More than just a one-hit-wonder? analyzing the meso level institutionalization of the climate movement in Germany (2019–2025)

In times of a ‘green backlash’, the study analyzes the climate movement in Germany between 2019 and 2025 to determine whether it is declining or has become institutionalized. The analysis focuses on the movement’s meso-level and draws on information regarding its social movement industry (SMI) (N = 491) that supported 11 Fridays for Future climate strikes. To explore the institutionalization of the climate movement, the study conducts a comparative analysis of the size, stability, dynamics, diversity of the organizations’ fields of activity, and the spatial structure of the SMI across the 11 climate strikes. This study shows that the climate movement has become institutionalized in Germany since 2019. The number of SMOs has remained relatively constant since November 2019 and the dynamics in the SMI have increased again since 2022. Regarding the breadth of its societal embedding, the study shows that the SMI members come from various fields of activity. The analysis of the spatial structure indicates that Berlin is the hub of the climate movement, but that other centers also exist in northern and western Germany. In eastern Germany, however, the climate movement receives little support and is only very poorly established.