(Re)configuring moral boundaries of intergenerational justice: the UK parent-led climate movement

Abstract

The interests of children in a climate-challenged future are underrepresented within UK policy-making and public discourse. Debates on intergenerational equity have centred on economic logic rather than the moral issue of harms to the next generation, or the responsibilities of today's generation. Civil movements play an important role in changing public and political thinking on this issue; however, research on intergenerational climate justice activism has so far been confined to the youth movement. This study uses an in-depth diary and interview dataset of 20 UK-based activist mothers and fathers to explore the emotional spaces of parenting and campaigning for intergenerational climate justice. Attention was paid to the role of parenthood in the framing and motivation for action, and the way that campaigning was sustained or impeded by activist parents' personal relationships. The study found that the emotional spaces of activist parenting were managed and demarcated through moral boundary work that was used to define, distinguish and legitimise a collective representation. These boundaries were relational and drawn selectively to include similar others and to form bridges with politicians; boundaries also functioned to delegitimise the role of adults without children, and to exclude and excuse younger children and older relatives from playing a part in justice activism. The paper concludes by considering how these processes might impede the movement and have implications for wider social justice.

What Are the Impacts of Concern About Climate Change on the Emotional Dimensions of Parents’ Mental Health? A Literature Review

“…All but one study had been published in the last 7 years (2017-2023), and more than half (15) had been published during 2022 or 2023. Basic characteristics of included papers can be found in Table 1 [7,25,[28][29][30][31][32][33]35,46,[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67].…”

“…All papers reviewed named concern about climate change as a source of emotional distress for parents, describing emotions that ranged from anxiety and worry to hopelessness and despair (see Figure 2) [7,25,[28][29][30][31][32][33]35,46,[53][54][55][56][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]68].…”

“…Those that explored qualitative aspects of parents' emotional experience painted a picture of moral injury [31,32,46,[53][54][55]61,62,64,65,68] Moral injury is the experience of psychological harm resulting from witnessing or engaging in actions that violate an individual's core moral values or beliefs [69,70], or from "betrayal by a trusted leader or authority [69]." In a landmark paper addressing the extraordinary burden of cli- to be a failure of human rights and a failure of ethical responsibility to care, leading to moral injury [18]."…”

“…There's so much based on what a sense of what the future may be. It's an awful shadow to live with [61]. "…”

“…Parents are concerned about the ethics of reproduction in a changing climate: While much of the attention on eco-reproductive concerns has been focused on the worries of prospective parents or people who have decided not to have children because of climate change, emerging research indicates that many parents feel distress about the ethics of having children in a time of climate change, as well [54,56,61,62,64,65]. This distress may be causing some individuals to have fewer children than they desire, due to concerns about the environmental impact of reproduction [54,56,62,64]:…”