of the relationship between populism and green ideology.
Figure 1 shows where populism and green ideology meet and create a new type of populism,
i.e. green populism. This figure is created by the author of this thesis and is based on the
11theoretical framework with Mudde’s ideational approach to populism and Dobson’s approach
to green ideology.
Based on Mudde’s ideational approach to populism and Dobson’s approach to green ideology
and the relationship between those, the following elements could be defined within green
populism: Ecological Crisis of Cosmic Proportion, Victimizing “the people”, Identifying
and/or blaming the antagonist, Green action, Scientific evidencing, and Intergenerational
Justice. The six elements are described below.
Ecological Crisis of Cosmic Proportion is the presumption that the ecological crisis threatens
the natural world and all human life and therefore takes cosmic proportions. Victimizing “the
People” and Identifying and/or blaming the antagonist both have their roots in populism
where two antagonizing groups of society are put against each other (Mudde, 2004). In
relation to green populism, this means that the people are the group that is suffering from
ecological degradation, while the antagonist (the “Elite”, according to Mudde) is the group
that is working against them and is therefore blamed for the crisis. We can also see other
aspects of green ideology in these two elements, where expression of the general will is
visible. The general will belongs to the people and is used to unite everyone against the
antagonist, even the people who are unaware of the extent of the ecological crisis (Dobson,
2000). The next element of green populism is green action. Green action is built around the
presumption that the ecological crisis is at extreme levels, and the people need to take
unconventional and crucial action to change society in its foundations. The more severe the
crisis gets, the more radical action is needed. This is based on Dobson’s approach to green
ideology where the so called “deep ecology” is needed to stop the crisis (Dobson, 2000). The
fifth element – scientific evidencing, means that one should trust science and that green
ideology is founded on scientific facts. This element is crucial since it solidifies and
legitimizes the expression of the general will (Mudde, 2004). The sixth and last element is
intergenerational justice. This element is based on the rights of future generations which can
be found in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (World Commission on Environment
and Development, 1987). Intergenerational justice is in other words about the importance of
living sustainably, making it possible for future generations to survive as well. This can be
found in Dobson’s approach to green ideology where he states that deep ecology is needed
because humanity should help sustain the nature (Dobson, 2000).
12Ecological crisis
of cosmic
proportion
Manichean vision Victimizing "the
of the world People"
Identifying
Populism and/or blaming
the antagonist
Green populism
Green action
Green ideology
Expression of the Scientific
general will evidencing
Intergenerational
justice
Figure 2 – Analytical model for green populism.
Figure 2 is created by the author of this thesis to show the different elements of green
populism, based on the theoretical framework.
5.4 Social movements
A social movement can be spontaneous or planned, since it is a loosely organized campaign
by a group of people to achieve a certain goal, such as societal and/or political change. A
social movement is not defined by its size or number of people, but they are collective (Scott
& Marshall, 2015). Alberto Melucci (2009) discusses this collective and disregards the notion
that movements are sprung out of historical situations or as an outcome of a particular event
such as an economic crisis. Instead, Melucci claims that collective action is related to
something other than itself; it does not even exist. With this Melucci means that only a theory
on collective action can explain certain phenomenon’s within social movements, and only a
theory on collective action can provide a basis when analyzing social movements (Melucci,
2009). If one is to analyze social movements, one have to start from a theory that can account
13for the particularity and self-government of social action which can give an explanation or
authority to its collective character (Melucci, 2009). So, what is collective action? Melucci
brings up a number of attributes that should characterize the study of collective action. Firstly,
collective action must be analyzed in relation to the structural field of relationships within the
movement that constitutes the action itself. Secondly, one must take the social conflicts into
consideration and understand that some social conflicts are of an antagonistic nature (i.e.
opposing groups). Thirdly, collective action should not be seen as an irrational action by an
irrational group of people, or so-called crowd psychology. Instead, collective action should be
seen as logical actions with certain decision-making processes, goal-setting, relational
structures, etc. Fourth and lastly, based on resource mobilization theory, collective action is
not created by individuals, but is created as an outcome of complex processes regarding
relationships, interactions and a sense of belonging (Melucci, 2009).
Scholars have developed various theories on social movements such as how social
movements influence politics or how social movements help form political parties. However,
this study will apply the theory to new social movements.
5.5 New social movements theory
New social movements is a term to describe the new type of social movements that emerged
in the post-war period, from the mid-1960s and forward, mainly in western countries. These
movements are called “new” since they are different from the traditional term which describes
social movements. The primary difference is that instead of focusing mainly on economic
concerns, the new social movements focus on non-material issues regarding for example
human rights, animal rights, identity, and culture (Laclau & Mouffe, 2001). Håkan Thörn
(1996) claims that the reason these types of movements were created was that people have
been dissatisfied with something. This dissatisfaction led to a collective identity within these
movements, working together for societal change or political decision-making (Thörn, 1996).
The focus of the new social movements is to create social mobilization through a
transformation of identities, cultural innovations, and development of new lifestyles and is
therefore primarily social and cultural, and secondarily political, if at all (Scott, 1990). To
explain this further, new social movements arise in the sphere of reproduction and the “life
world” where the needs for survival and reproduction are in focus (Melucci, 1980). New
social movements reject the capitalistic idea that happiness is linked with consumerism,
growth, and productivity and give alternative values and understandings, for example the
14environmental movements that have given alternatives to how we consider the relationship
between nature, society, and economy (Melucci, 1980).
Two of the founders of new social movement theories are Manuel Castells and Alain
Touraine. Castells (1983) claims that capitalism has pushed so-called “elites” to dominate
political power, consumption, and commodities while social movements demand other forms
of collective consumption and need to influence state policies if they want to achieve their
goals. Conflicts of interest such as this have transformed urban spaces into arenas of
conflicting interests and values (Castells, 1983). But the world and the society have changed
since Castells started researching new social movements. Today, he talks about a globalized
world with global movements and discusses who holds the power and especially – who holds
the communication power. Castells claims that one might think that the big multimedia
networks hold the power, but in fact, is it their programmers (Castells, 2009). The decisions
and instructions of the corporations, creators and/or programmers are where the actual power
is. Those in charge in different communication networks such as social media are the
gatekeepers and get to decide what, when and how messages are conveyed. The agenda-
setting is not created by the people (i.e. you and me) using the network, but by the
organization that owns and operates the network (Castells, 2009).
Alain Touraine also acknowledges the political perspective on new social movements but
claims that every type of society has a central conflict, and in postindustrial societies, the
central conflict is the presumption that the state has control of so-called societal self-
production (Touraine, 1981). In the post-industrial era, the knowledge and technology on self-
production of society are rising, so the central conflict is about who controls that capacity
(Touraine, 1981).
Although many scholars view the new social movements as a theory, Steven Buechler (1995)
argues that there is no single social movement theory, but a set of new social movement
theories. According to Buechler, the theory on new social movements can be applied in
different ways depending on the research aim. However, Buechler does argue that all the
types of new social movement theories have some common characteristics. The first
characteristic is that symbolic actions in the civil society and instrumental actions in the
political sphere are vital arenas for collective action. With symbolic action Buechler refers to
the actions that are important but has little actual political effect. Secondly, Buechler states
15that new social movements promote self-autonomy and self-determination rather than trying
to gain power and authority through mobilization. The third characteristic is that new social
movements focus on non-materialistic values rather than money or resources. The fourth
characteristic is that new social movements view ideology as socially constructed rather than
something that stems from a group’s structural location. The fifth characteristic is that new
social movement theories tend to complexify and problematize the construction of collective
identities and the identification of a group’s interests. The sixth and last characteristic by
Buechler is that the theories on new social movements claim that centrally controlled
organizations are not needed to successfully mobilize action, but rather that a collection of
different networks is needed to create collective action (Buechler, 1995).
In this thesis, the new social movement theory will be used to understand how Extinction
Rebellion is organized and functions. To do this, four main aspects characterizing new social
movements from Buechler’s set of theories will be examined. These four aspects are:
- New social movements focus on non-material issues such as human rights, animal
rights, and gender instead of gaining economical and/or material resources.
- New social movements tend to emphasize different protest tactics and other
unconventional means of political participation.
- New social movements often have a horizontal organization, relying on collective
action.
- New social movements often use symbolic action since the goal is not to gain
political power, but to create change.
The four aspects above are crucial to this study since it helps explain how Extinction
Rebellion communicate and function and if this have any connections with the concept of
green populism.
5.5.1 Criticism of new social movements theory
There is some criticism of the new social movements theory. Pichardo argues that movements
concerned with non-materialistic issues existed before the post-industrial period and that there
are too few unique characteristics with new social movements compared to the traditional
movements. Pichardo also claims that the research on new social movements focuses on left-
wing movements and not right-wing movements (Pichardo, 1997). However, our society is
constantly changing and developing, therefore new theories are important to understand new
phenomenon. The older traditional theories on social movements might not be applicable to
16the same extent now and in the future and we must therefore test and develop new theories.
Even though many of the characteristics between social movements and new social
movements might be similar, it is important to further study this area to understand what the
defining differences are.
6. Methods
6.1 Qualitative text analysis
To answer the research questions in this thesis, a qualitative text analysis will be conducted.
A qualitative text analysis is characterized by gathering and interpret information about the
subject while searching for a deeper understanding of the social reality in which the subject
exists (Bryman, 2016). The text analysis can be divided into two classes – systematizing and
critically examining (Esaiasson, Gilljam, Oscarsson, Towns & Wängnerud, 2017). Through
systematizing, we can highlight the most important and relevant aspects of the text by
logically categorizing it. Systematizing is good to structure the texts and find out their
meaning in a clear and understandable way (Esaiasson et al, 2017). Schreier (2012) claims
that a qualitative text analysis focuses on certain selected aspects of the material. The aspects
in focus are determined by the aim and research questions (Schreier, 2012).
6.1.1 Motivation for selection of method
A qualitative text analysis was selected because it only focuses on the selected aspects of
Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram account, which in this case is green populism and new
social movement theory. It is also effective since it separates and discards redundant data such
as information that does not necessarily concern green populism or new social movement
theory (Schreier, 2012).
6.2 Material
The selected material will consist of captions for eight Instagram posts from Extinction
Rebellion’s official Instagram account @extinctionrebellion. Extinction Rebellion has various
social media accounts and websites for the different countries they operate in, but since
populism and green ideology are global phenomena it is most appropriate to analyze the
global account. The Instagram account has been chosen because it is used by the movement to
spread its message, show its work, and recruit new members. Because of this, Extinction
Rebellion’s Instagram account is a vital part of Extinction Rebellion’s communication. Other
17social media networks, for example Facebook, has been disregarded since they use Facebook
for posting videos of protests rather than textual material.
Post # Subject Date posted
Post 1 (Extinction “Nature needs justice” 12th of January
Rebellion, 2021a).
Post 2 (Extinction “Will you be part of the 22nd of January
Rebellion, 2021b). largest protest in human
history?”
Post 3 (Extinction “We’re cooked with gas” 10th of February 2021
Rebellion, 2021c).
Post 4 (Extinction “Climate chaos is killing us” 5th of March 2021
Rebellion, 2021d).
Post 5 (Extinction “Make ecocide an 15th of March 2021
Rebellion, 2021e). international crime”
Post 6 (Extinction “We refuse to be the last 30th of March 2021
Rebellion, 2021f). generation”
Post 7 (Extinction “Solidarity with Amazonia 14th of April 2021
Rebellion, 2021g). & its guardians”
Post 8 (Extinction “Free the truth” 24th of April 2021
Rebellion, 2021h).
Table 1 – Overview of analyzed material
6.2.1 Motivation for selection of material
Instagram is a social media based on photos and videos with associated captions. In January
2021 Instagram was the third most used social media network in the world (Statista, 2021),
except chat networks such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Facebook and YouTube
was the only two social networks more used than Instagram. This study will not examine
Extinction Rebellion’s Facebook or YouTube since they use it to post videos of protests rather
than informative text. The first requirement for the selection of material is that the selected
material from Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram account should be posted in the first four
months of 2021. It was chosen to represent the contemporary discourse on Extinction
Rebellion’s social media. The second requirement is that the captions of the posts should be
written in English. The majority of the posts on Extinction Rebellion’s official Instagram-
18account are in English but some are written in other languages such as Spanish, Dutch and/or
German. Considering that the language of this thesis is English and since the author of this
thesis only understands English and Swedish, the captions of the posts had to be written in
English. The third requirement is that the caption of the post had to contain at least 100 words
in order to get enough text to analyze. The fourth and final requirement is relevancy. Video-
posts of protests or short messages to sign up for petitions was dismissed due to lack of
relevancy to the research questions.
6.3 Operationalization
To answer the research question “How is the environmental discourse constructed in relation
to green populism?” a coding frame has been constructed. The coding frame is constructed
based on concepts from the theoretical framework of this thesis – Cas Mudde’s approach to
populism and Dobson’s approach to green ideology. The categories of the coding frame are
divided into themes based on the analysis which are the ecological crisis of cosmic
proportion, victimizing “the people”, identifying and/or blaming the antagonist, green action,
scientific evidencing, and intergenerational justice. Each category is further explained under
the definition in the coding frame and indicators are exemplified to facilitate the analysis
(Drisko & Maschi, 2015).
To facilitate the analysis, the material has been divided into coding units, where each
Instagram post constitutes one coding unit. The coding frame is based on Cas Mudde’s
ideational approach to populism (Mudde, 2004) and Andrew Dobson’s approach to green
ideology (Dobson, 2000) as explained in the theory chapter.
6.3.1 Coding frame
Category Definition Indicators
Ecological crisis of cosmic The ecological crisis threatens • References to the
proportion the natural world and all ecological
human life. The people are the emergency/crisis.
victims of the crisis and are • References to death
suffering. and destruction.
• Claims that the crisis
takes infinite
proportions and affects
all people.
Victimizing “the People” A division of society into two • References to people’s
antagonistic groups. “The suffering.
people” are morally right and • References to
“the antagonist” are morally characteristics such as
19wrong. People are suffering “abandoned”,
from the crisis but are not “exploited, and
aware of its proportion. “innocent”.
Identifying and/or blaming the A division of society into two • References to “the
antagonist antagonistic groups. “The antagonist’s”
people” are morally right and consumerism and
“the antagonist” are morally materialistic way of
wrong. “The antagonist” are living.
exploiting Earth’s resources • Signs that points
and think of themselves as a toward that the
superior species. They are not antagonist is working
listening to the people and are against the interests of
to blame for the ecological the people.
crisis. • References to
characteristics such as
“guilty”, “corrupt” and
“exploiting”.
Green action The actions taken to progress • References to the
towards to a more sustainable collective will of “the
world. A demand of a People”.
progressive transformation of • References to
society. Unconventional systematic change.
actions are encouraged to • References to “take
create change in society and action”.
politics. The more severe the • References to the
crisis gets, the more radical encouragement of
actions are needed. radical action and
unconventional means
of emancipation.
Scientific evidencing The will of the people is • References to scientific
grounded on scientific facts. facts and documents.
Gives legitimacy to the
expression of the general will.
Intergenerational Justice All generations are of equal • References to the
importance and it is up to the rights and justice for
society to assure a fair future generations.
distribution of resources among • References to the fair
current and future generations. distribution of
resources.
Table 2 – Coding frame. Based on previously explained theories of Cas Mudde (2004) and
Andrew Dobson (2000).
6.4 Limitations
To clarify what type of conclusions we can make from the method and material, we need to
clarify the limitations of this thesis. Since the material is gathered from a single social media,
we need to understand that we can’t make generalizations and draw to big conclusions from
that. Social media accounts are not representative of the movement as a whole. However, we
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