“It's Not Easy Being Green”: Environmental Advocacy and Policymaking in Chile

Abstract

This article analyzes the collective action frames used by members of Chilean nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) while engaging in policy advocacy. The focus is a large-scale dam project along the Bío Bío River that generated controversy for more than a decade due to its impact on the environment and indigenous communities. It is argued that the environmental advocates’ reliance on certain frames hindered their ability to influence policymaking. They framed the neoliberal model as “pathologically” growth centered, unjust, and destructive. Additionally, advocates were besieged by counter frames portraying them as foes of modernization. Though compelling, the groups’ frames set them on a collision course with the policymaking establishment. In contrast, members of groups advocating for children used more effective discursive strategies and achieved a greater presence in policy debates. These arguments are supported with qualitative data collected primarily through interviews with NGO members, textual analysis of their documents, and news content analysis.

Keywords:

• Chile
• collective action frames
• dam projects
• environmental advocacy
• nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to each of the anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. I conducted all of the interviews cited here in Spanish, and the translations are my own.

Notes

The sample size was 729; the survey targeted people between the ages of 18 and 70 years living in 92 cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants (La Tercera 2011).

Similar arguments appear in previous studies (Risley 2011; 2005).

Juan Grau, quoted in La Tercera, June 19, 1994.

The director of Political Ecology Institute, quoted in La Insignia, January 2002.

La Tercera, November 27, 2002.

Miami Herald, November 6, 2002.

La Época, May 26, 1995.

La Nación, September 17, 2002.