Challenges and strategies for start-up social movement organisations: the case of a new Canadian climate change advocacy group

When a group of Canadian scholars formed an organisation advocating solutions for climate change in a national environment generally not supportive of climate activism, an opportunity arose for a unique case study that could contribute to social movement theory. Research has rarely developed theory on start-up social movement organisations (SMOs) facing conditions antithetical to survival. This research considers challenges and possible strategies for a new start-up SMO together with some implications for the SMO of the multi-level pressures within the SMO's organisational field. This case study suggests that a legitimacy seeking start-up SMO is vulnerable to oppositional external influences leading it to self-censorship. Despite international messages opposing local ones, the local environment has a strong effect on the new SMO attempting to influence local constituents.