Towards a New Understanding of Movement Outcomes and Industry Creation: The U. S. Environmental Movement and the Development of the U. S. Wind Energy Industry

Using an illustration of the relationship between the U.S. environmental movement and the U.S. wind energy industry, I develop a theory for understanding the relationship between social movements and their economic outcomes. Synthesizing the social movement theory of political process with the economic theory of social structure of accumulation, I argue that social movements become more and less important to industry creation based on the intersection of their place in the cycle of contention with the industry’s position within the cycle of accumulation. Furthermore, at any given point in time, these cycles are both impacted by the larger political, economic and ideological structure of the society.  I develop four distinct propositions to further clarify this theory. First, during times when economic consolidation intersects with movement diffusion, contentious actions have little, if any, relationship with industry development and technological explanations prevail. Second, during times when economic decay intersects with movement exhaustion, technological and social movement outcome explanations become less important and the macro political-economic environment provides a more robust explanation for industry changes. Third, during times when economic exploration intersects with movement radicalization/institutionalization, movement actions have an important effect on its industry counterpart. Fourth, during times when economic consolidation intersects with movement exhaustion, the economic counterpart may develop in direct contradiction to movement goals.