This project considers the case study of the Protect the West Coast campaign as a public communication campaign and social environmental movement.
Environmental movements and campaigns use the media, messaging, and other organised sets of communication activities to generate attention, connection and activism from the public. The struggles of environmental movements and campaigns in Africa have only been documented since the early 2000s in a systematic manner. The study in this paper can be considered a first step in capturing the broad trend in African and South African environmental campaign network and support.
Within this context the research aims to provide insights into the processes that motivate the public to positively engage with, and support the Protect The West Coast’s anti-mining campaign along the West Coast of South Africa. Protect The West Coast is a community based social and environmental movement organisation that is using a campaign to fight the construction of mines along the South African West Coast. The researcher aims to make the case that that the environmental campaign offers a network for inclusive community engagement, supported by the public. The research explores the social networks that develop from supporting an environmental movement. The researcher will study the motivations of the actors, and strategies used by the environmental movement organisation to engage with the public, in the South African West Coast mining conflict as lined out below.
Principal investigator: Dr Corlia Meyer (CREST)