Breaking climate justice ‘silence’ in everyday life: The environmentalist killjoy, negotiation and relationship risk
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Many of the practices we engage in are unsustainable, but implicating ourselves in the death and destruction of people and the planet is discomforting, and something we would rather not discuss in otherwise light-hearted, everyday conversation.
In the latest journal article from Dr Lisa Howard, drawing from her PhD study of ‘everyday’ forms of environmental activism, she explores how climate activists find ways to engage in difficult moral discussions about unsustainable living with their non-activist family, friends, and colleagues.
The paper highlights a tension: While the activists were passionate about getting climate justice discussed more frequently at a public level, they would often self-censor or play down their climate politics with personally close others for fear of conflict, ridicule, and damage to the relationship. To deal with possible backlash, activists found ways to broach the topic more obliquely by engaging friends and family in sustainable social practices or using humour to diffuse any interactional discomfort.
However, some of the bolder activists used a stereotype environmentalist ‘killjoy’ identity to tactically subvert the norm of affirming, pleasant conversation and push the moral dimensions of climate change into conversation. The paper analyses the gendered and power-laden nature of interactions within personal relationships and considers the potential to advance a climate justice agenda more widely.
Howard, L. (2023). Breaking climate justice ‘silence’ in everyday life: The environmentalist killjoy, negotiation and relationship risk. The Sociological Review, 00380261231159524.