ABSTRACT
This chapter documents how the strategic reorientation of the movement in response to this defeat facilitated its subsequent growth. It draws on qualitative interviews with representatives of major social movement organizations focused on climate change in the United States. The chapter contributes to a better understanding of how and why movements undergo strategic change. A growing body of literature in the field of social movement studies examines the pathways by which movements influence policy outcomes. The chapter reverses the focus by considering how policy outcomes affect movements themselves. It also draws on interviews with US climate leaders in order to establish the narrative of defeat in the US climate movement, and to link this narrative to the movement's strategic reorientation from 2010 to 2015. The chapter suggests that narratives of defeat can help explain the trajectories of social movements. The strategic reorientation has helped to mobilize unprecedented participation in the climate movement, as the People's Climate March shows.
