"No to Khudoni hydro power plant!" Social movement in Georgia

Abstract

This article examines the movement "No to Khudoni Hydropower Plant", as an example of the longest and continuous civic movement in Georgia. Within the theoretical framework of structural functionalism, it claims that structural changes happening in Georgia's political system during the last 30 years have caused this movement. The opening of an "window of possibilities" during Perestroika and Glasnost made it possible to start the discussion on the sustainability of the project, which later caused the updating of the project and then, structural changes in 2003, and the strengthening of the civil society made it possible to resume this social movement. This paper aims to analyze the various actors, which are involved in the discussions as opponents or proponents of the Khudoni HPP construction and their arguments are the same despite of the period of 30 years; government and investors are the main proponents of the construction while the academia and civil society are opposing it through various types of strategies. The data collected in the field research allows this article to show how the resistance has managed to survive for more than three decades; what are the arguments of a great number of agents involved with the resistance movement and how its resources are amassed and followers recruited and what makes the movement so unique.