Repertoires, rules, and relationships: A cultural analysis of tactical choice in the environmental movement

Social norms are a pervasive force that regulates human behavior, yet the manner in which norms affect tactical choice remains unexplored by social movement researchers. Employing participant observation of two environmental groups in Long Island and a survey of Long Island and New York City environmental groups, this dissertation responds to the lack of treatment by movement scholars. Notably, this study reaches three important conclusions regarding norms and the selection of protest methods. First, this research identifies two distinct tactical norms within the local environmental movement: the moderate tactical norm and the nonviolent direct action norm. Second, this dissertation establishes that environmental groups learn tactical norms depending upon their relationships with other organizations. From associating with other groups, a process of socialization unfolds whereby environmental group decision-makers learn the protest rules surrounding the various tactics available in the environmental movement's repertoire of contention. Finally, this study finds that internalization of tactical norms from the process of socialization influences tactical choice. Moreover, external pressures to conform to the protest rule decision-makers learn from other organizations strongly motivate tactical decisions. Taking these ideas into account, movement research would benefit by incorporating a normative analysis into other areas of collective action such as coalition building or resource acquisition. Norms are not only attached to behavior, which suggests that a normative analysis of political values, beliefs, and attitudes would be instructive as well.