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A typology of the climate activist

Author

Listed:
  • Nick Kirsop-Taylor

    (Politics, The University of Exeter)

  • Duncan Russel

    (Politics, The University of Exeter)

  • Anne Jensen

    (University of Aarhus)

Abstract

As the climate crisis escalates and citizens increasingly come to understand the existential consequences of political inaction on our civilisation, they are demanding radical action. Although people are mobilising as climate activists in ever more creative and imaginative ways, our understandings about the variety of inside and outside climate activism lack conceptual clarity. Every year there are new accounts from different academic literatures about climate activists and their role in the vital politics of climate change. This paper argues that now is an appropriate time to draw together these accounts and begin a process of articulating a clearer sense of the contemporary climate activist. This paper offers an initial contribution to the endeavour by synthesising across literature a unified conception of the climate activist typologised in terms of their focal orientations and the theories of change they operate under. Utilising a matrix approach, it is argued that the climate activist seeks change relative to a specific endogenous or exogenous focus. Further, that climate activists orientate around collaborative or confrontational theories of change leading to 16 theorised-proposed mutually inclusive types of climate activists.

Suggested Citation

  • Nick Kirsop-Taylor & Duncan Russel & Anne Jensen, 2023. "A typology of the climate activist," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-7, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02398-z
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02398-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chris Woolston, 2016. "Activism: A call to serve," Nature, Nature, vol. 539(7630), pages 599-600, November.
    2. Dana R. Fisher & Sohana Nasrin, 2021. "Climate activism and its effects," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), January.
    3. Kees Biekart & Jenny Pearce, 2013. "Power and the Twenty-first Century Activist: From the Neighbourhood to the Square," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 44(3), pages 639-663, May.
    4. Christine Ro, 2022. "Marching in the streets for climate-crisis action," Nature, Nature, vol. 603(7900), pages 349-351, March.
    5. Heng Chen & Wing Suen, 2017. "Aspiring for Change: A Theory of Middle Class Activism," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(603), pages 1318-1347, August.
    6. Nico Stehr, 2014. "Climate policy: A societal sea change," Nature, Nature, vol. 513(7518), pages 312-312, September.
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