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）。这种社会变革要求放弃西方的“自然”观念，即“自然”被定义为独立的、与人类相对立的观念。在最近的环境范式、通俗环境文学和气候崩溃的社会科学中，这种观点在西方越来越普遍。然而，这种远离现代主义西方对“自然”的看法是如何出现的，以及什么将取代它的位置，却没有得到广泛的认同。我的研究考察了这种变化是如何在灭绝叛乱（XR）中被感知和参与的：最近的跨国环境运动，其独特的“再生文化”方法旨在通过鼓励“关怀”伦理来改变与自己，他人和“自然世界”的关系。我的研究通过探索国家历史和环境参与的地理位置如何影响活动家与XR的“再生文化”方法的接触，挑战了西方和非西方对环境话语中“自然”的同质化看法。我比较了北欧城市伦敦和南欧城市马德里的XR活动家如何体验、构建、重新谈判和阐明他们对“自然”和相关护理伦理的看法，以及他们如何认为这些与促进社会变革有关。我将带着我的研究见解，探讨XR马德里和XR伦敦如何通过直接行动主义参与争论，改变对“自然”的看法，并与学术理论就“自然”的概念及其在为有色人种、女性和非人类的压迫辩护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”的特定看法，从而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.