Combines theoretical discussion and case studies to demonstrate how social movements and related activism have affected innovation in science, technology, and industry in the United States. This work explores the interaction of grassroots environmental action and mainstream industry and offers a conceptual framework for understanding it.

He analyzes four of these pathways: industrial opposition movements, organized against targeted technologies (as in the campaign against nuclear energy); technology- and product-oriented movements, which press for alternatives (as does the organic food movement); localism, which promotes local ownership (as in "buy-local" campaigns); and access pathways, which support a more equitable distribution of resources. Within each pathway, Hess examines reforms in five different areas: agriculture, energy, waste and manufacturing, infrastructure, and finance. The book's theoretical argument and empirical evidence demonstrate the complex pattern of incorporation (of grassroots innovations) and transformation (of alternative ownership structures and the alternative products themselves) that has characterized the relationship of industry and activism. Hess' analysis of alternative pathways to change suggests ways economic organizations could shift to a more just and sustainable course in the twenty-first century.