Bruce Tranter

The Social and Political Bases of Environmentalism in Australia: Explaining Support for the Environment Bruce Tranter

The environmental movement in Australia is an enduring and influential social phenomenon comprising a myriad of organisations, groups, small cells and non-affiliated activists and sympathisers. Spawning green politicians on the federal and state level it remains influential after several decades, as new issues such as climate change emerge and established issues like the protection of old growth forests remain salient. Attempts have been made to link environmental concerns with the rise of new classes, the formation of new status groups, the ascendancy of postwar generations, postmaterial value shifts and media exposure of environmental hazards. Yet systematic, empirical studies of environmentalism remain relatively rare. In this book political sociologist Bruce Tranter seeks to bridge this gap by critically examining key sociological accounts of environmentalism and systematically assessing their efficacy. Drawing upon nationally representative survey data, he considers the explanatory value of major sociological accounts of politics when applied to the most influential element of ?new politics?, the environmental movement.