Environmental Civil Society: Activism and Advocacy for Deliberating Energy Policies in Post-Fukushima Japan
Author: Pinar Temocin, pnrtemocin@hotmail.com
Department: Peace and Co-existence
University: Hiroshima University, Japan
Supervisor: N. Kawano
Year of completion: In progress
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
Fukushima
, Civil society
, environmentalism
, advocacy
Areas of Research:
Environment and Society
, Social Transformations and Sociology of Development
, Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management
Abstract
This study focuses on the interaction between environmental civil society actors (ECSOs) and the Japanese state to find out how these actors have framed, articulated, and interpreted their goals for nuclear policy and sustainable energy realities in the post-Fukushima era. It examines the extent to which environmental civil society actors have been influential in the energy decision-making process since 3/11. It highlights the socio-political dimensions of nuclear energy issues including the efficacy level of ECSOs, the degree of functionality of governance, the interaction between vertical and horizontal dimensions of state-civil society partnership, and the dynamics of energy policy formation, implementation, and development in contemporary Japan. It aims to play a reflective role on the nexus of energy politics and collective behavior, and contributes to the body of knowledge on Japanese civil society both empirically and theoretically, through a scholarly assessment of the domestic nuclear politics debate.
