ABSTRACT

It is becoming widely accepted that the global economic system should be able to pursue ethical as well as financial goals. In terms of its organizational structure, Earth First! (EF!) is unlike any of the major environmental groups: it has no membership lists, no paid workers, no central office, 'only individuals united by the practice of putting the earth first'. When describing environmental protest, it is not unusual for certain sections of the media to depict 'battles' over natural sites as archetypal struggles between (bad) 'society' and (good) 'nature', with the protestors heroically aligned with the latter. Since the late 1980s several cultural changes have occurred which serve as a backdrop to the activities of EF! During the 1980s, sociologists become less interested in analyzing patterns of production, and turned in increasing numbers, to the study of consumption.