Environmental Organizations in France: a Structural Analysis

While the French environmental movement is dominated by a few large associations and foundations, the number and variety of organizations tackling environmental issues has increased significantly since the 1970s. Academic societies, research institutes, private foundations, naturalist and grassroots groups, mass-membership NGOs, think tanks, users and victims groups, constitute a social space where they cooperate and compete for limited resources. These organizations are indeed largely dependent on their ties to other social fields where they fetch financial and symbolic resources. The growth of the environmental movement is closely related to the development of environmental policies on one hand, and to the birth of an important environmental private sector on the other hand. In France, the centrality of the State has led to an important institutionalization of major environmental groups, often appointed to handle parts of environmental policies, and largely dependant on public subsidies, while remaining weak compared to many other European countries. Nevertheless, private funding, sponsorship and partnership has increased since the 1990s, leading to the proliferation of private-focused organizations promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development in companies, while classic environmental organizations, traditionally focused on advocacy and lobbying, have diversified their activity and income sources. Generally, a national environmental organization follows a trend of institutionalization and professionalization, leading to the depoliticization of environmental issues and to an emphasis on modest reforms through consensus. Therefore, organizations deviating from this path tend to be excluded from the center of the network and have more difficulty accessing public and private resources. Using data collected from annual reports as well as lists of partners and affiliates from national environmental organizations, we build a weighted inter-organizational network of collaboration. The strength of a tie is determined by the number of projects (campaigns, events, petitions, etc.) two organizations have been working on together, the existence of an official partnership, and if it involves financial help, and affiliation. Established using a snowball procedure, the network consists of approximately 300 national environmental organizations, 100 public bodies, 100 research institutes and universities, 1000 companies, 80 unions, 20 political parties and 600 organizations working on other issues, for instance international solidarity. We identify different positions, central organizations, and then test variables that could explain the structure of the network : professionalization, field of activity and expertise, budget, membership size, as well as number of ties to national public institutions, to public research institutes and to the private sector (companies, professional unions and private foundations).