Protest Tactics and Motivations Surrounding Mountaintop Removal Mining in West Virginia

Social movements have been studied in a wide variety of ways. From the use of resource mobilization and political opportunity structure to the new social movement theories. In my paper I discuss how the use of identity and tactics is crucial in understanding how the social movement surrounding anti-mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia works. I studied two groups within this particular movement that use very different tactics as means to the same end. By analyzing them with the use of NSM theory I show how a multi-group approach to studying social movements gives a lot of information on the variance and nuance within the movement itself. This covers topics ranging from how they got involved to the tactics they and their group uses to what one groups' members think of another within their movement.