Environmental Values in Central and Eastern Europe: Perspectives from East and West

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The new subversives - Czech environmentalists after 1989

About the book: The social activism that has been so important in the West since the 1960s is also changing the face of Central Europe today. This book examines four major social movements -- women's, religious, environmental, and gay/lesbian -- that have recently surfaced in the region. The first section focuses on the women's movements in eastern Germany, the Czech Republic, and Hungary, showing that political engagement takes a variety of different, not necessarily integrated forms. Religious movements are then examined in Poland and eastern Germany -- major features of which include a massive exodus from Protestantism and religious demobilization. The third part discusses the increasing institutionalization and political clout of environmental movements in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. An unprecedented final section examines various aspects of the gay/lesbian movements in eastern Germany, Poland, and Hungary, including their struggle to gain public acceptance and make legal and institutional headway

The Development of Czech Environmental Policy 1990-1995

The Czech Republic is used as a case study to examine the link between the development of environmental policy & the more general social & economic development of a postcommunist society. The initially progressive arrangement of environmental agencies & procedures of the early 1990s, which were in tune with concurrent development in the West, was abandoned because of the arrested expansion & diversification of the policy community. The ethos of environmental policy making in the early 1990s, which was a consequence of the special circumstances of that period, could not be maintained because there was no sufficiently strong social group underpinning & advocating these changes. This is documented by the inability of journalists to grasp & further communicate complex environmental issues & by the nonexistence of a social stratum corresponding to the 'new middle class,' from which Western environmental groups draw their support

The development of Czech environmental policy 1990-1995 : a sociological account

Using the case study of the Czech Republic, the article examines the link between the development of environmental policy and the more general social and economic development of a post-communist society. The initially progressive arrangement of environmental agencies and procedures of the early 1990s, which were in tune with the concurrent development in the West, was abandoned due to the arrested expansion and diversification of the policy community. The ethos of environmental policy-making of the early 1990s, which was a consequence of the special circumstances of that period, could not be maintained in the following years as there was no sufficiently strong social group underpinning and advocating these changes. This is documented on the inability of journalists to grasp and further communicate complex environmental issues, and on the non-existence of a social stratum corresponding to the ‘new middle class’, from which Western environmental groups draw their support

Environmental implications of Eastern enlargement: the end of progressive EU environmental policy?

This contribution addresses questions regarding the future of European environmental policy after the EU has been enlarged to include a number of Central and Eastern European countries. The existing literature, based mainly on EU-related 'top-down' variables such as status of harmonisation, availability of pre-accession funds, and future Council voting dynamics, predicts a largely negative impact of enlargement for progressive environmental policy. However, based on extensive survey data from within the candidate countries, this contribution asserts that this prediction should be qualified. It was also found that current theories in respect of national integration deal poorly with such 'bottom-up' perspectives

Czech Greens in the 2002 General Election: a new lease of life?

Published without an abstract

By the masses or for the masses?: the transformation of voluntary action in the Czech Union for Nature Protection

After the fall of state-socialism, efforts were made to build democracy by creating civil society organizations (CSOs) and forming independent nonprofit sectors across Central and Eastern Europe. However, most of these efforts ignored the mass organizations, state-sponsored interest groups, and quasi-independent associations in existence for many years. To understand how the transition affected existing associations and the forms of volunteerism they promoted, this paper investigates changes in the Czech Union for Nature Protection (ČSOP), an organization that has endured since 1979. Here, it is found that rather than retaining its emphasis on classical modes of voluntary action and participant interaction, ČSOP favors professionally managed activities designed to attract financial support. The case suggests that some of the participatory practices and collectivist norms advanced by associations in socialist times are being weakened as these groups attempt to secure the resources necessary to survive