“Stop Spoiling Our Land”: Regional Identity and Environmental Mobilization in the Russian Regions
Abstract
In recent years, environmental protests have intensified in Russian regions. At the same time, the level of protest activity in the population is not directly dependent on the degree of environmental threats but is due to various political and social factors. According to researchers, one of the main factors contributing to the mobilization of the population is regional identity. In this paper, we analyze why regional identity is important and what elements are actualized in the process of environmental mobilization in the Russian regions. The results of the study show that mobilization was based on such components of collective identity as the opposition of regions to the center, peripherality, ethnicity, and historical past. The environmental agenda turned out to be significant in conjunction with perceptions of social injustice. Natural objects were considered by local residents from the perspective of their social Environmental problems were mainly presented as threats to national culture, traditional ways of life, religious, and cultural-historical objects. At the same time, global environmental values were articulated mainly by professional ecologists. In addition, in some cases, a strong collective identity could contribute to environmental demobilization and resistance to those environmental projects that conflicted with the interests of the local population. Thus, grassroots environmental mobilization in Russia is mainly associated with ideas about the uneven distribution of resources and survival values.
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