Science and ethics in the post-political era: strategies within the Camp for Climate Action

Abstract

Despite a peak in activism against climate change in the UK, new environmental direct action networks have not yet received much academic attention. This article takes as a case study perhaps the most prominent of such networks -the Camp for Climate Action -which held several high-profile protest events between 2006 and 2011. Using a theoretical framework which understands society as being distinctly 'post-political' in character, we ask questions about the knowledge claims that form the foundations of radical environmental politics. Drawing on published statements and press releases, as well as from our insights as active participants in the Camp, we analyse the strategy of environmental protest where climate change has become its focus. The Camp for Climate Action was a contested political arena. We argue that this contestation existed over the Camp's strategy in the context of a 'scientised', 'post-political' politics which operated within an ethical framework that prescribed individual responsibility as the primary basis for action.

Participation in Transition(s): Reconceiving Public Engagements in Energy Transitions as Co-Produced, Emergent and Diverse

“…The camps can be understood as an explicit attempt to create a form of political space, albeit that this space was often contested (Saunders & Price, 2009;Schlembach, 2011;Schlembach et al, 2012). A particular function of this space was to appraise the strategic repertoire for tackling climate change both generally (i.e.…”

“…George Monbiot at Kingsnorth). Climate science was also enrolled in the CCAs, particularly at Heathrow where the activists marched under the banner 'We are armed only with peer-reviewed science' (Schlembach, Lear, & Bowman, 2012). During the camps themselves the mediation of the collective was primarily via daily neighbourhood meetings using consensus decision-making from which a spokesperson was sent to a central meeting.…”

Depoliticised activism? Ambivalence and pragmatism at the COP16

“…Paralleling many other forms of environmental activism, the climate justice movement attempted to reframe climate change as not only as an environmental issue, but rather as an issue of social justice inseparably bound to social and political relations (see Brand et al, 2009;Bond, 2012;or Chatterton et al, 2013; for a discussion of these views elsewhere in the climate change movment see: Saunders, 2012;or Schlembach et al, 2012). In many ways the CJM seemed, at one point at least, to be the heir to the 'movement of movements' that had emerged out of the alterglobalisation protests (AGM) of the late 1990s and early-mid 2000s (Bond, 2012).…”

“…In many ways the CJM seemed, at one point at least, to be the heir to the 'movement of movements' that had emerged out of the alterglobalisation protests (AGM) of the late 1990s and early-mid 2000s (Bond, 2012). It mirrored the AGM in terms of often involving protest camps oriented around formal summit negotiations (Frenzel, 2014); its strong anti-hierarchical organising models; the use of direct action as an important organising tool; and the social and environmental justice focus (Chatterton et al, 2013;Schlembach et al, 2012;and Saunders, 2012). An exploration of dynamics of climate-change activism in Cancún, specifically, is key to our understanding of the challenges facing activists globally, as well as those looking to challenge the dominant depoliticised framings of climate change emerging from within the formal COPs.…”

“…With regard to discussions of activism and post-politics, there is debate within the literature over the extent to which activism either supports post-political theory, challenges it in its dissent, or even reproduces it in, or as, activism (Pusey and Russell, 2010;North, 2010;Schlembach et al, 2012;Urry, 2011). This is due both to the variety of forms of activist organisation, and the types of critiques on which action is often based.…”