Social mobilizations for climate justice and living beings

Intersections and influences between environmental and social movements in the issue of climate change.



How are today’s mobilized activists redefining socio-ecological struggles?

Objectives

  • Understand the reconfigurations of socio-ecological struggles around climate change, particularly the intersection of social and ecological concerns;
  • Analyze whether and how anchoring in specific territories allows for the problematization of issues of social inequality, colonialism and privilege.

Issue

The issue of climate change may seem disconnected from the day-to-day issues that many groups and organizations work on. Climate action is also traditionally represented in a rather limited way, focusing on the reduction of greenhouse gases and the adaptation of our environments to climate hazards. However, these two objectives imply major transformations of our societies and our practices. Moreover, not only climate change itself, but also the actions taken to respond to it can exacerbate existing social and environmental problems if we consider the climate in a closed vessel.

Many groups and mobilized citizens link climate action to a broad set of elements that must be at the heart of these transformations. What connections and linkages are being made by young activists in socio-ecological struggles today? What alternative visions do they propose to us?

Ongoing projects

  • Activist Visions and Practices for Decolonial Climate Justice in Montreal
    Research conducted by Zainab El Guerrab and Sophie L. Van Neste, funded by the Research Chair and SSHRC Institutional (2021-2023)
  • Intersections of environmentalist struggles with student, union and territorial defence struggles. Comparative multi-scale analysis France Canada.
    Research conducted by Pascale Dufour (Université de Montréal) and Sophie L. Van Neste, SSHRC funding Savoir (2022-2026)