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New Ways of Thinking about Environmentalism: Denial and the Process of Moral Exclusion in Environmental Conflict
Author(s) -
Opotow Susan,
Weiss Leah
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/0022-4537.00179
Subject(s) - denial , environmentalism , environmental ethics , process (computing) , psychology , social psychology , sociology , criminology , political science , law , philosophy , computer science , psychoanalysis , politics , operating system
Environmental issues present an urgent challenge throughout the world. Air, water, and land pollution continue at alarming rates and increasingly strain the Earth's capacity to sustain healthy ecosystems and human life. Although technological and behavioral aspects of environmental conflict are often salient, this article contributes to the literature on environmentalism by examining moral orientations that underlie and fuel environmental conflict. The centerpiece of this article describes three kinds of denial in environmental conflict: (1) outcome severity; (2) stakeholder inclusion; and (3) self‐involvement. Like intermeshed gears, these forms of denial actively advance the process of moral exclusion. The article concludes with implications of this analysis for theory and practice.