From green dissidents to green skeptics: Environmental activists and post-socialist political ecology in Hungary

This study presents the development of the Hungarian environmental movement and its articulation of post-socialist political ecology in East-Central Europe. Environmentalism emerged as one of Hungary's predominant oppositionist political forces in the 1980s, ushering in the political changes of 1989. In the 1990s, the environmental movement has diversified to encompass the wide array of problems facing citizens, communities, and environments in the wake of Hungary's transformation from state socialism. This ethnography is based on fieldwork among environmental activists in Budapest and smaller Hungarian cities.;Having experienced the degradation of human health and the environment under both socialist and capitalist regimes, Hungarian environmentalists express strong skepticism toward both systems. Their green skepticism questions the industrialist orientation and concepts of progress shared by state socialism and industrial capitalism. Post-socialist political ecology unites concerns about democratization with issues of social justice. Environmental activists' insistence on democratic participation traces its roots to their green dissident critique of state socialism. Their concerns about equity, however, stem from a growing awareness that integration into the global economy made the post-socialist countries vulnerable to environmental degradation and other risks. Green skeptics advocate an alternative, ecological model of modernization, and their vision forms the basis of an emergent critique of post-socialist political ecology.;The Hungarian articulation of post-socialist political ecology has four branches of critique. First, post-socialist political ecology is concerned with okogyarmatositas ("eco-colonialism"), or the environmental and social consequences of capitalist expansion into East-Central Europe. Second, it presents environmental risks, from lead poisoning in Roma (Gypsy) communities to genetically engineered foods, as a question of distributive justice that may be solved only through democratic debate and awareness of economic inequalities. Third, post-socialist political economy addresses the problems of East-Central Europe's emerging consumer society, from the level of household waste to the commercialization of public space and discourse. Finally, post-socialist political ecology transforms the green dissidence of the 1980s into a call for grassroots mobilization, participatory citizenship, and responsive political institutions. Throughout the present study, I explore how these branches of critique are articulated in environmentalist discourses.