Peter North

The Politics of Climate Activism in the UK: A Social Movement Analysis

This paper uses social movement theory (SMT) as a theoretical ‘gymnasium’ to explore the limits and possibilities of climate activism in the UK. The core SMT concepts are used to explore why climate activism emerged when it did, and how conceptions of there being a problem were translated into arguments about what should be done. If something should be done, is contentious politics or policy change the most appropriate strategy? At what scale should action take place: a local politics of prefiguration, through direct action, or in more visible mass mobilisations? It is argued that climate activism takes place in a diverse range of political spaces and scales and works actively to produce knowledges about the dangers of anthropogenic climate change and responsibilities for it, but it is unclear that it has the motive power to move to more sustainable ways of organising human society.

Grassroots Localisation?:The Scalar Potential of and Limits of the 'Transition' Approach to Climate Change and Resource Constraint

This paper engages with the progressive politics of climate change and resource constraint developed by the Transition ‘movement’ which looks to develop a positive local politics of the transition to a low carbon economy and society. At the heart of this politics is a vision of economic localisation rooted in a geographical imaginary of market towns with agricultural hinterlands. Consequently, the question of how the Transition model can be applied in urban settings has not been clear, leading to the implicit assumption that urban Transition initiatives are more complex and difficult. In contrast, this paper argues that the plasticity of Transition politics means that, in some cases, an urban context might be more productive for the development of Transition initiatives because it allows for a greater diversity of political action as well as providing a density of networks and resources that can be critical for the survival of grassroots interventions.

Cultural Policy and Urban Regeneration: a Special Edition of Local Economy:

Three Ministers are here today. Why? Because we know you’re on to something. The power of cultural clustering, culture in regeneration, the Bilbao effect, call it what you will – has been given a higher profile in the last couple of years than ever before. (Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, opening the DCMS conference on ‘Building Tomorrow: Culture in Regeneration’, Salford, 25 February 2003).

Geographies and utopias of Cameron's Big Society

This commentary engages with UK Prime Minister David Camerons concept of the ‘Big Society’ as a cure for issues of multiple deprivation in UK cities. It considers the extent that it can be summarily dismissed as the latest manifestation of processes of neoliberalisation or as a cover for major cuts in public expenditure. In the spirit of the arguments of critics who wish to have an open mind about the benefits or otherwise of neoliberalisation, this paper argues that it is not just those on the political right who have a critique of state action from the top down as a method of solving social problems. A well-funded alliance between professionals and local communities can deliver locally appropriate solutions. Given the UK Coalition Governments commitment to reducing public spending, however, adequate funding is absent, as is a genuine willingness to accept local empowerment or to combat inequality.

Local governance and local business interests: a critical review

Since 1980 the dominance of elected municipal government in Britain has given way to a broader local governance. While the precise configuration of this change has been debated in detail, approaches to the processes of restructuring and the operation and relative efficacy of new arrangements remain empirically limited and theoretically underdeveloped. We explore the usefulness of a range of contemporary theoretical accounts including regulationist approaches in responding to these lacunae. In developing our analysis we argue first that explaining the restructuring of local governance requires (amongst a range of developments) further theoretical and empirical work on local business interest representation; and, secondly, that attempts to move beyond partial evaluations of the new local governance must be predicated upon appropriate and rigorous theoretical foundations.

Exploring the politics of social movements through 'sociological intervention': a case study of local exchange trading schemes

Touraines method of Sociological Intervention (SI) for the analysis of social movements is examined in the light of a case study of Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS). Tempered by Meluccis critique of Touraines attempt to find one ‘higher’ meaning of a social movement, LETS was examined using a staged series of focus groups to uncover and illuminate the extent that LETS can be regarded as a social movement. The appropriateness of SI as a method within the resource constraints of a small study is discussed, and SI is recommended as an effective method of examining emerging social movements if triangulated with other methodological approaches.

Time banks – learning the lessons from LETS?

2002 is virtually identical to that of the 1930s, despite numerous policy initiatives. We regularly observe that as people from the Gorbals find work, they tend to move away. Could it be that an exclusive focus on the market economy, at the expense of what Cahn terms the ‘household’ economy of family and community, has contributed to the cycle of apparently never-ending areabased regeneration? Accepting this premise will require a considerable leap of imagination on the part of government. Equally, however, without the capacity to provide meaningful recognition for community activism – acknowledging that it is work – then much of the potential of Time Banking will be lost. Yet the argument should be winnable. The minimum wage has been set at such a low level that the bill for ‘top up’ benefits for those in work actually doubled to £5.2 billion between 1999 and 2001. There is also some evidence that many unscrupulous employers still find ways to avoid paying the minimum wage (Abrams, 2002). Factor in a significant debt burden in workless households, and for many citizens there are few rational reasons to attempt to find work. What will the Chancellor do? Agree a meaningful increase in the minimum wage and provide the Low Pay Commission with teeth? Dock benefits and make the poor even poorer? Or embrace complementary currencies such as time money as a viable alternative to welfare-to-work? It seems after all that Time Banks may turn out to be a force for love and money.

‘Save our Solsbury!’: The anatomy of an anti‐roads protest

Anti‐Road protest in the United Kingdom mushroomed in the mid‐1990s, with high profile campaigns at Twyford Down (1992), Oxleas Wood and Wanstead, London (1993–94) Bath (1994), Blackburn (1994–95), Glasgow Pollock (1994–95), and Newbury (1996). A detailed excavation of one such protest at Solsbury Hill, Bath shows the mobilising factors behind such protests are more than the road itself: but discourses of ecology, community defence and risk. Analysis of the protest and of these agendas using social movement theory shows the anti‐roads movement to be a negotiation ‐sometimes involving confrontation ‐ between activists whose primary focus is on forcing policy‐makers to stop the building of this particular road and more generally to change their pro‐road agenda; and those engaged in a more explicitly countercultural protest against wider ‘car culture’. The strategy of the former is best conceptualised under the Resource Mobilisation approach, while that of the latter fits more explicitly with the New Social ...

The business of the Anthropocene? Substantivist and diverse economies perspectives on SME engagement in local low carbon transitions

The involvement of private sector actors in low carbon urban transitions is a neglected element of geographical analysis. Drawing on Polanyian, cultural economic geographies and the non-capitalocentric ethics of JK Gibson-Graham’s diverse economies perspective, the paper engages with the wider literature on the engagement of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in environmental action, corporate social responsibility and low carbon transitions to develop a substantivist account of the contribution of SMEs to local low carbon transitions. The paper argues that, contra formalist economic analyses of economic rationality, SME owners should not be thought of as uncritical profit maximizers but as actors in favour of positive low carbon futures. Thus the paper argues that Polanyian economic geographies and diverse economies perspectives, which rarely speak to each other, can be drawn together, and concludes with suggestions for future research.

Constructing civil society? Green money in transition Hungary

ABSTRACT This paper examines the construction of green money, a civil society-based initiative in Hungary as a case study of the ‘institutional’ approach to the transition from command to market economies in East/Central Europe, which argues for the development of civil society organizations to facilitate structural changes in the economy. The paper compares programmes developed endogenously in Hungary through the diffusion of ideas about sustainability and economic democracy through international activist networks with those developed by a Hungarian NGO with support from western aid agencies. For the former, green money was a radical project aimed at developing alternative forms of livelihood through localized money networks, while for the latter it was a tool for ameliorating transition through the construction of mutual aid and community feeling. The paper points to problems in building new civil society institutions, arguing that while some of the difficulties encountered were technical problems that reflect the poor performance of green money as a development tool, other problems reflect more structural, political and cultural problems. The paper argues that over-optimistic conceptualizations of the potential of civil society in the facilitation of inclusive transition need to be more cognisant of the difficulties in constructing civil society from the outside.