Activist Natures: an examination of Extinction Rebellion as a movement of conceptual and ethical reform in London and Madrid

缓解气候危机需要重大的社会和基础设施变革（IPCC，2018）。这种社会变革需要放弃西方的“自然”概念，将其定义为独立的和与人类对立的，这种论点在最近的环境范式，流行的环境文学和气候崩溃的社会科学中越来越普遍。然而，这种远离现代主义西方对“自然”的看法的举动是如何出现的，以及什么将取代它，人们并不广泛认同。我的研究探讨了这种变化是如何感知和参与灭绝叛乱（XR）：最近的跨国环境运动谁的独特的“再生文化”的方法，旨在通过鼓励“关怀”的伦理改变与自己，他人和“自然世界”的关系。我的研究挑战西方和非西方的同质化，通过探索国家历史和环境参与的地理影响活动家参与XR的“再生文化”方法，在环境话语中对“自然”的看法。我比较了XR活动家在北方欧洲城市-伦敦-和南欧城市-马德里-如何体验，构建，重新谈判和阐明他们对“自然”和相关的护理伦理的看法，以及他们如何认为这些与促进社会变革有关。我将带来我的研究见解，关于XR马德里和XR伦敦如何通过直接行动主义改变对“自然”的看法，与学术理论就“自然”的概念及其在证明对有色人种、女性和非人类的压迫的合理性方面的作用进行对话。这项研究旨在帮助活动家和学术界努力改变西方对“自然”的具体看法，以促进公正和有效地缓解气候危机。

Mitigating the climate crisis requires significant social as well as infrastructural change (IPCC, 2018). The argument that such social change requires abandoning the Western idea of 'nature', defined as separate and opposed to humanity, is increasingly prevalent across the West within recent environmental paradigms, popular environmental literature, and social science on climate breakdown. However, how such a move away from modernist Western perceptions of 'nature' can emerge and what would take its place is less widely agreed. My research examines how such change is perceived and engaged with in Extinction Rebellion (XR): a recent transnational environmental movement who's unique 'regenerative culture' approach aims to change relationships to oneself, others, and the 'natural world' through encouraging an ethic of 'care'. My research challenges the homogenisation of Western, and non-Western, perceptions of 'nature' in environmental discourse through exploring how national histories and geographies of environmental engagement influence activists' engagement with XR's 'regenerative culture' approach. I compare how XR activists in a Northern European city -London- and the Southern European city -Madrid- experience, construct, re-negotiate and articulate their perceptions of 'nature' and related ethics of care, and how they consider these related to facilitating social change.I will bring my research insights on how XR Madrid and XR London are engaging with arguments to change perceptions of 'nature' through direct-action activism, into dialogue with academic theory on the concept of 'nature' and its role in justifying the oppression of people of colour, females, and non-humans. This research aims to assist both activist and academic efforts to change specific Western perceptions of 'nature' in a manner that facilitates just and effective mitigation of the climate crisis.