Article by ACSS Early Career Fellows grant recipient, Aziza Moneer (American University in Cairo) in the Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin.
Abstract
The study aims to explore and analyze the core collective action frames that were developed by the environmental
movement of ‘Egyptians against Coal’ to raise the public awareness about the dangers of coal and mobilize action. The
framing theory is used as the main theoretical approach in this study. The study relies on a qualitative content analysis
of the Facebook page of ‘Egyptians against Coal’ and interviews conducted with the page creators and activists. The
study revealed that by using Facebook, the anti-coal movement managed to make salient new meanings of coal as part
of a wider social problem, rather than an ‘economic panacea’ to Egypt’s industry challenges and to phrase frames that
resonate with shared political and economic grievances and dominant cultural values in Egypt. In this regard, it was
found that the Facebook page constructed four prevalent frames in order to shape public discourse: coal as an environmental disaster, coal and health risks, coal and environmental injustices and socioeconomic costs, and fossil fuel versus renewable energies.
For the full article: https://www.die-erde.org/index.php/die-erde/article/view/460/331