Neoliberalism and environmental movements: Case of Sinop-Gerze Thermal Power Plant

In the era of neoliberal globalization, an indicator of the disappearance of global-national-local inter-scalar hierarchical link is increase of counter-hegemonic potential of local-ecological movements which developed against neoliberal hegemony. Interpreting this increasing potential is one of the fundamental condition for analyzing neoliberal globalization era. However, this becomes problematic since analyzing the relationship between neoliberalism and local-ecological movements evaluated from different aspects. The study aims at using Gramsci's concepts of hegemony / counter-hegemony to determine the local connections between state, politics and class during neoliberal restructuring, and in this context, it examines interrelations of global, national, and local scales in the process of the Thermal Power Plant Project which is planned to be carried out by Anadolu Group between 2008-2015 in Gerze, town in city of Sinop. The study consists of three sections. First section opens the discussion for the relationship between neoliberal accumulation strategy and the hegemonic projects of late capitalism or the new imperialism stage on Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony. In this section, conceptual framework is described and local-ecological social movements are evaluated. Second section explains neoliberalization process in Turkey and concretizes the connections between global and national scales. In the last section, local scale reflections of inter-scalar relations is explained over the reactions to construction of the Gerze Thermal Power Plant, which has the characteristics of a local-ecological social movement. Keywords: Hegemony, Counter-Hegemony, Neoliberalism, Social Movements, Sinop-Gerze Thermal Power Plant.