Abstract

In a context where authorities are pressed worldwide to maintain a balance between ever growing demand for energy and resources and the preservation of natural areas (Aldrich 2008: 6), public infrastructure projects raising environmental concerns, such as nuclear installations or dams, have sparked off, in the last decades, a series of popular protest movements (Hudon et al. 2009). In most instances, protesters, increasingly reunited in amateur advocacy coalitions, have been quick to claim that they represent the general will and promote the common good with the objective of influencing decisions to be made. In this perspective, they have occasionally relied on political marketing techniques.