Breaking Consensus, Transforming Metabolisms: Notes on direct-action against fossil fuels through Urban Political Ecology

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

This article discusses the politics of “direct- action” against fossil fuels put forward by climate justice movements, focusing in particular on the tactic of the blockade. Drawing on the conceptual toolkit of Urban Political Ecology, the argument moves from a critique of the consensual regime of climate change governance to highlight conflict and dissent as central forces for the transformation of the socio-ecological metabolisms structuring the capitalist urbanization of nature—of which fossil fuels constitute the lifeblood. This approach shifts the debate around climate change politics from an issue of technological transition to one of metabolic transformation. On this basis, the article proposes a characterization of direct-action against fossil fuels as expressions of metabolic activism: instances of grassroots eco-political engagement that aim to break consensus by disrupting capitalist-driven metabolic relations while also experimenting with alternative values, knowledges, spaces, and socio-material relations. To ground these reflections, the article offers an account of the Swedish climate justice coalition Fossilgasfällan and of its successful three-year campaign, culminated in a blockade, to halt the expansion of the gas terminal of Gothenburg port.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftSocial Text
Vol/bind40
Udgave nummer150
Sider (fra-til)135–155
ISSN0164-2472
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2022
Eksternt udgivetJa

ID: 362742046