Good Cop/Bad Cop: Environmental NGOs and Their Strategies toward Business / Edition 1

by Thomas Lyon

Overview

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play an increasingly prominent role in addressing complex environmental issues such as climate change, persistent bio-accumulative pollutants, and the conservation of biodiversity. At the same time, the landscape in which they operate is changing rapidly. Markets, and direct engagement with industry, rather than traditional government regulation, are often the tools of choice for NGOs seeking to change corporate behavior today. Yet these new strategies are poorly understood-by business, academics, and NGOs themselves. How will NGOs choose which battles to fight, differentiate themselves from one another in order to attract membership and funding, and decide when to form alliances and when to work separately? In Good Cop/Bad Cop, Thomas P. Lyon brings together perspectives on environmental NGOs from leading social scientists, as well as leaders from within the NGO and corporate worlds, to assess the state of knowledge on the tactics and the effectiveness of environmental groups. Contributions from Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the World Wildlife Fund describe each organization‘s structure and key objectives, and present case studies that illustrate how each organization makes a difference, especially with regard to its strategies toward corporate engagement. To provide additional perspective, high-level executives from BP and Ford share their views on what causes these relationships between companies and NGOs to either succeed or fail. For students of the social sciences and NGO practitioners, this book takes an important step in addressing an urgent need for objective study of NGO operations and their effectiveness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933115788
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/23/2010
Edition description:	1
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Thomas P. Lyon is the Dow Professor of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and a former Gilbert F. White Fellow at Resources for the Future. He is the editor of The Political Economy of Regulation and the author of Corporate Environmentalism and Public Policy.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Mark Van Putten Preface Introduction Thomas P. Lyon Part I: Where Are Environmental NGOs Headed? 1. The Twenty-First-Century NGO John Elkington and Seb Beloe 2. Who Is Part of the Environmental Movement? Andrew Hoffman and Stephanie Bertels Part II: How Do Social Scientists Understand NGOs? 3. Civil Society and the Environment: Understanding the Dynamics and Impacts of the U.S. Environmental Movement Robert Brulle and J. Craig Jenkins 4. Environmental Groups: What Political Science Has to Offer Lawrence S. Rothenberg 5. An Economic Perspective on NGO Strategies and Objectives John W. Maxwell Part III: How Do Practitioners Understand NGOs? 6. Confrontation vs. Cooperation: Alternative NGO Styles Thomas P. Lyon 7. World Wildlife Fund Matthew C. Banks 8. Environmental Defense Fund Gwen Ruta 9. Greenpeace Kert Davies 10. Rainforest Action Network Jennifer Krill 11. Corporate Responses to NGO Campaigns Martin B. Zimmerman 12. Cooperation: Learning from BP's Experience with NGOs Steven Percy Part IV: The Road Ahead 13. An NGO Research Program: A Collective Action Perspective Erica Johnson and Aseem Prakash 14. Good Cops, Bad Cops, and the New Environmental Governance Thomas P. Lyon

Editorial Reviews

'A unique and essential resource. This book is a must read for businesses and NGOs as we work to develop new collaborations to solve the worlds major challenges.'
Neil C. Hawkins, Vice President of Sustainability and Environment, Health and Safety, The Dow Chemical Company

'NGOs - in various shapes and forms - play a critical role in the formation and implementation of environmental policy. This splendid volume weaves insights from different disciplinary backgrounds into a cohesive and compelling whole. An excellent book on an important topic, and I would commend it to anyone with a stake in understanding environmental policy in the 21st century.'
Anthony Heyes, University of London

'Good Cop Bad Cop makes a valuable and timely contribution to the emerging domain of private politics - in which private citizens and institutions aim at changing legislative practices and culture without being part of the electoral process.'
Sudhirendar Sharma, d-sector.org

From the Publisher