1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Grassroots Climate Activism
The Routledge Handbook of Grassroots Climate Activism introduces contemporary forms of grassroots climate activism from around the world through the lenses of a variety of academic disciplines, methodologies, and perspectives. Focusing on bottom-up case studies, it showcases innovative and creative approaches, as well as the knowledge of those working towards swift decarbonisation, just transitions, and climate justice.
Grassroots climate activism presents a rich body of material to be studied not only by anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and political scientists, but also by scholars in the humanities and the creative arts. This timely handbook explores climate activism across six continents, and it provides perspectives from climate activists themselves. The authors interrogate a range of key questions: what forms of mobilisation, organisation, and practice constitute grassroots climate activism, and how have these changed over the last decade? What are the boundaries of the climate movement and how does it interact with, or differ from, other social movements? How do activists engage with the moral dimensions of the climate crisis? How do grassroots engagements with climate struggles give shape to plural, site-specific, but nonetheless interconnected, forms of climate activism? What tools do climate activists use to create functioning and effective local, national, and transnational networks? How has climate activism been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic? What is the relationship between critical scholarship and climate activism? What methodologies are particularly effective for studying climate activism, and why?
This handbook aims to inspire others to devote more attention to grassroots climate activism. It brings together established and up-and-coming scholars, scholar-activists, and practitioners who present novel, cutting-edge research and new findings exploring current developments in different parts of the world. This book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of climate activism, climate solutions, climate and society, human-environmental crises, grassroots activism, and social movements. It will also be of interest to practitioners involved in climate action and to all those who are ready to launch their own grassroots initiatives, or support one of the many already underway.
1. Grassroots Climate Activism Across Six Continents
Sabine von Mering, Thomas E. Bell, Alexandre da Silva Faustino, Wendy Steele, Ann Ward, and Mariana Arjona Soberón
Part I: Accounts from the Ground: The Fight for Climate Justice
2. NoDAPL and the continued fight for Tribal Self-Determination by Federally Recognized Indian Tribes in the United States
Ashley Hemmers
3. Indigenous Climate Justice and Epistemic Politics in Amazonia
Sylvia Cifuentes
4. Brazilian Grassroots Climate Activism in Unequal Waterscapes
Alexandre da Silva Faustino, Nícolas Guerra-Tão, and Wendy Steele
5. Pacific Youth and Climate Activism: Safeguarding Our Fa’asinomaga
Tahere T Siisiialafia Mau and Joseph Percival
6. Realising Common Ground: Custodianship of Country and Youth Climate Action
Madison Shakespeare, Michelle Catanzaro, and Caelli Jo Brooker
7. Action, Inertia, and the Stories that Get us Moving
Keerti Gopal
Introduction to Part II
8. Climate Activism and Attunement through Creative Practices
Rebecca Olive, Fiona Hillary, Wendy Steele, Kit Wise, Alexandre da Silva Faustino, Nícolas Guerra-Tão, and Paloma Bugedo
9. A Contemplative Pedagogy of Listening
Linda Chase
10. The Sonic Work of Transnational Youth Climate Movements
Mark Ortiz
11. Performing Transformative Climate Justice
Thomas King
12. Turning a Leaf: Climate Activism in English-language Writing
Sabine von Mering
13. Wild Hope and Curatorial Activism
Fleur Watson, Wendy Steele, Naomi Stead, and Katrina Simon
Part III: Diverse Modes of Organising Different Constituencies
Introduction to Part III
14. Nanna Mobilities: Environmental Policy and Protest Movements in Australia and the UK
Prashanti Sasha Dhani Mayfield
15. Young People’s Climate Activism
Sally Neas, Ann Ward, and Benjamin Bowman
16. Pandemic Possibilities: The Corona Crisis as Perceived Opportunity and Threat for Climate Activists
Mattias Wahlström and Lotte Schack
17. Youth Climate Activists’ Practices on Social Media in Belgium and France
Yuliya Samofalova, Andrea Catellani, and Louise Amelie Cougnon
18. Challenging Politics to Do (and Be) Better: Young People’s Climate Activism Role in the Italian Political Landscape
Gabriella Sesti Ossèo
19. Christian Communities as Climate Champions
Reba Elliott
Part IV: Civil Disobedience and Litigation vs Criminalising and Politicising Climate Activism
Introduction to Part IV
20. Extinction Rebellion and Non-Violent Civil Disobedience
Linda Williams and Damien Rudd
21. System Change, Not Climate Change: The Climate Justice Movement in Germany 2008–2022
Daniel Hofinger and Maximilian Becker
22. Unburnable Coal and Unlabelled Climate Activism in China
Bowen Gu and Liu Juan
23. Beyond Protest: How Legal Actions Drive Climate Justice
Lea Maine-Klingst, Maria-Antonia Tigre, and Hermann Ott
24. ‘Academic Freedom’ v Climate Change Denial: How the Politics of Research Funding Shape the Possibilities for Researching Grassroots Activism
Rob Watts, Judith Bessant, Stewart Jackson, Michelle Catanzaro, Faith Gordon, and Philippa Collin
Part V: Grassroots Critical Perspectives on Climate Actions
Introduction to Part V
25. Grassroots Climate Activism in North Africa: Local, Personal and Radical
Haneen Ali Zeglam
26. Climate Change Infrastructures and Transnational Activist Networks
Emilia Groupp
27. Community-Led Responses to Climate-Induced Disasters in Zimbabwe: Towards a Politico-Community-Based Model
Thomas Karakadzai and Innocent Chirisa
28. Climate Activism and Environmental Politics in Mongolia
Joe Ellis and Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo
29. Grassroots vs Greenwashing: The Climate Movement and Animal Agriculture
Adriana Voss-Andreae
Part VI: Fighting Against False Solutions and Prefiguring Alternatives
Introduction to Part VI
30. No Greenwashing of Fossil Gas - Creating a Grassroots Transatlantic Climate Bridge Against False Solutions
Andy Gheorghiu and Sabine von Mering
31. Climate Activism and the Political-Economic Landscape in Nigeria
Joy Egbe
32. Grounding the Global Climate Movement: Eco-socialist militancy and Neo-rural experimentations in the present Environmental Activism in Italy
Elena Apostoli Cappello
33. Promise Motivation: Films that Encourage Grassroots Climate Activism
Sabine von Mering
34. Insider Climate Activism: Slowing Down or Speeding Up to Decarbonize?
Annika Skoglund
Part VII: Epistemological Questions and New Praxis
Introduction to Part VII
35. Knowledge in the Frame: The Epistemology of Extinction Rebellion
Georgina Treloar
36. Convening Climate Activism in Canada: Conflicting Expertise and the Production of the Problem
Adam Fleischmann
37. Climate Activism in K-12 Formal Education Across North American Contexts
Ellen Field, Sarah Stapleton, Gregory Lowan-Trudeau, Colin Harris, Chloe Nguyen, and Aishwarya Puttur
38. People Powered Climate Justice: Challenges and Possibilities in Engaging Activists in Strategic Capacity Building
Rumbidzai Irene Mpahlo, Joseph Worthy Jr., and Alexander Repenning
39. Building Regenerative Cultures in Extinction Rebellion Activism and Academic Research
Hannah Fitchett
40. A Future Through Climate Activism: An Outlook
Sabine von Mering, Alexandre da Silva Faustino, and Wendy Steele
Biography
Sabine von Mering is Director of the Center for German and European Studies, Professor of German and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and a core faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Thomas E. Bell has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Kent, UK.
Alexandre da Silva Faustino has a PhD in Urban Geography completed at the School of Global, Urban, and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, and is member of The Alliance for Praxis Research.
Wendy Steele is Research Director at RMIT Europe, Spain, and a Professor in Sustainability and Critical Urban Governance in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University, Australia.
Ann Ward has a PhD in Sociology from Brandeis University, USA and works at the Office of Sustainability at Tufts University, USA.
Mariana Arjona Soberón is a PhD Candidate at the Rachel Carson Center and the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University of Munich, Germany.
"Just what we have needed: a global, diverse, and accessible must-have collection for anyone who studies, teaches or is active in the climate movement."
Juliet B. Schor, Professor of Sociology, Boston College, UK.
"An incredible resource for activists and activists-to-be."
Luisa Neubauer, climate activist, co-founder of the Fridays for Future youth climate movement in Germany, and co-author of Beginning to End the Climate Crisis. A History of Our Future (2023).
