Fifty Shades of Green: Ideological divides in the environmental movement

Abstract: The environmental movement is a fixture of the political landscape, but our empirical understanding of its ideology is still lacking. In this thesis I examine ideological divides in the environmental movement. This is done through categorising ten areas where earlier discussions on green theory have argued that the movement is divided. To test these ten divides a survey has been created and spread in Sweden through social media and environmental organisations e-mail lists. The survey got 574 respondents who self-identifies as a part of the environmental movement. The responses are examined through van der Eijk’s (2001) measurement of agreement. The results indicate that there are both areas where they are divided but also areas where they are united in their ideology. I contribute with empirical evidence of which ideological divides are present in the movement, helping us move beyond theory. To understand the different streams in the movement a principal component analysis was used. The components found where then defined as eight ‘archetypes’ of the environmental movement to spark further discussion about the ideological streams in the movement.