Grassroots environmental organizations in the United States: A Gramscian analysis

The theoretical approach utilized in this study is based on the pieces of information scattered throughout Antonio Gramsci's work and the extrapolation made out of his notion of hegemony. From a Gramscian perspective, social movements are creative reactions to contracting hegemony. To the extent that it provides room for the existence of collective actions, hegemony is expansive; yet, because it is not total, the condition for the existence of counter-hegemonies that call to question its "essentials" also exists. The case of grassroots environmental justice organizations in the United States (GEJOs) that deal with first-order quality of life issues falls within the province of the latter dynamics. GEJOs deal with an issue limited in scope, viz., environmental crisis; however, their movement participants have contested the multiple dimensions of existing hegemony. These organizations, as total counter-hegemonies, have challenged the political, economic, intellectual, and cultural orders of the American society. The interest in distributive justice, participatory democracy, public-oriented scientific endeavor, and a well-ordered cultural realm based on a universal good sense are the fundamental elements of an alternative hegemony manifest or latent in the discursive formations and practices of GEJOs. The study is based on document analysis and interpretation of the literature on GEJOs in the United States.