- Project Summary: In no more than 200 words, provide a brief description of your project, including the key questions your project attempts to answer and a brief discussion of how you intend to answer those questions.
- Deadline: March 1st Friday, 11:59 pm
In A Brief History of Neoliberalism, David Harvey touches on the impact of neoliberalism on the environment and environmentalism, ultimately coming to the conclusion that “It is only when states and other interests are prepared to buck the neoliberal rules and the class interests that support them…that any modicum of balanced use of the environment is achieved” (175). He argues that market logic leads to a lack of regulation and thus further destruction of natural resources and the environment, and that environmental activism must therefore counter neoliberalism. In this project, I hope to examine environmental activism at Bowdoin, to see if youth environmental activists operate using a neoliberal framework. What do youth environmental activists view as the reasons for environmental destruction, and are these articulated as being part of a neoliberal system? What do they see as the solutions to preserve the environment, and do these solutions run counter to neoliberal logic? To answer these questions, I plan to interview environmental activists to uncover how they frame the major problems and solutions in the world of environmentalism. I will then analyze these interviews for evidence of the use of neoliberal frameworks, even if they are not explicitly articulated as such.
Comments:
This is a great topic, Sophie. I liked how you are framing it and the questions you are asking. You clearly know how to ask good sociological questions.
A quick note: try to be open to the possibility that youth environmental activists’ narratives might fit and do not fit into neoliberal logic at the same time. What I am trying to say is that there is a chance that you might encounter gray areas that cannot be reduced to any sort of logic. That would be fine. You would embrace it and make it part of your analysis. But maybe what you will encounter will be cut and dry that will smoothly fit into neoliberal logic. We will see…
Also, in addition to interviews, would you have any other material that you can analyze? like pamphlets, websites etc.? See if you can find more research material.
Also, you would need IRB for this project. We should talk about this after the break.