What’s capitalism – generational differentiation in the climate movement

At the moment when we are writing this abstract, the last year was just announced as the warmest on record, the first to breach the symbolic 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm about the climate and ecological crisis, but these warnings have been met with inadequate response and political inertia.In the last decade, a strong and diverse climate movement emerged, with grassroots groups mostly composed of young people engaging in a variety of actions, including civil disobedience. Earth scientists have however been timid to engage openly with these movements, concerned about their reputation and about breaching scientific neutrality.However, fuelled by concern in the face of inaction, this started to change in the last years with scientists increasingly taking strong roles and positions for or in activist groups, for instance via groups such as Scientist Rebellion or Scientists for XR. The engagement of earth scientists in climate groups can have strong beneficial effects (Capstick et al 2022): As non-usual suspects and experts on the topic, their engagement in the climate movement can increase the feeling of emergency, while their respected position in society can help lending legitimacy to activist groups sometimes disregarded as young and unserious.Despite an increase in the willingness of earth scientists to be more engaged beyond their own research work, there are still strong barriers to their involvement in the climate movement (Dablander et al 2024). While conceptions around neutrality and fears of hurting one’s reputation are a big part of earth scientists' hesitations, uncertainties about how to get involved and the kind of roles available to them also represent a strong barrier. This poster aims at presenting different types of involvement in the climate justice movement that might fit you as an earth scientist and a citizen. It builds from our own experience in activist groups, as well as research and publications by different organizations, to display the diversity of roles needed in grassroots climate groups, and help you find your own.  Capstick, S., Thierry, A., Cox, E. et al. Civil disobedience by scientists helps press for urgent climate action. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 773–774 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01461-yDablander, F., Sachisthal, M.S.M., Cologna, V. et al. Climate change engagement of scientists. Nat. Clim. Chang. 14, 1033–1039 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02091-2

Desde final de 2018, la nueva ola de movimientos climáticos a nivel internacional representa una nueva etapa en el activismo ecologista gracias también a la participación de actores locales que se pueden reagrupar bajo el paraguas de experiencias de activismo socioambiental de base. En el presente artículo presentaremos tres elementos que caracterizan este tipo de activismo y que consideramos determinantes en el desarrollo de estrategias frente a la crisis climática: la presencia de apegos al lugar local y global; la priorización de valores altruistas y biosféricos que se refleja en prácticas proambientales; y el carácter prefigurativo de estas prácticas. La propuesta se fundamenta en los resultados de las investigaciones llevadas a cabo en los últimos dos años en que se han estudiado distintas experiencias de activismo socioambiental de base en la Ciudad de México, además de las recientes movilizaciones del movimiento climático mexicano a partir de marzo de 2019.

Knowledge and action regulation are intricately interwoven with each other. The critical question is why in real-life situations only certain domains of knowledge were used in the process of action regulation, although other domains of knowledge would be (even conciously) available to the individual actor. To understand the process of knowledge utilization one has to capture the interrelationships between knowledge, value systems, motives, and emotions. Moreover, one has to take into account that human actions are inevitably situated, i. e. embedded in social and cultural systems. Thus, the conceptual framework of the present paper is based on the idea of human actions as multiple-actions whereby the coordination between individual or collective action goals which are either rooted in domain-specific knowledge (e. g. ecological knowledge) or social and cultural knowledge (e. g. knowledge about social and cultural rules, norms, and value systems) is critical. Based on this conceptual framework one can interpret, for example, why particular individuals within particular social and cultural systems don’t make any use of their domain-specific knowledge in the process of action regulation and why they prefer, instead, the utilization of social and cultural knowledge, i. e. knowledge which allows them to act in conformity with other individuals, other social or cultural groups.

Aiming to better understand the relationship between youth activism and institutional politics, this article analyzes young climate activists’ interactions with political parties and how they shape the dynamics of the School Strike for Climate. Through a multi-sited ethnography in Portugal’s two major cities, we examined the participation experiences of young climate strikers from both chapters of the movement, revealing the contingent and complex development of their relationships with party politics, which ultimately influences the dynamics of Portuguese youth climate activism. The ethnographic data uncovered ambivalent and tensional relationship patterns with political parties in the two local groups. While closeness and collaboration with actors linked to institutional politics aimed at strengthening the climate movement’s broader political representation, it also prompted resistance, leading to internal conflicts within the movement. Our findings highlight differing political strategies and ideological stands among local groups, as well as tensions and ambivalences in the interactions with political parties. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges of sustaining the School Strike for Climate movement over time and the ways in which activist movements negotiate political affiliations and internal cohesion.

There is little novelty to be found in the Paris Climate Agreement. Nevertheless, it may have serious implications for climate policy-making. It establishes an international framework for decentralized climate policy-making by states, which should aim to achieve an ambitious collective objective of limiting global average temperature increase to well below to well below 2 °C or even 1.5 °C. The agreement does not set any mechanism, methodology or criteria, however, for assigning individual mitigation obligations to party states. It does not impose any significant substantive obligations on the parties, and, from a legal, as opposed to political or moral, viewpoint, it seems to be virtually non-binding. This gap is destined to become the Paris Agreement’s Trojan horse, because, under the guise of direct democracy in a system of multi-level, non-hierarchical governance, it grants not only credibility but also de facto authority to climate activists, thus posing a threat to constitutional government and representative democracy. The agreement demands that nation states explicitly acknowledge that their efforts are inadequate, while setting them up for failure, thereby changing the political environment in which climate policy is made. The ambition-obligation disparity creates a large arena for climate activism at international and national levels, effectuating a transfer of power, or at least of influence, that is inconsistent with the fundamental principles of constitutional government. If the collective efforts appear to fall short of achieving the Paris Agreement’s objectives, the judiciary is likely to be dragged into climate policy-making. Climate action groups or executive governments supporting ambitious action will charge the body politic with impotence, declare “government failure,” and seek the help of the courts to get governments to “do the right thing.” To support their claims, they can invoke the admissions and objectives set out in the Paris Agreement. Thus, in demanding that the signatories acknowledge explicitly that their efforts are inadequate, the Paris Agreement paves the way for the new international climate governance. Its implicit reliance on political activism by the climate movement and the related non-hierarchical governance by the courts constitute a threat to constitutional government, the rule of law, and representative democracy. It risks an unconstitutional usurpation of power by activist groups and unelected and unaccountable judges that could undermine legislative power and the role of positive law in deciding legal disputes. This risk of subversion is not well understood by politicians and governments. Nations should protect themselves against these threats. After all, signing away control over climate policy to unaccountable and unelected actors is not in the public interest. Nor is it, under even the most optimistic of circumstances, a viable path to rational, effective and sustainable climate policies. Indeed, the future of representative democracy may be at stake. Climate policy-making should not be left to the UNFCC secretariat, the climate movement and the judiciary. Now is the time for national legislatures to assert and defend their prerogatives.

The article analyzes the formation of political and legal activity of youth in Ukraine. The main forms of youth political activity are characterized. Considerable attention is paid to the characteristics of the mechanisms and tools of youth participation in the formation and implementation of youth policy. On the basis of the analysis of the legal framework of youth policy, conclusions were made regarding the main trends and specifics of youth participation in political processes, which is expressed through the activities of various public organizations and movements. The purpose of the publication is to study the process of formation of political and legal activity of youth in Ukraine and the role of the state in its formation and development. The methodological basis of the study is based on the use of philosophical, general scientific methods, methods of a systematic approach to analyze the ways and means of forming the political and legal activity of youth, in determining the socio-political situation of youth in Ukraine. The structural-functional approach is used to determine the functions of political activity in the conditions of the transition of society from an authoritarian to a democratic political system. The institutional approach is used to analyze the interaction of the process of political and legal activity and the political system of society, where political institutions, political parties, and public associations play the main role. The normative-value approach was embodied in the analysis of the system of political values, their formation and role in the process of political socialization of the young generation. The scientific novelty of the publication lies in the comprehensive analysis of political and legal activity of youth in Ukraine and its significance for political and socio-economic development. Conclusions. Youth is a dynamic component of modern Ukrainian society. Since young people have to implement the reforms initiated by the state, the state, determining the ways of formation and development of society, focuses primarily on young people, whose potential and knowledge can become a guarantee of progressive development. The political and legal activity of youth is aimed at the formation of a young person who positions himself as a responsible person who respects the rights of other people; is tolerant of political, moral, aesthetic, worldview orientations and preferences; shows a desire for such forms and directions of activity that would consolidate social efforts, make the life of every person meaningful, civilized and promising; is active in the political and legal sphere. Despite the difficult political, economic, and social situation in the country, the public structures of the youth movement are actively developing, preserving their historical traditions, roots, occupying an appropriate place in the political system of society and have now acquired a rather clear outline and certainty, which is due to the presence of support and the implementation of an active policy from the state and local authorities.

Climate movements led by students and the youth worldwide (and in particular, those in richer economies) have been recognized as having a formidable voice and making important contributions towards a more radical societal transformation to face the climate crisis. However, little is said about the contribution of popular sectors, who have been mobilizing for decades and demanding broader structural transformations—with proposals that tackle environmental issues more broadly and the climate crisis in particular—but who are not directly involved in climate politics arenas, such as the United Nations Climate Change conferences. Usually portrayed as vulnerable, as those most affected by climate events, as victims and receivers of adaptation strategies, or, as resilient, rarely do popular sectors appear as agents of transformation. Critical scholars have advocated for understanding the climate crisis as part of multiple crises, including the biodiversity crisis, a crisis of care, and a crisis of democracy. Situating our article within this scholarship, we argue that the scholarly and societal debate on climate change will further benefit from broadening the scope of which social subjects are considered as part of the climate movement. Based on our research with rural popular feminist movements in Brazil, and in particular, the coalition Marcha das Margaridas, we address the following questions: how are their diagnostics of, and proposals to, overcome the climate crisis embedded in their broader project of transformation? Additionally, how does their political identity within class, gender, and rural categories of inequality inform their positions?

Introduction: Culture and Psychiatry

Coalitions that Clash: California's Climate Leadership and the Perpetuation of Environmental Inequality

Purpose In March 1969, Brisbane student and political activist Margaret Bailey was suspended from Inala High School – ostensibly for “undermining the authority” of her teacher – prompting claims of political suppression. Through a case study of the subsequent campaign for Bailey’s reinstatement, the purpose of this paper is to explain the emergence of the high school activist as a new political actor in the late 1960s. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on newsletters and pamphlets produced by Brisbane activists, alongside articles from the left-wing and mainstream press, to reconstruct the key events of the campaign and trace the major arguments advanced by Bailey and her supporters. Findings Initiated by the high school activist group, Students in Dissent (SID), the campaign in support of Bailey lasted over two months, culminating in a “chain-in” staged by Bailey at the Queensland Treasury Building on 8 May. Linking together arguments about students’ rights, civil liberties and democratic government, the campaign reveals how high school activism was enabled not only by the broader climate of political dissent in the late 1960s, but by the increasing emphasis on secondary education as a right of modern citizenship in the preceding decades. Originality/value This is the first study of the campaign for Bailey’s reinstatement at Inala High School and one of the only analyses to date of the political mobilisation of high school students in Australia during the late 1960s. The case study of the Bailey campaign underlines that secondary school students were important players in the political contests of the late 1960s and, if only for brief periods, were able to command the attention of education officials, the media and leading politicians. It represents an important historical precedent for contemporary high school activism, including the global School Strike 4 Climate movement.

Responding to climate change requires us to reimagine not only our future on a planet that is rapidly changing, but also how we organize to create political change. The climate movement and those involved in climate activism frame action on climate change in a diverse manner, articulating multiple possibilities for, and means to achieve, a different society. This article explores the ways in which activist groups in Aotearoa New Zealand work with cultural values and political imagination to organize themselves in framing the future to communicate and mobilize change. Our research identifies four key frames – rebel, reform, rebuild, and ruin – that shape the approaches taken by activists in order to resist the status quo and achieve radical change. We show how activists frame climate action and draw on culture to negotiate the political intersections of organizing for change, as well as how these frames overlap to create “in-between spaces.” Examining these in-between spaces reveals multiple and contextual visions of political change, emphasizing the importance of the cultural contexts of Aotearoa and the possibilities that arise from imagining different futures.

Fridays for Future, an environmental protection campaign initiated by Greta Thunberg, has received a lot of attention worldwide. Some have suggested that Greta is a prodigy of climate activism. By analyzing Thunberg’s protests and the Protestant culture behind them, we argue that the climate movement has failed to tackle the climate crisis. We then advance an alternative approach from the perspective of Chinese culture that points to more practical solutions, insisting that political activism must reflect the broader culture if it is to win the support and participation of the people. Whether activism can help resolve the climate crisis or not depends on the will of the people. While protest is sometimes an effective way to address social and political problems, its purpose is ultimately to inspire action. In solving societal problems, Chinese people pay special attention to process, balance, and practical action. The evidence shows that, so long as Chinese people can do so, they will safeguard their homes and protect their environment based on sentiments that are deeply rooted in Chinese culture. The cultural practice embodied by the Chinese adage “change starts with me, change starts now” offers a practical solution to the current climate crisis.

In August 2018, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg began protesting for climate justice in front of the Swedish parliament. This protest developed into the global movement Fridays For Future, which encompassed 163 countries and over four million people in September 2019. In Austria a new climate movement has also emerged, which will be analysed in this article from an intersectional perspective and by using a mixed-methods approach: First, the analytical lens of structural intersectionality investigates which social categories shape Fridays For Future to understand which activists are part of the social movement. Second, the intersectional collective action framework is used to analyse the extent to which social categories, such as gender and age, underpin activists’ framing of the climate crisis and their motivation. Third, the lens of intersectional activism addresses to what extent diversity and inclusion are part of the self-image and strategy of Fridays For Future, and to what extent social inequalities along social categories (re)create power and exclusion. Such an intersectional analysis is a young field of social movement studies, although the concept of intersectionality emerged from political activism. Thus, the article makes a significant contribution to the intersectional analysis of the climate justice movement.

The ecological rehabilitation project has greatly curbed the serious problem of karst rocky desertification (KRD) in southern China and significantly changed the ecological environment and landscape pattern of the karst rocky desertification control areas (KRDCA). As one of the most important social–ecological fragile areas in the world, rural landscapes in KRDCA still show a strong sensitivity to disturbance. To reduce risks and improve the resilience of landscapes, this paper constructs a framework for assessing rural landscape resilience in KRDCA from the three dimensions of ecology, engineering, and social culture, based on the concept of resilience defined by the United Nations International Agency for Disaster Reduction. Considering the characteristics of rural landscapes in KRDCA, we select typical villages for empirical study. The results show the following: (1) The KRDCA is highly sensitive to natural disasters due to its special dual geomorphic structure characteristics. The disaster preparedness capacity of villages is the key factor determining the resilience of rural landscapes. The analysis of the disaster preparedness capacities of rural landscape structures with different vulnerability characteristics can be used as an effective means of evaluating the resilience level of rural landscapes in KRDCA. (2) Based on the empirical analysis of Fanhua village, which is a typical KRDCA in southern China, we found that the ecological system and engineering system of the village landscape have high resilience, while the resilience of the social and cultural systems are weak. This is due to the fact that the large number of rural population emigration in recent years has resulted in villages being at the key node of the reorganization of the social and cultural value system. The unstable sociocultural value system reduces the ability of rural landscapes to adapt to disturbance or environmental change. The study results could guide improvement strategies for subsequent landscape planning and inspire new ideas and methods for the implementation of rural revitalization strategies and the improvement of landscape resilience in KRDCA.

This article analyses the role of religious symbolism and religiosity during The Gambia’s autocracy (1994–2017) and its democratic transition (2017–2023). Former autocratic ruler, Yahya Jammeh, exploited religious symbolism to legitimise his authority, leading to crackdowns, extrajudicial punishment, and political repression. Drawing on community engagements and interviews with 61 civil-society members, political actors, community stakeholders, and girls in rural and urban areas across The Gambia’s West Coast Region, the findings highlight the influence of cultural and value systems, particularly the intersection of religion and politics, in shaping the country’s autocracy. Exploring some of the nuances of religious ideology and religious symbols concerning the state, The Gambia’s political history allows for deeper examinations of power dynamics within the broader cultural and societal context. By adopting a multidimensional perspective of power that incorporates religion, cultural values, and ethnic dimensions, this article offers new perspectives for analysing power structures and transformations in diverse socio-political settings.