#12283. Aiming for Achilles’ Heel: A relational explanation of the ascendency of pro-nuclear activism in Taiwan, 20XX-20XX

August 2026publication date
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Journal’s subject area:
Cultural Studies;
Sociology and Political Science;
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Abstract:
Movement-countermovement dynamics have frequently been examined under the lenses of resource mobilization theory and political opportunity theory. This article develops a relational perspective, which is complementary to existing perspectives, to analyze how an initially weak countermovement expands and defeats its stronger opponent. The movement’s strength is not determined by its internal characteristics but is contextually defined by its relationship with opponents. A countermovement gains ground by strategically targeting the opposing movement’s vulnerabilities. This article examines the emergence of Taiwan’s pro-nuclear movement and how it succeeded in a referendum by abolishing a planned nuclear phase-out deadline. Taiwan’s environmentalists’ diffuse concerns, adoption of institutional channels after the transition of power, and insufficient attention to the climate change issue were all extensively exploited by pro-nuclear activists. As such, Taiwan’s pro-nuclear activists gained ground not because of their strength, but because of skilled exploitation of the weakness of their rivals.
Keywords:
Countermovement; nuclear energy; pro-nuclear activism; referendum; relationalism; Taiwan

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