Russo-Ukrainian War in Knowledge Production Strategies of European Environmentalist Movement

The basic aim of this study is to explore the role of knowledge production techniques of social movement organizations in advocacy efforts to translate their preferences into real policy change under the condition of external policy shocks opening the structure of their political opportunities. As the illustrative case study, the research will focus on communication and usage of policy evidence by European environmentalist groups for two main goals: • for presenting the European sanction response to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine after 2022 as an opportunity to speed out the phase-out of fossil fuel usage; • for delegitimizing the coordination of the European Commission with fossil fuel stakeholders for substituting Russian energy resources with fossil fuel flows from alternative sources. This study aims to contribute to the literature trying to provide a theoretical conceptualization of knowledge production activities within broader strategies of social movements by developing the notion of “cognitive praxis” (Eyerman & Jamison 1991; Boström 2004; Esteves 2008). This article will propose a 4-level operationalized analytical framework of cognitive praxis, including typology of different knowledge production techniques. The analysis will concentrate on exploring the narratives and sanction monitoring activities of selected set of Europe-based environmentalist NGOs. The research methodology is based on qualitative text analysis of news and reports from their websites and interviews with their representatives, published between February 2022 and February 2024.