Surfing Alone? Agentic-Wave Interactions Drive Surftivism Potentials: Examining Environmental Solidarity through Rituals and Habitus

• In Event: 50620 - Section on Environmental Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Embodied Environments and Environmental Agency

Abstract

This study investigates how participation in the ‘surf ecosystem’ fosters environmental solidarity, conservation, and activism through embodied practices, emotional entrainment, and ecological interactions. Drawing on theories of interaction ritual chains (Collins 2004), habitus (Bourdieu 1977), tiny publics (Fine 2012), and actor-network theory (Latour 2005), this research explores how surfers’ embodied experiences in the surf ecosystem generate “wave knowledge” that sacralizes non-human interactants, blurring the human-nature divide and motivating environmental stewardship. Using ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews with members of the Surfrider Foundation, this study contributes to sociological discussions on habitualization and environmental mobilization by exploring how localized, affective practices scale into broader grassroots movements. The research bridges environmental sociology and interactionist theory, offering insights into the micro-level, affective, and embodied dimensions of climate action. By incorporating non-human agency into interaction ritual chains, it advances debates on activism, habitualization, and the role of grassroots conservation in contemporary environmental crises.

Author

• Daniel Joseph Belback, University of California-San Diego