The political impact of environmental mobilization: A theoretical discussion in the light of the Argentine case

Abstract

Upon the third wave of democratization, environmental mobilization has increased throughout Latin America. In line with this process, the literature has analyzed different aspects of environmental mobilization, such as the types of groups involved and the resources mobilized. Yet, less attention has been paid to the impacts of those mobilizations. So, we ask: what are the impacts of environmental mobilization and how can they be best understood? Based on a review of the literature and on our own studies on Argentina, we build a novel typology to explain the connection between the political impacts of environmental mobilization and their concrete effects on the environment. We argue that the best way to understand those impacts is to analyze the state decisions that respond to such a mobilization, focusing on two key dimensions: the spatial and the temporal scope. We illustrate our typology with the analysis of four different environmental areas in Argentina.