Civil society activism and waste management in Ireland: The Carranstown anti-incineration campaign

While policy statements and legislation clearly support public–private partnerships for waste management and householders are being actively encouraged to modify their waste management behaviour through state-sponsored waste awareness campaigns civil society actors remain on the periphery of waste policy development and implementation in Ireland. Drawing on conceptual and empirical developments in the analysis of civil society activism one case study in the Republic—the Carranstown anti-incineration campaign—is examined in an attempt to establish reasons for this on-going marginalisation. The findings indicate that while the Carranstown campaigners seek to make a contribution to waste management arenas in Ireland as agents of change, watchdogs and conduits of alternative information their influence is constrained by a combination of contingent conditions.