The Same But Different: A comparative study of environmental 'extremism' by Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain

• In Event: Professional performance and other institutional components of policy implementation

Abstract

The routine framing of environmental protest as ‘extremism’ has become a characteristic of contemporary British political debate. Not only have successive home secretaries labelled legal environmental protest movements as ‘criminals’ and ‘security threats’, but senior police officers have branded members “anti-democratic extremists”. Media commentators have also contributed to this climate of hostility, routinely calling for the use of counter-terror and counter-extremism powers in policing responses, while polling evidence suggests public hostility to the members and actions of environmental activist groups has grown, despite comparably high levels of public concern about the climate crisis.

As recent work by Silke and Morrison (2022) highlights, climate change and environmental protest are likely to play an increasing role in terrorism and extremism discourse moving forwards, yet despite this, there is comparably little empirical research seeking to explore the operation, ideology, and ‘extremity’ of major groups active in this space.

Drawing on work to be published in a monograph later this year, and building on work in recent papers exploring Insulate Britain, this presentation presents the results of analysis exploring the online footprints of both Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain. Using a thematic analysis of social media content (including formal group posts and member comments), it will seek to explore their patterns of usage, online behavoiours, and membership with a view to determining whether the labelling of such groups as ‘extremists’ is reasonable. The implications of these finding for CVE policy and practice will be discussed alongside potential directions for future research.

Authors

• Mark Littler, University of Greenwich

• Melanie Flynn, Liverpool Hope University

• John Walliss, Liverpool Hope University