CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Puecker, Christian |
|---|---|
| Title | Preserving the last wild river in Europe: Political Opportunity Structure and the Vjosa River Protection Campaign in Albania |
| Summary | Flowing still almost freely over its complete course of 270 km from its source in Greece into the Adriatic Sea, the Vjosa River in Albania is labeled the “Last Wild River in Europe.” The river and its tributaries are home to a multitude of endemic and endangered species and provide various ecosystems. Since 2014, the “Save the Blue Heart of Europe” campaign is fighting against hydropower projects on the Vjosa River and its tributaries and is advocating the establishment of Europe’s first “Wild River National Park.” This research assesses the campaign’s activity in the light of the theoretical framework of “Political Opportunity Structure” (POS), a concept used by scholars since the 1970s to explain the emergence and successes of social movements within a specific political environment. Through review of academic literature, media reports, and semi-structured and written interviews, the research concludes that the environmental campaign faced a relatively closed POS based on centralized political power and a low number of available access points for contesting parties to the polity system. However, openings within the political structure could be utilized in the form of elite political allies, the judiciary system, and the inclusion of science, media, and international lobbying. The findings of this research might facilitate environmental movements and campaigns that encounter similar obstacles in finding strategies to circumvent them and provide a basis for further research, comparing Albania’s POS with similar countries of the Balkan region in terms of environmental movements and their possibilities for action. |
| Supervisor | Steger, Tamara |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/puecker_christian.pdf |
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