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The Rise of a Green Scare? Analysing the French Government's Discourse on the Soulèvements de la Terre and Ecoterrorism

Schill, Elisabeth LU (2024) SOLM02 20241
Department of Sociology of Law
Abstract
In October 2022, the Soulèvements de la Terre and other environmental movements demonstrated against the project of the megabasins in Sainte Soline, France. Following violent clashes between activists and security forces, the Minister of the Interior declared the activists' actions as ecoterrorism. As a consequence, terrorism rhetoric in relation to environmental activists entered French public discourse, as it did in American public discourse, highlighting the emergence of the Green Scare in the beginning of the twenty-first century. As follows, this thesis aims to assess the extent to which a Green Scare has emerged in France over the last two years. In this sense, this thesis aims to introduce the Green Scare phenomenon to a new... (More)
In October 2022, the Soulèvements de la Terre and other environmental movements demonstrated against the project of the megabasins in Sainte Soline, France. Following violent clashes between activists and security forces, the Minister of the Interior declared the activists' actions as ecoterrorism. As a consequence, terrorism rhetoric in relation to environmental activists entered French public discourse, as it did in American public discourse, highlighting the emergence of the Green Scare in the beginning of the twenty-first century. As follows, this thesis aims to assess the extent to which a Green Scare has emerged in France over the last two years. In this sense, this thesis aims to introduce the Green Scare phenomenon to a new context. This is done by analysing and discussing the discourse held by the French government from October 2022 to March 2024 in relation to the Soulèvements de la Terre. In addition, this is done through the lens of Altheide’s Discourse of Fear.
Using discourse analysis, this thesis found that a Green Scare had emerged, as demonstrated by the presence of government hostility towards the environmental movements notably through the use of terrorism rhetoric, as well as the expansion of the terrorism definition and the expansion of anti terrorism legislation or anti activism legislation, overall contributing to the dissemination of fear as well as their stigmatisation, dehumanisation and delegitimization. (Less)
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author
Schill, Elisabeth LU
supervisor
organization
course
SOLM02 20241
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Ecoterrorism, Green Scare, Soulèvements de la Terre, France, Discourse Analysis, Government, Discourse of Fear
language
English
id
9156952
date added to LUP
2024-06-19 12:58:34
date last changed
2024-06-19 12:58:34
@misc{9156952,
  abstract     = {{In October 2022, the Soulèvements de la Terre and other environmental movements demonstrated against the project of the megabasins in Sainte Soline, France. Following violent clashes between activists and security forces, the Minister of the Interior declared the activists' actions as ecoterrorism. As a consequence, terrorism rhetoric in relation to environmental activists entered French public discourse, as it did in American public discourse, highlighting the emergence of the Green Scare in the beginning of the twenty-first century. As follows, this thesis aims to assess the extent to which a Green Scare has emerged in France over the last two years. In this sense, this thesis aims to introduce the Green Scare phenomenon to a new context. This is done by analysing and discussing the discourse held by the French government from October 2022 to March 2024 in relation to the Soulèvements de la Terre. In addition, this is done through the lens of Altheide’s Discourse of Fear.
Using discourse analysis, this thesis found that a Green Scare had emerged, as demonstrated by the presence of government hostility towards the environmental movements notably through the use of terrorism rhetoric, as well as the expansion of the terrorism definition and the expansion of anti terrorism legislation or anti activism legislation, overall contributing to the dissemination of fear as well as their stigmatisation, dehumanisation and delegitimization.}},
  author       = {{Schill, Elisabeth}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Rise of a Green Scare? Analysing the French Government's Discourse on the Soulèvements de la Terre and Ecoterrorism}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}