Emotions in Inter-Action in Environmental Resistances. The case of Comité Salvabosque in Mexico


Abstract


The article analyzes the role of emotions in the experience of a grassroots Mexican group, that is defending an urban forest threated by residential developments. The resistance of this group, started in 2005, is marked by significant place attachment, which has been nurtured and enhanced all along the struggle. The aim of the article is to understand how place attachment is strengthened in urban contexts and why it is a core affective bond for defending the territory. Our hypothesis is that it is a dynamic and mobilizing bond, and its relevance resides in the emotions it generates, which in turn have different effects on the protest. In order to confirm our hypothesis we have analyzed the emotional dimension of the resistances in defense of the forest, through in-depth interviews. The analysis will specifically focus on emotions that strengthen and go together with place attachment.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v10i3p896

Keywords: Environmental conflicts; emotions and protest; grassroots resistance; urban forest

References


Adams J. (2003), “The Bitter End: Emotions at a Movement’s Conclusion”, Sociological Inquiry, 73: 84–113.

Agnew, J. A. (2014), “The devaluation of place in social science”, in Agnew, J. A. and J. S. Duncan (eds.), The power of place. Bringing together geographical and sociological imag-inations,London and New York: Routledge, pp. 9-29.

Bayard de Volo L. (2006), “The Dynamics of Emotion and Activism: Grief, Gender, and Col-lective Identity in Revolutionary Nicaragua”, Mobilization, 11(4): 461-474.

Benski T. (2005), “Breaching Events and the Emotional Reactions of the Public: Women in Black in Israel”, in H. Flam and D. King (eds.), Emotions and Social Movement, London: Routledge, pp. 57–78.

Benski T. (2011), “Emotion Maps of Participation in Protest: the Case of Women in Black against the Occupation in Israel”, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, 31: 3–34.

Bonds E. (2009), “Strategic Role Taking and Political Struggle: Bearing Witness to the Iraq War”, Symbolic Interaction, 32(1): 1–20.

Carrus G., M. Scopelliti, F. Fornara, M. Bonnes, and M. Bonaiuto (2014), “Place Attachment, Community Identification, and Pro-Environmental Engagement”, in L. C. Manzo and P. Devine-Wright, Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods and Applications, Oxon: Rutledge, 154-164.

Cadena-Roa J. (2002), “Strategic Framing, Emotions, and SUPERBARIO – Mexico City’s Masked Crusader”, Mobilization, 7(2): 201–16.

CEDMA (2015), Informe sobre la situación de las personas defensoras de los derechos huma-nos ambientales en México 2015, Mexico City: Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental.

CEDMA (2017), Informe sobre la situación de las personas defensoras de los derechos huma-nos ambientales en México 2016, Mexico City: Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental.

della Porta D. (1995), Social Movements, Political Violence and the State: a Comparative Analysis of Italy and Germany, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

della Porta D. and M. Giugni (2013), “Emotions in Movement”, in D.

della Porta and D. Rucht (eds.), Meeting democracy: power and deliberation in global justice movements, Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 123-151.

Devine-Wright P. (2009), “Rethinking NIMBYism: The Role of Place Attachment and Place Identity in Explaining Place-protective Action”, Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 19: 426–441. doi: 10.1002/casp.1004

Devine-Wright P. (2011), “Place Attachment and Public Acceptance of Renewable Energy: A Tidal Energy Case Study”, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 31: 336-343.

Devine-Wright P. (2014), “Dynamics of Place Attachment in a Climate Changed World”, in L. C. Manzo and P. Devine-Wright (eds.), Place Attachment. Advances in Theories, Methods and Applications, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 165-177.

Dunn J. L. (2004), “The Politics of Empathy: Social Movements and Victim Repertoires”, Sociological Focus, 37(3): 235–250.

Erickson Nepstad S. and C. Smith (2001), “The Social Structure of Moral Outrage in Recruit-ment to the U.S. Central America Peace Movement”, in J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper, and F. Polletta (eds.), Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 158-174.

Escobar, A. (2001), “Culture sits in places: reflections on globalism and subaltern strategies of localization”, Political Geography, 20: 139–174. doi:10.1016/S0962-6298(00)00064-0

Escobar, A. (2010), Territorios de diferencia: Lugar, movimientos, vida, redes, Bogotá: En-vión Editores.

Fedi A. and T. Mannarini (2008), Oltre il NIMBY. La dimensione psico-sociale della protesta contro le opere sgradite, Milano: Franco Angeli Editore.

Flam H. (2000), The Emotional ‘Man’ and the Problem of Collective Action, Berlin: Peter Lang.

Flam H. (2005), “Emotion’s Map: a Research Agenda”, in H. Flam and D. King, Emotions and Social Movement, London: Routledge, pp. 19-40.

Flam H. (2010), “Emotion, and the Silenced and Short-circuited Self”, in M. S. Archer, Con-versations About Reflexivity, London: Routledge, pp. 187–205.

Flam H. (2015), “Micromobilization and Emotions”, in D. della Porta and M. Diani, The Ox-ford Handbook of Social Movements, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 264-276.

Giuliani, M. V. (2004), “Teoria dell’attaccamento e attaccamento ai luoghi.” in M. Bonnes, M. Bonaiuto and T. Lee (eds.), Teorie in pratica per la psicologia ambientale, Milan: Raf-faello Cortina Editore, pp. 191-240.

Goodwin J., J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta (eds.) (2001), “Why Emotions Matter”, in J. Good-win, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta (eds.), Passionate Politics: Emotions in Social Movements, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 1-24.

Goodwin, J. and Pfaff, S. (2001). “Emotion Work in High-Risk Social Movements: Managing Fear in the U.S. and East German Civil Rights Movements”, in J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta (eds.), Passionate Politics: Emotions in Social Movements, Chicago: Univer-sity of Chicago Press, pp. 282-302.

Gould D. (2009), Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP’s Fight Against AIDS, Chicago: Univer-sity of Chicago Press.

Groves J. M. (2001), “Animal Rights and the Politics of Emotion: Folk Constructs of Emotions in the Animal Rights Movement”, in J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta (eds.), Pas-sionate Politics: Emotions in Social Movements, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 212-229.

Herrera Rivera, L. S. (2012), “Formas de hacer política frente al despojo y la devastación socio-ambiental en Guadalajara”, MA dissertetion, Guadalajara, Mexico: University of Guadalara.

Hidalgo Villodres, Mª C. (1998), “Apego al lugar: ámbitos, dimensiones y estilos”. PhD dis-sertation (ftp://tesis.bbtk.ull.es/ccssyhum/cs48.pdf).

Hipólito, A. G. and Herrera Rivera, S. (2015) “Bosque El Nixticuil: Territorio urbano en resi-stencia”, in Poma, A and Gravante, T. Resistencias y autogestión en contra del despojo del agua y del territorio en la Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara: logros y retos, Newcastle upon Tyne and Mexico City: WATERLAT-GOBACIT Research Network.

Hochschild A. R. (1979), “Emotion Work, Feeling Rules, and Social Structure”, American Journal of Sociology, 85: 551-575.

Hochschild A. R. (1983), The Managed Heart: the Commercialization of Human Feeling, Berkely: University of California Press.

Jasper J. M. (1997), The Art Moral of Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements, Chicago: University Chicago Press.

Jasper, J. M. (1998), “The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive

Emotions in and Around Social Movements”, Sociological Forum, 13(3): 397-421.

Jasper J. M. (2006), “Emotion and Motivation”, R. E. Goodin and C. Tilly (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 157–171.

Jasper J. M. (2011), “Emotions and Social Movements: Twenty Years of Theory and Re-search”, Annual Review of Sociology, 37: 285-303.

Jasper J. M. (2014), “Constructing Indignation: Anger Dynamics in Protest Movements”, Emotion Review, 6(3): 208 –213.

Juris, J. (2008), “Performing Politics: image, embodiment, and emotive solidarity during anti-corporate globalization protests”, Ethnography, 9(1):61-97.

Kemper, T. D. (2001), “A Structural Approach to Social Movement Emotions”, in J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta (eds.), Passionate Politics: Emotions in Social Movements, Chi-cago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 58-73.

Leff, E. (2011), “Sustentabilidad y racionalidad ambiental: hacia “otro” programa de socio-logía ambiental”, Revista Mexicana de Sociología, 73, 1: 5-46.

Leff, Enrique (2004). Racionalidad ambiental. La reapropiación social de la naturaleza. Ciu-dad de México: Siglo XXI.

Low Setha M. and I. Altman (1992), Place Attachment, New York: Plenum.

Martínez Alier, J. (2004), El ecologismo de los pobres. Conflictos ambientales y lenguajes de valoración, Barcelona: Icaria.

Poma, A. and Gravante, T. (eds.)(2015). Resistencias y autogestión en contra del despojo del agua y del territorio en la Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara: logros y retos. WATERLAT-GOBACIT Network Working Papers, 2, 18. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: WATERLAT-GOBACIT.

Poma, A. and Gravante, T. (2016). “Environmental self-organized activism: emotion, organi-zation and collective identity in Mexico”. International Journal of Sociology and Social Pol-icy, Special issue Activism With(out) Organisation, 36, 9/10: 647-661.

Routledge, P. (2012), “Sensuous Solidarities: Emotion, Politics and Performance in the Clan-destine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army”, Antipode, 44, 2: 428-452.

Ruiz Junco N. (2013), “Feeling Social Movements: Theoretical Contributions to Social Movement Research on Emotions”, Sociology Compass, 7(1): 45–54.

Schirmer J. (1993), “The Seeking of Truth and the Gendering of Consciousness: The Co-madres of El Salvador and the Conavigua Widows of Guatemala”, in S. A. Radcliffe and S. Westwood (eds.), Viva: Women and Popular Protest in Latin America, New York: Routledge, pp. 30-64.

Taylor V. (1989), “Social Movement Continuity: The Women's Movement in Abeyance”, American Sociological Review, 54(5): 761-775.

Taylor V. (1996), Rock-a-by Baby: Feminism, Self-Help, and Postpartum Depression, New York, Routledge.

Taylor V. and L. J. Rupp (2002), “Women’s Culture and Lesbian Feminist Activism: A Recon-sideration of Cultural Feminism”, Signs, 19(1): 32-61.

Toledo V. (2015), Ecocidio en México. La batalla final es por la vida, Mexico City: Grijalbo.

Reger, J. (2004), “Organizational ‘Emotion Work’ Through

Consciousness-Raising: An Analy-sis of a Feminist Organization”, Qualitative Sociology, 27(2): 205-222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:QUAS.0000020693.93609.6c

Whittier N. (2001), “Emotional Strategies: The Collective Reconstruction and Display of Oppositional Emotions in the Movement against Child Sexual Abuse”, in J. Goodwin, J. M. Jasper and F. Polletta, Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 233-250.

Zibechi, R. (2010), Territorios en resistencia. Cartografía política de las periferias urbanas latinoamericanas, Malaga: Gráficas Digarza.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.