Do environmental shocks create new coalitions? The development of a contingent coalition after Three Mile Island

Abstract Do “environmental shocks lead to the formation of new political coalitions? To answer this question, this study examines how Environmentalists for Full Employment (EFFE), an organization founded to bridge the American labor and environmental movements, mobilized a coalition of labor unions to oppose nuclear power after the Three Mile Island accident. Through an in‐depth analysis of EFFE's activities following the accident, I show how the sense of risk associated with an environmentally shocking event unsettled existing relations within the American labor and environmental movements, allowing new actors to wrest agenda‐setting power away from incumbent movement leaders. Based on this analysis, I argue that inter‐movement brokers are particularly well‐positioned to take advantage of environmental shocks, create novel alliances, and inaugurate contention over movements' agendas. However, as I also show, coalitions born after shocks are highly contingent and face hurdles enduring after the shock loses its salience. These arguments contribute to the literature in social movement theory and environmental sociology by theorizing the political implications of environmental shocks, which are expected to become more important as the climate crisis intensifies.