Framing the Unbreathable: Understanding the Environmental Mobilisation Deficit in Skopje

This paper examines why environmental activism in Skopje, North Macedonia, has failed to generate significant impact despite severe air pollution levels, favourable socio-political conditions, and a vibrant civil society. During winter 2024-25, Skopje was ranked among the most polluted cities in the world. The puzzle is particularly acute given successful environmental mobilisations in neighbouring Macedonian towns (Tetovo and Veles) and the capital's history of effective protest movements, most notably the Colourful Revolution. Drawing on 14 semi-structured interviews with environmental and other civil activists, together with data collected from two focus groups, the study emphasises the importance of framing processes alongside traditional social movement variables of resource mobilisation and political opportunity structures. Following Snow and Benford (1992), framing is understood as the conscious strategic effort to fashion shared understandings that legitimate and motivate collective action. In order to analyse the mobilisation deficit, the study employs two additional theoretical frameworks. First, it applies Bernhard's (2020) typology of civil society modalities—institutionalised, uncivil, and firewall civil society—anticipating that activism in North Macedonia represents an amalgam reflecting the country's democratic transition, EU accession context, and recent illiberal turn. Second, it builds on recent scholarship examining civil society in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly studies of Polish clean-air activism, which challenge assumptions about autonomous horizontal networks and instead reveal vertically pillarised structures linked to political forces. Framing failures manifest in multiple dimensions. Despite increased public awareness facilitated by tools like the 'My Air' pollution-tracking app, activists struggle with strategic communication, relying primarily on social media that reaches already-converted audiences. The multifaceted nature of air pollution—involving industrial emissions, urban planning, corruption, heating systems, and transportation—disperses activist attention across numerous causes and solutions, diluting protest messages. The 'For Clean Air' slogan, intended as inclusive and non-partisan, proved too generic to mobilise citizens. Protests lack focused demands, clear ultimatums, or pressure tactics, ending with meek institutional responses producing unfunded action plans without implementation mechanisms. The study concludes that Skopje's environmental mobilisation deficit results from activists' inability to articulate a coherent diagnostic overarching frame despite compelling evidence of state corruption, institutional incapacity, and severe health impacts. The fragmented movement, divided by organisational differences and electoral competition, cannot unite citizens around shared environmental grievances, rendering even a life-threatening common issue politically impotent.