Strategies and Actions in Swedish Mining Resistance – Mapping Anti-Extraction Movements and Exploring How Their Interpretations of Socio-Political Context Shape Mobilization Against Mining Projects

•    Across the world the demand for mineral production steadily increases. In Europe, the push for mining has coincided with rising mobilization against extraction projects and mining-related conflicts will likely be a continuing feature of Europe’s foreseeable future. To understand the trajectory of mining conflicts, as well as the possibilities of handling them, it is important to understand the strategies and actions of the coalitions of actors opposing specific mining projects, i.e., anti-extraction movements. While previous research mainly has explored mining resistance in developing countries, this thesis advances the knowledge on mining resistance in Europe by investigating anti-extraction movements in Sweden, a long-term producer of minerals that have witnessed rising mobilization against extraction projects. In four papers, building on interviews and extensive document analysis, the thesis systematically maps and analyses cases of anti-extraction movements in Sweden and provide in-depth studies of selected cases.    Theoretically the thesis explores how movement actors’ view their own abilities to generate change in society and the thesis thus aims to understand how movement actors’ choices of strategies and actions are shaped by their interpretations of opportunities and constraints in their socio-political context. This is done by employing frame analysis as an interpretive research approach to connect movement actors’ sense-making of contextual opportunities to their choices of strategies and actions, thus contributing to social movement theory’s ongoing debate about how structure comes to shape agency.        The result of the thesis confirms that anti-extraction mobilization has been on the rise in Sweden during the 2010s, with movements using a wide range of actions, from civil disobedience and demonstrations to litigation and lobbying of private shareholders and politicians. Movements consist of heterogeneous coalitions, including newly formed networks as well as established organizations for farmers, indigenous Sámi, and environmental concerns. Regarding how the setup of socio-political contexts come to shape strategies and actions the results indicate that movement actors’ interpretations of opportunities do not always align with researchers’ vicarious conceptualizations of what an opportunity is, thus producing perplexing actions. In response the thesis outlines ways to understand seemingly perplexing actions by taking account of movement actors’ own meaning-making of situations. The thesis further outlines how the content of movement actors’ varying goals comes to play a key role in interpretations of opportunities for anti-extraction movement, thus adding prospective reasoning to research arguing that retrospective reasoning based on past experiences shapes actors’ assessments of opportunities. Finally, results indicate that the continuing viability of different, sometimes contradictory, interpretations of opportunities may be accounted for by a deeper understanding of what societal groups and institutions that movements and their frames resonate with. 

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

social movement strategy

tactics

structure and agency

opportunities and constraints

goals

mining

frame analysis

Political Science

Statsvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

dok (ämneskategori)