Chapter 3 The Evolution of POS: Economic Growth and the Mobilisation and Framing of Comparative Cases

Abstract

Environmental campaigns in Ireland can be divided into pre- and post-affluence phases of multinational-led economic development in Ireland between 1958 and 2002. I construct an ‘issue history’ (Szasz, 1994) that locates the GSE case within the context of a series of community challenges to toxic industries during that period. These cases are relevant to an understanding of environmental movement activity in the decades before GSE's own campaign, before the onset of economic growth, or in the post-boom years when issues such as landfilling and incineration were the subjects of disputes across Ireland. I examine some earlier cases that have parallels with GSE's case in terms of their primary focus on toxicity and health risks, but I also look at the emergence of landfill and municipal incineration disputes since the mid-1990s that can be traced to the explosion of waste as a by-product of Irish society's fixation with consumerism.

Citation

Leonard, L. (2011), "Chapter 3 The Evolution of POS: Economic Growth and the Mobilisation and Framing of Comparative Cases", Leonard, L. (Ed.) Community Campaigns for Sustainable Living: Health, Waste & Protest in Civil Society (Advances in Ecopolitics, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 47-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2041-806X(2011)0000007007