THE SOCIAL STRUCTURING OF POSTINDUSTRIAL CONFLICT: CITIZEN POSITIONS ON ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSIONS

Abstract

The new social movements characteristic of postindustrial societies have raised a number ofnovel issues, in particular environmental ones. The positions which groups in these societies take on these issues, however, is far from clear. The paper examines three perspectives on the problem: traditional class, new middle class, and transitional disequilibrium. Data/rom a western New York community are used to examine citizen positioning on three eco-factors-environmental protectionism, deep ecology, and limits-to-technology. The two class perspectives perform poorly but the disequilibrium perspective proves useful. Cluster analysis yields a five-group indicator which is significantly related to all the environmental factors. Two associated property vectors, democratic-party affiliation and education, help accountfor intersectoral distances on the eco- factors. The implications for researchand practice are discussed