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Spatiality, Political Identities and the Environmentalism of the Poor

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Spatiality, Political Identities and the Environmentalism of the Poor Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Spatiality, political identities and the environmentalism of the poor Thesis How to cite: Featherstone, David John (2002). Spatiality, political identities and the environmentalism of the poor. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2002 The Author Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.000049d5 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk 31 0263920 1 David John Featherstone BA Spatiality, Political Identities and the Environmentalism of the Poor Thesis submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in the Geography discipline of the Open University 7 September 2001 Spatiality, Political Identities and the Environmentalism of the Poor Abstract: This thesis takes issue with the claims of the radical centre that political ecology is a domain which can be negotiated by the formation of a broad but radical consensus. It uses studies of three contemporary and historical social/ political movements which have linked environmentalism and social inequality to develop a focus on the ‘ineradicablity of antagonism’ in political ecology. It argues that this necessitates a stress on the constitutive role of power and spatiality. These movements are firstly, the UK land rights campaign, the Land is Ours and its mobilisation of a diverse political constituency around a site of ‘waste land’ in Wandsworth, London. Secondly, a project called the Inter-continental Caravan, which united activists from the Indian New Fanner’s Movements and activists from Western European green movements to contest the unequal social and environmental relations of contemporary neo-liberal globalisation. Thirdly, the political activity of the Whiteboys, an eighteenth century Irish peasant movement which contested the enclosure of common land. This case-study is written with particular emphasis on the relation of the Whiteboys to Atlantic routes of radical ideas and experience and develops an account of their influence on the London Port Strikes of 1768. This approach has enabled a focus on the agency of marginalised groups in contesting the unequal processes shaping the production of environments and on the complex histories and geographies of such agency. The thesis seeks to open up and scrutinize questions about the political identities formed through linlung environmental questions with concerns relating to social justice. It seeks to engage with how movements imagine and contest spatially stretched power relations. It argues that the way these power relations are imagined and the way movements perform distinctive ‘spaces of politics’ has effects on the kinds of political identities that emerge through their activities. 2 Spatiality, Political Identities and the Environmentalism of the Poor Contents List of Figures and Illustrations Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction: The Depoliticisation of Political Ecology and Environmentalism of the Poor 1.1 Environmentalisms of the Poor 8 1.2 Political Identities, Spatiality and Relations of Power 9 1.3 Engaging Contemporary Political Imaginaries 13 1.4 Political Position and the Structure of the Thesis 15 Chapter 2: 21 The entangled construction of political identities: political ecology, antagonism and the constitutive role of spatiality 2.1 Introduction: the relational construction of political identities 21 2.2 Political Ecology, Antagonism and Spatiality 24 2.3 The entangled and generative character of political activity 32 2.4 Entangled Ontologies of Engagement 42 2.5 Conclusions 48 Chapter 3: 51 Routes of Activity, Environmentalism of the Poor and Entangled Research Practices 3.1 Introduction 51 3.2 The Whiteboy Movements: ‘a major part of the subversive experience~ of 53 the mobile Irish’ 3.3 Pure Genius: Making land in London a political antagonism 66 3.4 The Inter-Continental Caravan: ‘our resistance is as transnational as 74 capital’. 3.5 Entangled Research Practices 83 3.6 Conclusions 88 Chapter 4: 93 Cross-cutting Relations of Power and Agency 4.1 Introduction 93 4.2 Place and the ambiguities of participation 95 3 4.3 Cross-Cutting Relations of Power, Agency and the Formation of 103 Entangled Political Identities 4.4 Equivalences and Militant Particularisms 115 4.5 Performing Solidarities 120 4.6 Conclusions 126 Chapter 5: 131 Friend-Enemy Relations and the Construction of Maps of Grievance 5.1 Introduction 131 5.2 The conditions of possibility of an equivalence: the changing maps of 132 grievance of the Indian New Farmers Movements 5.3 The Construction of Maps of Grievance and the Formation of Friend- 141 Enemy Identifications 5.4 The construction of maps of grievance: making power-geometries 148 contestable 5.5 Friend-enemy relations and the constitutive role of spatiality 154 5.6 Conclusions 162 Chapter 6: 165 The Co-production of Modes of Ordering, Spatial Relations and Collective Political Wills 6.1 Introduction 165 6.2 ‘Midnight Legislators’: The Whiteboys’ situated forms of denunciation 167 6.3 The Carnivalesque, Modes of Ordering and the Reconstitution of Spatial 180 Relations 6.4 Collective experimentation and modes of ordering 187 6.5 Conclusions 196 Chapter 7: Conclusions 201 Appendix 1: Archive of Field Notes Appendix 2: References 206 209 4 List of Figures and Illustrations 2.1 Three types of repertoire with sample actions, after Tilly (reworked from 35 Cohen and Rai, 2000: 15). 3.1 Counties where Whiteboys were active in the 1760s 57 3.2 Key Sites of Whiteboy Activity, 1761-2 58 3.3 Key Sites of Whiteboy Activity, 1763-4 58 3.4 Key Sites of Whiteboy Activity, 1765-6 59 3.5 Gargoyle Wharf Site Showing Luxury Housing 68 3.6 Gargoyle Wharf Site Showing Social Housing 68 4.1 Computer Projected Image of the Plan (GWAG, 1997) 100 4.2 Computer Projected Image of the Plan (GWAG, 1997) 102 5 Acknowledgements In writing this thesis I have received the generous help of many individuals and institutions. ESRC grant no. roo429734450 made the research possible. Thanks to the networks and many helpful individuals of the Land is Ours and the Inter-Continental Caravan for allowing me to participate in discussions and events. Enormous thanks to my supervisors, Doreen Massey and Steve Hinchliffe. They have combined intellectual rigour and engagement with much support, encouragement and general inspiration. Thanks to the helpful staff and archivists of the following libraries and institutions. The Open University library, particularly their fantastic inter-library loan department. The British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Boole Library at the University of Cork, Cambridge University Library, the Corporation of London Record Office, the Department of Folklore Archive at the University College Dublin, the House of Lords Record Office, the London Metropolitan Archive, London Guildhall, London Wildlife Trust, the National Library of Ireland, the Public Record Office and the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Thanks to Dr Richard Sheldon and Dr Maria Luddy for allowing me to consult and refer to unpublished work. The Social Sciences faculty at the Open University has been a fine place to do a PhD. Thanks particularly to the welcoming and supportive postgraduate community, to Ed Hall, Rick Holliman and David Uhilir who were there from the start, and to Jessica Jacobs and Andy Morris. Paul Bartos has been a sound office mate. Dan Weinbren has been a generous living dictionary of labour history. I have benefited from discussions with Les Levidow about the contemporary counter-globalisation movement. Phil Same’s role in the supervision in the first year was also very helpful. The collective ethos of the geography department, facilitated particularly by John Allen has been an important source of encouragement and engagement. I received many helpful comments from internal seminars given in the geography department. Thanks also to the external audiences have commented on earlier versions of this material, notably an inspiring and demanding set of questions from an audience at the Irish Diaspora conference at the University of North London, November, 2000. Thanks also to Judd’s Books, London for surviving beyond the end of the thesis. To Jon 6 HallC, William Mortada and Harriet Fletcher, who were co-conspirators in some of the contemporary actions and discussed them with me. To Linda Ushenvood for childcare. My parents Mike and Tess Featherstone have been the source of support, interest and encouragement throughout the project. Finally, to Liz, Eavan and Mami McFall, for putting up with my thesis as a mass of clutter, for lentils and for making writing this thesis a much richer and enjoyable experience. Chapter 1: Introduction: The Depoliticisation of Political Ecology and Environmentalisms of the Poor. 1.1 Environmentalisms of the Poor A set of social and political movements and alliances have become prominent which link environmental struggles with struggles for social justice. These struggles have challenged the frequent separation of environmentalism from questions of poverty. Their diverse political engagements have cut across and challenged the legitimacy of divisions which have powerfully shaped both contemporary political practices and ways of theorising social and political movements.
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