Insider climate activism – slowing down or speeding up to decarbonize?

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter in a book

Abstract

This chapter discusses climate activism in relation to speed, to explore two emerging polarized forms of “insider activism”, conceptualised as movements pursued in professional contexts. Both movements respond to the expressed “climate emergency”, the first by propagating for a Fast movement and the second for a Slow movement. By first presenting a spectrum of velocities that have emerged in response to the climate emergency, this chapter replays these temporal responses in two fictional polarizations of insider climate activism. The first illustration portrays employee activism within a CO2 polluting corporation, to investigate how Fast movements can develop within business. The second illustration, in contrast, portrays insider activism performed by public officials who work for a regional office, to explore how Slow movements can prosper within public organizations. This method produces a polarization, facilitating a reflective comparison of how activism pursued at work can take different transformative paces, sometimes successfully aligning with other organisational rhythms and professional practices. While very diverse activist movements, slow as well as fast, could prosper within both the private and public sectors, these two polarized fictional examples provide insights into the largely unexplored desynchronized velocities that exist in climate activism.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Routledge Handbook of Grassroots Climate Activism
EditorsSabine von Mering, Thomas E. Bell, Alexandre da Silva Faustino, Wendy Steel, Ann Ward, Mariana Arjona Soberon
Place of PublicationAbingdon
PublisherRoutledge
Chapter34
Pages524-536
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9781003396567
ISBN (Print)9781032500232, 9781032500263
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Dec 2024

Research Groups and Themes

  • SIMBE

Keywords

  • Insider activism
  • Employee activism
  • Climate activism
  • Slow movements
  • Fast movements
  • Speed
  • Acceleration
  • De-growth

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Insider climate activism – slowing down or speeding up to decarbonize?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this