The aim of the thesis is to explore the largest environmental movement in Malaysia’s history – the anti-Lynas movement – through a case study analysis. The campaign emerged as a response against...Show moreThe aim of the thesis is to explore the largest environmental movement in Malaysia’s history – the anti-Lynas movement – through a case study analysis. The campaign emerged as a response against the construction of the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (LAMP), a rare earth refinery plant in West Malaysia. The anti-Lynas movement argued that the opening of the facility would have negative environmental and health consequences due to the lack of proper waste management facilities for radioactive components such as thorium and uranium. Despite having scientific evidence and political support within the Malaysia also internationally, the movement was unable to stop the operations of the largest earth refinery plant in the world. The thesis draws on resource mobilization theory and political opportunity structures to explain the outcome of the movement. The objective of the thesis is to analyze the reasons why the movement failed to stop the construction and the operations of the rare earth facility. The results of the thesis argue that the anti-Lynas movement had the necessary resources to emerge and contest the LAMP facility. However, the political context of Malaysia did not allow for the movement to influence the legislation of LAMP.Show less
After the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand bill, squatting was criminalized and is now punishable with a prison sentence. This poses the question of “What is the impact of the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand...Show moreAfter the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand bill, squatting was criminalized and is now punishable with a prison sentence. This poses the question of “What is the impact of the 2010 Kraken en Leegstand legislation on the squatter movement in the Netherlands?”. I hypothesize that the squatter movement adopted infrapolitical tactics to fly under the radar of the state which in turn allows the movement to continue operating despite repression. I conducted an in-depth interview with a member of the squatter movement and, moreover, analyzed the 2016 policy report of the Kraken en Leegstand legislation and the Squatter Yearbook 2018 to answer the research question. I found that the squatter movement was greatly impacted by the 2010 legislation regarding its organization, tactics and identity. Furthermore, the movement indeed adopted infrapolitical means to survive. These findings are significant for the study of new social movements and political opportunity structures because it demonstrates that infrapolitics are a viable strategy for new social movements in unfavorable political opportunity structures. This introduces a novel way to think about the relationship between state repression and social movements in social movement theory.Show less
