Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
compete for infl uence and autonomy, their positions and decisions with
respect to any of these cases can establish precedents applicable to the
other cases regarding the interpretation and implementation of regula-
tions and standards as well as process and institutional jurisdiction. At
this early point of Bulgaria's EU membership, decisions regarding these
cases also establish the government's interpretations of EU law and pro-
cesses. Finally, the interests of neighbors link the cases. Chelopech and
Popintsi are both located near small rivers that feed into the Maritsa,
which fl ows into Greece and Turkey. Krumovgrad is also very close to
the Greek border. International agreements to which Bulgaria is a party
require that neighbors are allowed input into decisions entailing envi-
ronmental risks to them.
Strategic Action in the Local, National, and International Arenas
The politics surrounding these projects involved actors and strategies on
different levels. While local action is central in cases of environmental
justice, especially in investments in point resources, campaigns to change
or reverse decisions that have negative impacts on local environments
are often more effective if they are waged on several levels, utilizing
networks of movement organizations and institutional leverage on key
decision makers, in this case the Bulgarian government and the investors.
The three cases examined here did involve multiple levels of strategy,
albeit to differing degrees. The contexts, actors, and decisions in the cases
are summarized in table 10.1.
Over the last two decades, theorists of social movements have
expanded on the rich body of work analyzing domestic determinants of
movement formation to incorporate external infl uences on the structure
of social movements and their opportunities for mobilization (Giugni
1998; McAdam 1998). In particular, they have built on the insights of
international relations scholars examining transnational “epistemic
policy communities” and their infl uence on states both from within and
through international institutions (Risse-Kappen 1994, 1995). Some
authors have examined the generation of transnational values or “civil
society” and the transmission of norms and related policy (especially
environmental norms) from this transnational community to the domes-
tic level (McCormick 1989; Kamieniecki 1993; Wapner 1995; Boli and
Thomas 1999; Florini 2000; Lewis 2000). However, much of the work
on transnational infl uence has sought to explain the rapidly developing
dynamics of transnational social movement networks. Of particular
