Environmental protests in Europe
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7880259 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Endre Borbáth (0000-0002-2980-8586, Heidelberg University, corresponding author), Swen Hutter (0000-0002-1107-1213, WZB Berlin Social Science Center) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 8 |
| Pages | 1932-1957 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of European Public Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-1763 • E-ISSN: 1466-4429 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13501763.2024.2390701 |
| OpenAlex | W4401922556 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 63 |
Despite growing attention to the resurgence of environmental, and especially climate-related mobilisation in Europe, comparative assessments across countries and over time are lacking. Using classic social movement theories (grievances, opportunities, resources), we examine the frequency, profile, and drivers of environmental protest. We conduct a two-step analysis based on the updated PolDem protest event dataset covering 27 European countries from 2000 to 2021. We move from descriptive accounts to dynamic regressions, modelling the cross-national and temporal variation in the number of environmental protests, the participants involved, and their share of all events. The results highlight 2019 as pivotal for environmental protests, with a peak in participants and heightened salience in Europe's protest landscape. Typical environmental protests are well-attended, symbolic, and confrontational actions, exclusively focussed on the issue, and draw support from both professional and non-professional organisations. Temporal variation in the number and share of environmental protests is related to proxy measures for resources in the environmental field, while participation rates correlate with political opportunities as measured by governments' positions on environmental protection. Thus, the simultaneous presence of opportunities and resources tends to create an ‘explosive mix’, fuelling environmental protest dynamics
Demographic economics · Economics · Environmental movement · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Proxy (statistics · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology · Social Media and Politics
What explains global patterns of climate activism? A macro-level, cross-national analysis of collective environmental action
Estranged yet engaged
Populism, radicalism, and protest mobilization by parties in Europe
How Confrontational Protest Shapes Public Opinion
Between goals and means
From outrage to action
Does climate change delegitimize political parties? How movement–party linkages in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Poland are reshaped
Shifting Grounds of Collaboration in Changing Contexts
Introduction
Political socialization and immigrants’ support for progressive politics
Differences within global movements
Mobilizing Europe’s citizens to take action on migration and climate change
Protest and the rise of left-nationalist challengers
Environmental movements and their political context
Rhapsody in green
Environmental justice in Central and Eastern Europe
Protesting Culture and Economics in Western Europe
Movement Allies, Adversaries, and Third Parties
The Logics of Party Formation
Movement Parties Against Austerity
Challenging the political order
Dynamics of Contention
New Politics in Western Europe
Street Citizens
States, Parties, and Social Movements
Fridays for Future's Disruptive Potential
Fighteverycrisis
Dynamics of protest mobilisation in the European poly-crisis
Power in Movement
Spreading rebellion
From social movements to institutionalization
Is There a Democracy–Civil Society Paradox in Global Environmental Governance
Water) bottles and (street) barricades
Examining evidence for the Finite Pool of Worry and Finite Pool of Attention hypotheses
Environmental Protest in Western Europe
Voice and Equality
What explains variation in parties’ climate change salience
Protest in unlikely times
Rich kids of Europe? Social basis and strategic choices in the climate activism of Fridays for Future
Explaining differences in party reactions to the Fridays for Future -movement – a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of parties in three European countries
Protest and Polarisation in the Context of Energy Transition and Climate Policy in Germany
Social movements in times of austerity
Representational deprivation
New politics and party systems
On the Use of Two-Way Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Panel Data
Political parties and climate policy
The Dynamics of Environmental Campaigns
Political Claims Analysis
Climate policy
Does Protest Influence Political Speech? Evidence from UK Climate Protest, 2017–2019
New kids on the block
Roșia Montană, the revolution of our generation
"Disrupting the "Quotidian
Niche Party Success and Mainstream Party Policy Shifts - How Green and Radical Right Parties Differ in Their Impact
The Structural Contexts of Civic Engagement
Embeddedness and Identity
Political opportunity structure and the institutionalisation of the environmental movement
Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970
Resource Mobilization and Social Movements
| Citations per year | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |