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Community Participation, the Environment, and Democracy: Brazil in Comparative Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jamie Elizabeth Jacobs*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science at West Virginia University

Abstract

Grassroots environmental activism among Latin America's poor has altered the debate over environmental policy, social welfare, and citizenship. Yet the question remains whether this social mobilization of the poor is part of a larger trend toward broader environmental concerns and democratic political participation, or a shortlived movement susceptible to the same pressures that have dissolved community mobilization in the past. This article compares Brazil with other Latin American and European countries in surveys of environmental awareness, concerns, and reported behavior. It finds that Brazilians residing in the urban periphery link their own local environmental concerns to more global considerations, and that concern for and activism on environmental issues is positively related to wider community involvement.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2002

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