I am a PhD researcher at The University of Sheffield. My presentation is about Extinction Rebellion’s (XR) first year on the streets of London and how activists chose places and those places shaped that activism.

#PGFTC2020 #PGFHOME #IAAGEOG #APlace4Activism

Banksy at MA(1)

Activism may be best understood in specific places. The entanglement of place and activism is not well represented in the literature. Place allows weaving together of location, nature, social relations, meaning, identity and memories to better understand the world.

M A(2)

My methodology used active participant observation undertaking actions with an affinity group, a borough-based group and London wide XR, field notes, sound diary, video clip moment analysis and Twitter scraping. Semi-structured interviews are on hold due to COVID19!

(3)

Findings include

The importance of creating collective meaning

Places as territory highlighted by the police and their tactics, with its impact on activist solidarity

The central place of new media that shapes activism

The use of ‘in’ and ‘out’ of place by activists

(4)

XR’s first year on the streets of London demonstrates how activism chooses places, changes those places and places shape the activists their activism and its framing and discourse. Their actions created memories and left traces of the activism.

Love and Rage

Red Brigade(5)