Abstract
In a time of global climate crisis, and a surge in radical climate activism, the ways that activists undertake the work of social change matters. This research focuses on a significant player in that surge, Extinction Rebellion (XR). Despite now being a global movement, XR has its origins in the United Kingdom, and this has shaped the ways that it pursues social change. It is one of the groups at the forefront of a revival of radical climate activism, but this prominence has highlighted how middle-class and white it is, raising questions about its commitment to climate justice.
This research draws on the relationships between two key concepts: radicalism and knowledge-practices. Radicalism is the ways that activists conceptualise their activist goals and performances in transformational terms. Knowledge-practices are situated, embodied, and concrete practices that enact knowledge. Radical knowledge-practices not only inform activism, they are also imbued with power, as activists make claims to ‘truth’ to justify their arguments. I therefore analyse how the power attached to knowledge affects radical performances as activists discover, learn, and teach, but also direct and dominate social movements.
I situate this research in Aotearoa New Zealand, a settler-colonial state where activist identities are entangled with historical and contemporary processes of colonisation. I focus on how XR’s knowledge-practices were diffused across the globe, received, and then reconstructed in Aotearoa New Zealand, leading to particular activist performances. I do this through an indepth ethnographic study of Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand (XRANZ), particularly a local branch, XR Ōtepoti Dunedin, which combines participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. My data also incorporates interviews and observations with a range of non-XR activists and their events to situate XR in the broader movement in Aotearoa New Zealand. In total, 35 interviews were undertaken.
Across four analytical chapters I draw four main conclusions. First, I argue that XRANZ adapted XR’s globalised knowledge-practices in ways that are responsive to the local context and its colonial past and present. Second, I argue that a movement ecosystem with a diversity of knowledge-practices supports activists engaging with alternative approaches to social change, particularly climate and decolonial justice. Third, I suggest that thinking broadly about what constitutes radical activist identities can reduce conflict and facilitate social change. Finally, I argue that when activists make assumptions about the ways that police respond to protest, activists’ actions can be less effective. Overall, these four chapters highlight the important role that radical climate activists perform in our society, and some of the significant challenges that they face.
This research examines the ways that radical activism is shaped by knowledge-practices drawn from multiple locations, forms of evidence, and activist cultures and dynamics. It sheds light on the complicated processes by which knowledge, and what is deemed truth, affect activist identities, theories of change, and activist performances. It provides a unique perspective – from a settler-colonial state – on XR, a new climate activist group that has reinvigorated climate activism, but which raises significant questions about the ways that social movements adopt and adapt knowledge-practices.