Cartographies of Environmentalist Participation in a Marginalized Neighborhood in Catalonia

• In Event: Communities Doing Futures: Research-Practice Continuum for Justice and Expansive Learning

Abstract

There is broad agreement among climate scientists and sociology scholars that collective social tipping points need to be activated to counter the crossing of critical tipping points in the climate and in the ecosystems that support human civilization, which may be crossed within our lifetimes (Armstrong McKey et al., 2022; Otto et al., 2020). Yet, most students today feel that they have no power to act and that their individual and/or collective actions amount to little or no impact (Author(s), in press). Whereas interdisciplinary and psychological research on social change towards climate adaptation and mitigation consistently points to the need to connect individual and collective structures of thinking and acting (e.g., O’Brien, 2018), there remains a challenge to integrate individual and collective agency through socio-educational ecosystems where citizens can participate across contexts generating knowledge and practices about climate action and mitigation that are accessible and which have significance both individually and collectively (Author(s), in press). This is particularly true in marginalized communities suffering the worst impacts of climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity, while counting on under-resourced public services (Sultana, 2021).

The present study examines a research-practice partnership aimed at supporting the development of awareness, agency, and participation around challenges of residue management and circular economy in an underserved district in a metropolitan area in Catalunya (Spain) with high levels of poverty and immigration. The partnership involves two upper-secondary schools, an "Ateneu Popular" (an organization inspired by social movements in the Spanish republic aimed at strengthening the culture and education of popular/working class communities), a Charity organization, the municipality, and the university. The case is particularly relevant because of the rise of extreme right-wing parties having gained presence in the area and the complex conflicts associated with the multi-cultural and class challenges, making it difficult for organizations to engage and empower citizens in collective social movements to pursue more just conditions.

The study is a formative intervention using video-ethnography, drawing on video-recordings of interdisciplinary and intersectoral planning sessions, recordings of the execution of planned activities, as well as on interviews with participating actors, including activists, high school students, and their families. We focus on the organization of a school project that supports students in conducting investigations on their own, their families’, and their neighborhood’s practices and experiences with regard to waste and recycling, reflecting on the social, political, as well as scientific and technological aspects. Drawing on cultural-historical theory and focusing on the emergence of collective motives and cultural tools organizing the activity (Engeström, 2016), the analyses and findings make visible the interconnected ways in which community members develop relationships, discursive and practice tools, leading to awareness of their collective struggle and need for collective structures to fight individualizing assumptions among both citizens, students, educators and policy makers. This leads to a cartography of environmentalist participation, in which both researchers, students, and community members participate as authors, and where personal dignity and collective action become entangled through the interpersonal and inter institutional relations.

Author

• Alfredo Jornet Gil, Universitat de Girona