‘You can be an environmentalist without being an extremist’. Environmentalists between lifestyle commitment and stigma avoidance.

The literature on social movements has shown that involvement in a militant organization, a fortiori a collective that promotes changes in lifestyles, such as some environmental movements, is a vector of secondary socialization. However, the members of these collectives experience a rejection of their militant identity by their non-engaged entourage: their commitment is perceived as too radical. They then seek to engage while avoiding any form of stigma. It is these negotiations that this article seeks to explore. Through a comparative ethnography, bringing together the cases of a youth movement and an ecovillage, it shows how individuals value their independence against any commitment that they would find too categorical, by adopting pacification strategies, which aim to communicate their life choices in a way that is acceptable to others.