Green Populism in New Social Movements
A qualitative text analysis on Extinction Rebellion’s discourse
Jacob Fransson
Master Thesis, 15 credits Supervisor: Media and communication studies Paola Sartoretto
Sustainable Communication Examiner: Spring 2021 Jönköping University Master thesis, 15 credits School of Education and Communication Course: Master Thesis in Media and Communication 1 Term: Spring 2021 ABSTRACT Writer: Jacob Fransson Title: Green populism in new social movements Subtitle: A qualitative text analysis on Extinction Rebellion’s discourse Language: English Pages: 34 (49)
This thesis aims to explore the new concept of green populism and to explore if Extinction Rebellion can be seen as a new social movement. The concept of green populism is based on Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism and Dobson’s approach to green ideology. The theories will form a categorization of green populism to see if any of these elements are visible in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse. The combination of the two theories helps to define the elements or categories of green populism: Ecological Crisis of Cosmic Proportion, Victimizing “the People”, Identifying and/or blame the antagonist, Green Action, Scientific Evidencing, and Intergenerational Justice.
The theories on new social movements is based on theories from scholars such as Alberto Melucci, Alain Touraine and Manuel Castells to help us understand what characterizes a new social movement. The four following characteristics of new social movements was highlighted: They focus on non-material issues, they tend to emphasize different protest tactics, they often have a horizontal organization, and they often use symbolic action.
To answer the research questions in this thesis, a qualitative text analysis will be conducted. A qualitative text analysis focuses on certain selected aspects of the material which are determined by the aim and research questions. The qualitative text analysis is applied to the captions of eight selected Instagram-posts from Extinction Rebellion’s official account.
The analysis leads to the conclusion that Extinction Rebellion can be seen as a new social movement, with a few exceptions regarding their focus on non-material issues. Another conclusion is that we were able to find elements of green populism in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse. The final conclusion is that green populism should be seen as a theoretical and analytical tool for analyzing communication rather than a label of environmental actors.
Keywords: green populism, populism, green ideology, new social movements, qualitative text analysis, Extinction Rebellion.
1. INTRODUCTION ...... 1
1.2 CONNECTION TO SUSTAINABLE COMMUNICATION ...... 2 2. AIM AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...... 3
2.1 AIM ...... 3 2.2 RESEARCH QUESTION ...... 3 3. BACKGROUND ...... 3 3.1 EXTINCTION REBELLION ...... 3 4. RESEARCH REVIEW ...... 4
4.1 GLOBAL ACTIVISM AND THE LOGIC OF CONNECTIVE ACTION ...... 4 4.1.1 #MeToo, Networked Acknowledgement, and Connective Action: How “Empowerment Through Empathy” Launched a Social Movement ...... 6 4.2 POPULISM AS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION ...... 6 4.3 ARE LIBERAL STATES GREENER? POLITICAL IDEOLOGY AND CO2 EMISSIONS IN AMERICAN STATES, 1980-2012 ...... 7 4.4 THE EMERGING CONCEPT OF GREEN POPULISM ...... 7 4.5 EXTINCTION REBELLION AND NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTION ...... 8 5. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ...... 9
5.1 CAS MUDDE’S IDEATIONAL APPROACH TO POPULISM ...... 9 5.2 DOBSON’S APPROACH TO GREEN IDEOLOGY ...... 10 5.3 GREEN POPULISM ...... 11 5.4 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ...... 13 5.5 NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THEORY ...... 14 5.5.1 Criticism of new social movements theory ...... 16 6. METHODS ...... 17
6.1 QUALITATIVE TEXT ANALYSIS ...... 17 6.1.1 Motivation for selection of method ...... 17 6.2 MATERIAL ...... 17 6.2.1 Motivation for selection of material ...... 18 6.3 OPERATIONALIZATION ...... 19 6.3.1 Coding frame ...... 19 6.4 LIMITATIONS ...... 20 6.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ...... 21 7. INTERPRETATION AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ...... 21
7.1 ECOLOGICAL CRISIS OF COSMIC PROPORTIONS ...... 22 7.2 VICTIMIZING “THE PEOPLE” ...... 23 7.3 IDENTIFYING AND/OR BLAMING THE ANTAGONIST ...... 25 7.4 GREEN ACTION ...... 27 7.5 SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCING ...... 28 7.6 INTERGENERATIONAL JUSTICE ...... 29 8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ...... 30
8.1 THEORY CONTRIBUTION ...... 33 8.2 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH ...... 33
1. Introduction In countries all around the globe, we can see that contemporary politics are influenced by populistic ideas and beliefs on all sides of the political spectra. The votes for “populists right” parties in the European Parliament election has doubled from less than 7 percent in the 1960s to 14 percent in the 2010s, while the votes for “populist left” parties went from 3 percent to 13 percent in the same period (Inglehart & Norris, 2016). The rise of populism might be a dangerous development since it politicizes science and tends to give simple answers to complex questions, but on the other hand, it can also help us focus and highlight important issues and illuminate the complex relationship between science and democracy (Davies, 2020). A report published by Stanford University shows that populism poses three major threats to democracies around the world. These three threats are that populism threats to undermine formal institutions, exclude vulnerable groups and minorities, and erode the informal norms of democracy (Grzymala-Busse, Kuo, Fukuyama & McFaul, 2020). Since populism is such an important and established phenomenon in the global political arena we must study it to truly fathom its effects and consequences, especially as a means of communication. Although it is easy to see the connection between populism and politics, some scholars such as Aalberg, de Vreese, Esser, Reinemann and Stanyer (2018), define populism as a communications phenomenon, meaning that communication is at the very heart of populism. Communication needs to be considered in relation to populism since the intermediation of the populistic message exists in the realms of communication. We must therefore study communication at the levels of political actors, social movements, the media, and the citizens (Aalberg et al, 2018).
In the latest decades, green ideology has risen to be one of the most debated and important ideologies on the contemporary political agenda. We can see this in the creation of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, more environmental-friendly parties getting seats in the European Parliament, new international agreements like the Paris Agreement, and new established environmental movements like Extinction Rebellion. Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement created in 2018, who aims to stop mass extinction and avoid ecological and social collapse (Extinction Rebellion, 2020). The movement has gained media attention through its non-violent direct actions and has received backing from scholars and academics (The Guardian, 2018). But how are they organized and what type of movement
1 can we define them as? New social movement theories suggest that new social movements are horizontally organized, relies on symbolic and collective action, and tend to focus on non- materialistic issues rather than materialistic things such as resources and money. Extinction Rebellion has its roots in green ideology which is a political ideology mainly focusing on the climate crisis as well as preservation and conservation of nature and natural resources (Heywood, 2017). Green ideology and environmental questions are complex matters while populism tends to give simple answers and solutions to complex issues. The potential combination of these two terms should therefore be studied further. Recent studies (Davies, 2020) show that we in fact today have a new concept called green populism - a combination of green ideology and populism. It is important to understand what green populism is and how we can identify it in the contemporary discourse. The current research of green populism is limited since the concept of green populism emerged so recently and should therefore be studied further.
To gain a better understanding of what new social movements are and how they communicate, Extinction Rebellion’s official Instagram-account will be examined. The analysis will focus on characteristics for new social movements as well as elements of green populism. The new concept of green populism will be tested in order to analyze the discourse. Instead of just focusing on green populism, this thesis also analyze what type of social movement Extinction Rebellion can be considered as. Since this study examine if green populism is visible in a social movement’s discourse, it is also needed to have theories that explain what a social movement is. It is important to examine social movement both from the organization and mobilization perspective, but also at its communicative processes such as the logic of connective action (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012) and what type of medium they use to communicate.
1.2 Connection to Sustainable Communication This master thesis is within the field of media and communication studies, with a special focus on global sustainability. Sustainability can be divided into three different dimensions: social, ecological and economic. Social sustainability refers to aspects such as human rights, working environment, healthcare and equality. The ecological dimension of sustainability focus on issues regarding the environment and the climate such as preservation of nature and ecological systems, global warming, over-population and so on. The dimension of economic sustainability refers to issues regarding financial questions such as the formation of economic
2 systems that can sustain the life and prosperity of human lives and nature, without neglecting other aspects of sustainability such as environmental or societal issues (Hedenus, Persson & Sprei, 2018).
Firstly, this thesis is connected to the studies of media and communication since it studies a new type of populism, called green populism. As mentioned earlier, populism needs to be considered in relation to populism since the intermediation of the populistic message exists within the realms of communication (Aalberg et al, 2018). This is reinforced since this study examines the communicative processes of a social movement. The media aspect is that the selected material of this thesis comes from Instagram which is a social media. For the sustainability aspect, this thesis mostly focus on ecological and social sustainability. Ecological because it studies green ideology and how discourses are formed in relation to green populism. Social because it studies how social movements are organized but mostly how they communicate.
2. Aim and research questions
2.1 Aim This thesis aim to broaden the understanding of how green populism is used by Extinction Rebellion who is one of the largest global environmental movements in the world. 2.2 Research question 1. What characterizes Extinction Rebellion as a new social movement? 2. What elements of green populism, if any, are visible in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse?
3. Background This chapter aim to give the reader an extended overview of Extinction Rebellion as a social movement and to give the reader an understanding of what they do and what their aims are.
3.1 Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion is a global environmental movement founded in 2018 in the UK. The movement aims to stop mass extinction and avoid social and ecological collapse (Extinction Rebellion, 2020). The movement often talks about tipping points in the climate system that can potentially become points of no return when we can no longer reverse the effects humanity has on the ecological environment. The movement has gained a lot of attention in
3 the latter years and has strong support from academics and scholars. In 2018, 94 academics signed a declaration where they declared their support for Extinction Rebellion (The Guardian, 2018).
Extinction Rebellion has three main demands, and within these demands there are more specific objectives and goals. The three demands are “tell the truth”, “act now” and “go beyond politics”. Tell the truth means that governments should tell the truth about the climate by declaring a climate and ecological emergency. Act now means that governments must act now to stop the climate crisis and halt biodiversity loss to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025. Go beyond politics means that government should give more power to their citizens through creating citizens’ assemblies and act on their recommendations. Other examples of Extinction Rebellion’s objectives are to mobilize 3.5% of the population to achieve system change and to create a world that is fit for the next seven generations to live in (Extinction Rebellion, 2020).
Extinction Rebellion is a decentralized, loosely networked movement, meaning there is no chain of command. An example of this is that anyone who follows the principles and demands of Extinction Rebellion, can claim that they are doing it in the name of the movement Kobie, 2019). Extinction Rebellion uses non-violent direct action to protest. Non-violent direct actions can be both active and passive. An example of an active non-violent direct action is to create road blockades to stop traffic while a passive approach could be to boycott a certain product (Thöresson, 2020).
4. Research review This chapter accounts for the important previous research conducted in the areas of this thesis. All the research in this chapter relates to, or explains, previous research in fields of study as well as concepts such as global activism, populism, green ideology, and green populism to give the reader an overview of the relevancy of the previous research. The research review concludes that a research gap exists on how the environmental discourse of important actors in the political and environmental arena is constructed in relation to green populism.
4.1 Global activism and the logic of connective action Global activism is a field of study which studies how activism influences people, politics, and media in fundamental global issues such as the environment, gender equality, animal rights,
4 and so forth (Jong, Shaw & Stammers, 2005). Jong et al (2005) states that world politics was, and still is, saturated by large violent conflicts especially in the first decade of the 21st century, with September 11 as a catalyst. But behind and around these conflicts, other actors are operating. Today, more peaceful forms of social and political activism are at work in all regions of the world. This type of activism is fueled by a vision of change and contest both local and global power structures and offers alternatives to the current decision-makers. Jong et al (2005) also states that since the start of the 21st century, politics and communication are no longer two different subjects, but politics is communication. Politicians making a statement, workers going on strike, or people going out in the streets for peaceful protests are all examples of ways of communication.
With the rise of the internet and the development of the global mediascape, new types of activism such as networked activism saw their first light (Bennett, 2003). The internet and social media let people and activists all around the globe connect, discuss, and mobilize important global issues. Social media has given the people an opportunity to also circumvent traditionally state-controlled media in oppressive countries and communicate directly with the outside world (Tufekci, 2017). The networked activism can facilitate campaigns, the growth of big networks and transform individual member organizations to a collective identity (Bennett, 2003).
Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg (2012) studies networked activism and explains it through the logic of connective action. Connective action is built on the principles of collective action, but is different since connective action involves increased individualization without the need for a collective identity (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). Digital media such as social media is viewed as organizing agents, used by the activists to facilitate and organize action. For example, sharing personal content on social media in a networked way is an individualized form of political expression. People who connect and network around political issues on social media does not necessarily need to have collective ideas in common, since the political actions are individual and personal (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). In other words, connective action is when activists take action together, connected, through digital media, with or without a collective identity (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). Collective action on the other hand, is when activists take action based on a collective identity.
5 4.1.1 #MeToo, Networked Acknowledgement, and Connective Action: How “Empowerment Through Empathy” Launched a Social Movement
Suk, Abhishek, Zhang, Ahn, Correa, Garlough and Shah (2021) has studied the movement of #MeToo with the logic of connective action, where people shared their personal experience of trauma on social media, creating connective action. The study analyzes a 1% sample of tweets from the 5-month period following the accusations of Harvey Weinstein in early October 2017. The authors uses natural language processing and dependency analysis to conduct the study. The study concludes that people from different cultures and backgrounds were able to build a sense of shared experience and identity with the testimonies of their traumas. The connective action was built on personal experiences which transformed to collective action.
4.2 Populism as a means of communication The concept of populism is a relatively modern term that can be related to the spread of democracy during the 19th century (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017). Populism is commonly referred to as a simplified approach to politics that is built around a basic set of assumptions about the world, in other words: populistic ideas tend to give rather simplified answers to complex questions (Canovan, 1981).
Aalberg, de Vreese, Esser, Reinemann and Stanyer (2018) define populism as a communication phenomenon, meaning that the intermediation of the message is at the very heart of populism. Communication needs to be considered in relation to populism since the intermediation of the populistic message exists in the realms of communication. It is therefore crucial to study communication at the levels of political actors and parties, the media, and the citizens. The means of communicating the populist ideas are as important as the populist ideas themselves (Aalberg et al, 2018). The aim of Aalberg et al’s study is to push research agendas about populism to a more systematic and interactive approach but in particular a comparative approach. Aalberg et al (2018) use a theoretical comparative approach to the study of populist political communication to unfold new perspectives. Aalberg et al motivate their choice of method by stating that populism and its broad appeal cannot be fully understood if not studied comparatively. The authors state in their conclusion that the communicative aspects can only be studied through a comparative approach since it can explain and reveal differences between countries and cultures (Aalberg et al, 2018). Further, they also conclude the following:
6 “…not only including but focusing on the communicative aspects of populism will help us to better understand one of the hallmarks of contemporary politics” (Aalberg et al, 2018, p. 431). Aalberg et al (2018) also conclude that further research should not only view media as a platform for transmitting messages and populist ideas. In other words, we should not view populist ideas through the media, but also by the media.
4.3 Are liberal states greener? Political ideology and CO2 emissions in American states, 1980-2012 While some researchers such as Heywood (2017) and Dobson (2000) mean that green ideology is a political ideology, Smith and Connelly (2012) states that green ideology not necessarily is an ideology by itself. It can also be expressed through various traditions of political thoughts. It may in fact be more of critical thinking towards existing political thoughts and traditions than an independent political ideology (Smith & Connelly, 2012).
Gokkir and Barkin (2019) did a study on panel data from American states to investigate if the levels of C02 emissions per capita across states in the USA differ between states that are considered liberal versus other states. The findings of their study suggests that states with more liberal citizen ideology emit less C02. Further the study concludes that the popular perception of the climate change is that it is connected to ideological alignment. Instead, it should be seen as an American matter. The authors therefore suggest that a change in the popular perception on environmental questions should change from an ideological matter to an American matter to further decrease the C02 emissions.
4.4 The emerging concept of green populism Green populism is a new and fairly unexplored concept as an academic field. One can briefly describe green populism as a combination between populism and green ideology. Kaltwasser and Mudde state that populism needs an ideology as a “host” (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017), which in this case is green ideology. Ariana Carvalho (2020) has in her thesis examined what elements green populism consists of. Carvalho’s research question is “What elements of green populism, if any, are present in Greta Thunberg’s discourse?” (Carvalho, 2020, p. 4). Carvalho’s study aims to test Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism in order to create a new subclass of populism (Carvalho, 2020). To do this, Carvalho has used a qualitative
7 content analysis to reduce redundant data and to create a systematic analysis. The analyzed material consisted of six public speeches by environmental activist Greta Thunberg. The theory in Carvalho’s study is based on Mudde’s ideational approach to populism in combination with theories regarding green ideology. The result of Carvalho’s study is that Greta Thunberg can be considered a populist actor that uses green ideology and populism to convey her message (Carvalho, 2020).
Another scholar who has been studying green populism is Will Davies. Davies’ paper aims to illuminate green populism from a viewpoint that the distance between science and politics has become smaller (Davies, 2020). The paper uses Arendt’s analysis of the tension between science and politics in order to consider how the relationship between science and politics could be re-imagined in a time when environmental questions are high on the political agenda. In his paper, Davies concludes that people and politicians are politicizing science, concluding that three different types of movements are shrinking the distance between science and politics. The first movement is social movements which are the mobilizations of physical people. This means it is more important that the people are physically present themselves, rather than the people being just represented. The second movements are affective movements which are built upon emotions. This means that emotions are playing a crucial part in shrinking the distance between science and politics. The third movement is called the slow movement in the physical world. This can in a simple way be explained as tracking what is lost, such as finite resources and extinct species, or what might be lost in the future (Davies, 2020).
4.5 Extinction Rebellion and Non-violent direct action Thöresson has in her study examined non-violent direct action used by Extinction Rebellion intending to analyze its discourse. To do so, Thöresson (2020) has used critical discourse analysis as a theory and method. Using critical discourse analysis lets the author examine textual features as well as discourse and social practices. Thöresson concludes that the manner Extinction Rebellion applies non-violent direct action creates tension between the movement and certain audiences since the action is exclusionary in its nature and that it reinforces power structures in society (Thöresson, 2020).
8 5. Theoretical framework
5.1 Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism The term populism has been contested and debated for many years, with different scholars explaining and interpreting the term differently. Defined by the previous research presented earlier in the thesis, populistic ideas tend to give rather simplified answers to complex questions (Canovan, 1981; Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017; Valberg et al, 2018). One of the most adopted and common approaches to populism is Cas Mudde’s ideational approach. Mudde studies populism with three core aspects where the first two core aspects are based on a Manichean antagonism between “the People” and “The Elite”. Manichaeism is a religion and/or a philosophy that breaks everything down to good or evil. The first core aspect is that it is thin-centered and can therefore not be studied on its own since it is always connected with a certain ideology. In other words, populism needs an ideology as a host. Ideology is where the ideas come from, but populism is used to convey the message (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017). Thin-centered is also connected with the societal division of two antagonistic groups, which is also the second core aspect. On one side, the pure people who are the agents of “common sense”, and on the other side, the corrupt elite, consisting of politicians and other people of power, or in other words, the political establishment (Mudde, 2004). This antagonism can sometimes be based on aspects such as nationality, socioeconomic situation, class, and economic power, but it is commonly based on morality differences where the people are the “good” and the elite are the “evil” (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017, p. 9). The third core aspect of populism is the expression of the general will. The general will belongs to the people with “the common sense” and is used to unite the people (Kaltwasser & Mudde, 2017). The people who do not agree with the general will are commonly viewed upon as part of the elite (Mudde, 2004).
Although some scholars such as Grzymala-Busse, Kuo, Fukuyama & McFaul (2020) view populism as a threat to democracy, Mudde views populism as a sign of liberty, giving voices to groups who normally are not listened to in the society (Mudde, 2004).
Cas Mudde’s ideational approach has laid the foundation for other scholars to develop the theory. Two of the most known developments of the ideational approach are Paris Aslanidis (2018) and Kirk Hawkins (2009). Aslanidis development of Mudde’s approach focuses more on reach and extent rather than on classification, meaning Aslanidis approach expands the
9 scope of populism studies, focusing on grassroots mobilization and political parties (Aslanidis, 2018). Aslanidis also refers to populism as a strategic frame. Hawkins’ (2009) development of Mudde’s approach focusing on populism as a discourse. Instead of focusing on the antagonism between the elite and the people and different ideologies, Hawkins focuses on ideas shaped by culture (Hawkins, 2009). This means Hawkins does not focus only on ideologies such as liberalism or socialism, but focuses on the combination of ideology and rhetoric (Hawkins, 2009).
5.2 Dobson’s approach to green ideology Green ideology can be seen as an evolution from ecology as a philosophical concept to a modern political ideology (Heywood, 2017). The origins of the term “green” in relation to political ideas derive from preservation and conservation movements, often regarding forestry, in the 19th century. The growth of the term has changed and developed through the years but became more established by the advance of urbanization and industrialization in the 20th century. During the 20th century, more and more movements and organizations started to label themselves as green or eco-friendly and today we can see that green or environmental questions are high on the political agenda in many industrialized countries (Heywood, 2017).
Some scholars, such as Connelly and Smith (1999), argue that there is no such thing as a green ideology, but a green political thought. With this Connelly and Smith (1999) means that green political thought is a type of critical thinking towards contemporary politics. But Andrew Dobson (2000) contradicts these claims. According to Dobson (2000), green ideology or ecology is in fact an ideology, since it urges changes in society, contemporary politics, and in people’s habits and practices. Dobson also argues that modern green ideology is based on the idea that there are natural limits to economic growth, meaning that the Earth has finite resources and limited capacity to absorb pollution and carry population. To control these limits, we need to change, therefore, green ideology should be seen as an ideology (Dobson, 2000).
Green ideology must according to Dobson (2000) be studied through a maximalist approach (i.e. deep ecology) in order to fully fathom the complexities. The maximalist approach refers to the green ideologists who define ecologism after a strict set of principles and make claims that humanity should help sustain nature and not the other way around. The focus should be on nature and not on humans since we are not a superior species in relation to other species or
10 nature as a whole. Examples of deep ecology are anti-growth, animal rights, and ecocentrism (Dobson, 2000).
The minimalist approach (i.e. shallow ecology) refers to the green ideologists who define the term less strict and more “shallow”, meaning they have an anthropocentric view which means if humans care for the natural world, the natural world will continue to sustain human life. Examples of shallow ecology are sustainable growth, animal welfare, and environmentalism. Both the maximalists and minimalists are however sprung out of the environmental degradation but adopt different strategies when taking action (Dobson, 2000).
5.3 Green populism Green populism is a fairly new concept and has its roots in Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism and Andrew Dobson’s approach to green ideology. In order to understand what green populism is and what elements it consists of, we must highlight the connections between populism and green ideology.
Green ideology Populism - The relationship between - Society is divided in two society and nature is based antagonistic groups: "The on ecological principles. People" and "the Elite". The - Nature is connected to division is based on everything. morality. Green - Unconventional means of - Victimizing "the People" Populism emancipation might be and blaming the antagonist. encouraged. - Expression of the general - Anti-consumerism and will, i.e. the will of "the anti-materialism people". - Recognizing that Earth has (Mudde, 2004) finite resources. (Dobson, 2000)
Figure 1 – Venn diagram of the relationship between populism and green ideology.
Figure 1 shows where populism and green ideology meet and create a new type of populism, i.e. green populism. This figure is created by the author of this thesis and is based on the
11 theoretical framework with Mudde’s ideational approach to populism and Dobson’s approach to green ideology.
Based on Mudde’s ideational approach to populism and Dobson’s approach to green ideology and the relationship between those, the following elements could be defined within green populism: Ecological Crisis of Cosmic Proportion, Victimizing “the people”, Identifying and/or blaming the antagonist, Green action, Scientific evidencing, and Intergenerational Justice. The six elements are described below.
Ecological Crisis of Cosmic Proportion is the presumption that the ecological crisis threatens the natural world and all human life and therefore takes cosmic proportions. Victimizing “the People” and Identifying and/or blaming the antagonist both have their roots in populism where two antagonizing groups of society are put against each other (Mudde, 2004). In relation to green populism, this means that the people are the group that is suffering from ecological degradation, while the antagonist (the “Elite”, according to Mudde) is the group that is working against them and is therefore blamed for the crisis. We can also see other aspects of green ideology in these two elements, where expression of the general will is visible. The general will belongs to the people and is used to unite everyone against the antagonist, even the people who are unaware of the extent of the ecological crisis (Dobson, 2000). The next element of green populism is green action. Green action is built around the presumption that the ecological crisis is at extreme levels, and the people need to take unconventional and crucial action to change society in its foundations. The more severe the crisis gets, the more radical action is needed. This is based on Dobson’s approach to green ideology where the so called “deep ecology” is needed to stop the crisis (Dobson, 2000). The fifth element – scientific evidencing, means that one should trust science and that green ideology is founded on scientific facts. This element is crucial since it solidifies and legitimizes the expression of the general will (Mudde, 2004). The sixth and last element is intergenerational justice. This element is based on the rights of future generations which can be found in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Intergenerational justice is in other words about the importance of living sustainably, making it possible for future generations to survive as well. This can be found in Dobson’s approach to green ideology where he states that deep ecology is needed because humanity should help sustain the nature (Dobson, 2000).
12 Ecological crisis of cosmic proportion
Manichean vision Victimizing "the of the world People"
Identifying Populism and/or blaming the antagonist Green populism
Green action Green ideology
Expression of the Scientific general will evidencing
Intergenerational justice
Figure 2 – Analytical model for green populism.
Figure 2 is created by the author of this thesis to show the different elements of green populism, based on the theoretical framework.
5.4 Social movements A social movement can be spontaneous or planned, since it is a loosely organized campaign by a group of people to achieve a certain goal, such as societal and/or political change. A social movement is not defined by its size or number of people, but they are collective (Scott & Marshall, 2015). Alberto Melucci (2009) discusses this collective and disregards the notion that movements are sprung out of historical situations or as an outcome of a particular event such as an economic crisis. Instead, Melucci claims that collective action is related to something other than itself; it does not even exist. With this Melucci means that only a theory on collective action can explain certain phenomenon’s within social movements, and only a theory on collective action can provide a basis when analyzing social movements (Melucci, 2009). If one is to analyze social movements, one have to start from a theory that can account
13 for the particularity and self-government of social action which can give an explanation or authority to its collective character (Melucci, 2009). So, what is collective action? Melucci brings up a number of attributes that should characterize the study of collective action. Firstly, collective action must be analyzed in relation to the structural field of relationships within the movement that constitutes the action itself. Secondly, one must take the social conflicts into consideration and understand that some social conflicts are of an antagonistic nature (i.e. opposing groups). Thirdly, collective action should not be seen as an irrational action by an irrational group of people, or so-called crowd psychology. Instead, collective action should be seen as logical actions with certain decision-making processes, goal-setting, relational structures, etc. Fourth and lastly, based on resource mobilization theory, collective action is not created by individuals, but is created as an outcome of complex processes regarding relationships, interactions and a sense of belonging (Melucci, 2009).
Scholars have developed various theories on social movements such as how social movements influence politics or how social movements help form political parties. However, this study will apply the theory to new social movements.
5.5 New social movements theory New social movements is a term to describe the new type of social movements that emerged in the post-war period, from the mid-1960s and forward, mainly in western countries. These movements are called “new” since they are different from the traditional term which describes social movements. The primary difference is that instead of focusing mainly on economic concerns, the new social movements focus on non-material issues regarding for example human rights, animal rights, identity, and culture (Laclau & Mouffe, 2001). Håkan Thörn (1996) claims that the reason these types of movements were created was that people have been dissatisfied with something. This dissatisfaction led to a collective identity within these movements, working together for societal change or political decision-making (Thörn, 1996). The focus of the new social movements is to create social mobilization through a transformation of identities, cultural innovations, and development of new lifestyles and is therefore primarily social and cultural, and secondarily political, if at all (Scott, 1990). To explain this further, new social movements arise in the sphere of reproduction and the “life world” where the needs for survival and reproduction are in focus (Melucci, 1980). New social movements reject the capitalistic idea that happiness is linked with consumerism, growth, and productivity and give alternative values and understandings, for example the
14 environmental movements that have given alternatives to how we consider the relationship between nature, society, and economy (Melucci, 1980).
Two of the founders of new social movement theories are Manuel Castells and Alain Touraine. Castells (1983) claims that capitalism has pushed so-called “elites” to dominate political power, consumption, and commodities while social movements demand other forms of collective consumption and need to influence state policies if they want to achieve their goals. Conflicts of interest such as this have transformed urban spaces into arenas of conflicting interests and values (Castells, 1983). But the world and the society have changed since Castells started researching new social movements. Today, he talks about a globalized world with global movements and discusses who holds the power and especially – who holds the communication power. Castells claims that one might think that the big multimedia networks hold the power, but in fact, is it their programmers (Castells, 2009). The decisions and instructions of the corporations, creators and/or programmers are where the actual power is. Those in charge in different communication networks such as social media are the gatekeepers and get to decide what, when and how messages are conveyed. The agenda- setting is not created by the people (i.e. you and me) using the network, but by the organization that owns and operates the network (Castells, 2009).
Alain Touraine also acknowledges the political perspective on new social movements but claims that every type of society has a central conflict, and in postindustrial societies, the central conflict is the presumption that the state has control of so-called societal self- production (Touraine, 1981). In the post-industrial era, the knowledge and technology on self- production of society are rising, so the central conflict is about who controls that capacity (Touraine, 1981).
Although many scholars view the new social movements as a theory, Steven Buechler (1995) argues that there is no single social movement theory, but a set of new social movement theories. According to Buechler, the theory on new social movements can be applied in different ways depending on the research aim. However, Buechler does argue that all the types of new social movement theories have some common characteristics. The first characteristic is that symbolic actions in the civil society and instrumental actions in the political sphere are vital arenas for collective action. With symbolic action Buechler refers to the actions that are important but has little actual political effect. Secondly, Buechler states
15 that new social movements promote self-autonomy and self-determination rather than trying to gain power and authority through mobilization. The third characteristic is that new social movements focus on non-materialistic values rather than money or resources. The fourth characteristic is that new social movements view ideology as socially constructed rather than something that stems from a group’s structural location. The fifth characteristic is that new social movement theories tend to complexify and problematize the construction of collective identities and the identification of a group’s interests. The sixth and last characteristic by Buechler is that the theories on new social movements claim that centrally controlled organizations are not needed to successfully mobilize action, but rather that a collection of different networks is needed to create collective action (Buechler, 1995). In this thesis, the new social movement theory will be used to understand how Extinction Rebellion is organized and functions. To do this, four main aspects characterizing new social movements from Buechler’s set of theories will be examined. These four aspects are: - New social movements focus on non-material issues such as human rights, animal rights, and gender instead of gaining economical and/or material resources. - New social movements tend to emphasize different protest tactics and other unconventional means of political participation. - New social movements often have a horizontal organization, relying on collective action. - New social movements often use symbolic action since the goal is not to gain political power, but to create change.
The four aspects above are crucial to this study since it helps explain how Extinction Rebellion communicate and function and if this have any connections with the concept of green populism.
5.5.1 Criticism of new social movements theory There is some criticism of the new social movements theory. Pichardo argues that movements concerned with non-materialistic issues existed before the post-industrial period and that there are too few unique characteristics with new social movements compared to the traditional movements. Pichardo also claims that the research on new social movements focuses on left- wing movements and not right-wing movements (Pichardo, 1997). However, our society is constantly changing and developing, therefore new theories are important to understand new phenomenon. The older traditional theories on social movements might not be applicable to
16 the same extent now and in the future and we must therefore test and develop new theories. Even though many of the characteristics between social movements and new social movements might be similar, it is important to further study this area to understand what the defining differences are.
6. Methods
6.1 Qualitative text analysis To answer the research questions in this thesis, a qualitative text analysis will be conducted. A qualitative text analysis is characterized by gathering and interpret information about the subject while searching for a deeper understanding of the social reality in which the subject exists (Bryman, 2016). The text analysis can be divided into two classes – systematizing and critically examining (Esaiasson, Gilljam, Oscarsson, Towns & Wängnerud, 2017). Through systematizing, we can highlight the most important and relevant aspects of the text by logically categorizing it. Systematizing is good to structure the texts and find out their meaning in a clear and understandable way (Esaiasson et al, 2017). Schreier (2012) claims that a qualitative text analysis focuses on certain selected aspects of the material. The aspects in focus are determined by the aim and research questions (Schreier, 2012).
6.1.1 Motivation for selection of method A qualitative text analysis was selected because it only focuses on the selected aspects of Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram account, which in this case is green populism and new social movement theory. It is also effective since it separates and discards redundant data such as information that does not necessarily concern green populism or new social movement theory (Schreier, 2012).
6.2 Material The selected material will consist of captions for eight Instagram posts from Extinction Rebellion’s official Instagram account @extinctionrebellion. Extinction Rebellion has various social media accounts and websites for the different countries they operate in, but since populism and green ideology are global phenomena it is most appropriate to analyze the global account. The Instagram account has been chosen because it is used by the movement to spread its message, show its work, and recruit new members. Because of this, Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram account is a vital part of Extinction Rebellion’s communication. Other
17 social media networks, for example Facebook, has been disregarded since they use Facebook for posting videos of protests rather than textual material. Post # Subject Date posted Post 1 (Extinction “Nature needs justice” 12th of January Rebellion, 2021a). Post 2 (Extinction “Will you be part of the 22nd of January Rebellion, 2021b). largest protest in human history?” Post 3 (Extinction “We’re cooked with gas” 10th of February 2021 Rebellion, 2021c). Post 4 (Extinction “Climate chaos is killing us” 5th of March 2021 Rebellion, 2021d). Post 5 (Extinction “Make ecocide an 15th of March 2021 Rebellion, 2021e). international crime” Post 6 (Extinction “We refuse to be the last 30th of March 2021 Rebellion, 2021f). generation” Post 7 (Extinction “Solidarity with Amazonia 14th of April 2021 Rebellion, 2021g). & its guardians” Post 8 (Extinction “Free the truth” 24th of April 2021 Rebellion, 2021h). Table 1 – Overview of analyzed material
6.2.1 Motivation for selection of material Instagram is a social media based on photos and videos with associated captions. In January 2021 Instagram was the third most used social media network in the world (Statista, 2021), except chat networks such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Facebook and YouTube was the only two social networks more used than Instagram. This study will not examine Extinction Rebellion’s Facebook or YouTube since they use it to post videos of protests rather than informative text. The first requirement for the selection of material is that the selected material from Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram account should be posted in the first four months of 2021. It was chosen to represent the contemporary discourse on Extinction Rebellion’s social media. The second requirement is that the captions of the posts should be written in English. The majority of the posts on Extinction Rebellion’s official Instagram-
18 account are in English but some are written in other languages such as Spanish, Dutch and/or German. Considering that the language of this thesis is English and since the author of this thesis only understands English and Swedish, the captions of the posts had to be written in English. The third requirement is that the caption of the post had to contain at least 100 words in order to get enough text to analyze. The fourth and final requirement is relevancy. Video- posts of protests or short messages to sign up for petitions was dismissed due to lack of relevancy to the research questions.
6.3 Operationalization To answer the research question “How is the environmental discourse constructed in relation to green populism?” a coding frame has been constructed. The coding frame is constructed based on concepts from the theoretical framework of this thesis – Cas Mudde’s approach to populism and Dobson’s approach to green ideology. The categories of the coding frame are divided into themes based on the analysis which are the ecological crisis of cosmic proportion, victimizing “the people”, identifying and/or blaming the antagonist, green action, scientific evidencing, and intergenerational justice. Each category is further explained under the definition in the coding frame and indicators are exemplified to facilitate the analysis (Drisko & Maschi, 2015).
To facilitate the analysis, the material has been divided into coding units, where each Instagram post constitutes one coding unit. The coding frame is based on Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism (Mudde, 2004) and Andrew Dobson’s approach to green ideology (Dobson, 2000) as explained in the theory chapter.
6.3.1 Coding frame Category Definition Indicators Ecological crisis of cosmic The ecological crisis threatens • References to the proportion the natural world and all ecological human life. The people are the emergency/crisis. victims of the crisis and are • References to death suffering. and destruction. • Claims that the crisis takes infinite proportions and affects all people. Victimizing “the People” A division of society into two • References to people’s antagonistic groups. “The suffering. people” are morally right and • References to “the antagonist” are morally characteristics such as
19 wrong. People are suffering “abandoned”, from the crisis but are not “exploited, and aware of its proportion. “innocent”. Identifying and/or blaming the A division of society into two • References to “the antagonist antagonistic groups. “The antagonist’s” people” are morally right and consumerism and “the antagonist” are morally materialistic way of wrong. “The antagonist” are living. exploiting Earth’s resources • Signs that points and think of themselves as a toward that the superior species. They are not antagonist is working listening to the people and are against the interests of to blame for the ecological the people. crisis. • References to characteristics such as “guilty”, “corrupt” and “exploiting”. Green action The actions taken to progress • References to the towards to a more sustainable collective will of “the world. A demand of a People”. progressive transformation of • References to society. Unconventional systematic change. actions are encouraged to • References to “take create change in society and action”. politics. The more severe the • References to the crisis gets, the more radical encouragement of actions are needed. radical action and unconventional means of emancipation. Scientific evidencing The will of the people is • References to scientific grounded on scientific facts. facts and documents. Gives legitimacy to the expression of the general will. Intergenerational Justice All generations are of equal • References to the importance and it is up to the rights and justice for society to assure a fair future generations. distribution of resources among • References to the fair current and future generations. distribution of resources.
Table 2 – Coding frame. Based on previously explained theories of Cas Mudde (2004) and Andrew Dobson (2000).
6.4 Limitations To clarify what type of conclusions we can make from the method and material, we need to clarify the limitations of this thesis. Since the material is gathered from a single social media, we need to understand that we can’t make generalizations and draw to big conclusions from that. Social media accounts are not representative of the movement as a whole. However, we
20 can still be able to find indications or signs that point in a certain direction. Further, this thesis is written and analyzed by a single researcher and according to Drisko and Maschi (2015), different researchers can interpret the material differently according to the context. To avoid limitations regarding validity and reliability, the coding and the analysis of the material will be conducted multiple times.
6.5 Reliability and validity Reliability and validity are used to ensure the quality of the study. Validity can also be explained as credibility. One of the requirements to ensure the validity and credibility of this thesis is a thorough explanation on how the selection of data and material was conducted. This is ensured by explaining and motivating why the data has been selected in a chapter solely designated for the motivation for selection of material. Another requirement of validity is a description of the analysis process. This is ensured by making sure that the analysis is free from error by conducting it multiple times. The analysis process is also thoroughly described with the theoretical framework and the methodology, using for example a coding frame (Drisko & Maschi, 2015). To ensure the validity even further, appendices have been added at the end of the thesis to make it easy for the reader to see the material for themselves. According to Schreier (2012), another criterion for validity is that the study can measure what is meant to be measured. This is not a quantitative thesis, but we can still measure certain things. In this case, the thesis want to measure how the environmental discourse is constructed in regards to green populism. This is measured through a clear presentation of the findings. The reliability or dependability is about the researcher’s ability to make relevant observations and conclusions in regards to the data. This is ensured by following a coding frame based on the theoretical framework. Regarding the reliability, it is also important that the researcher is objective in regards to the study. This is hard to ensure but the material used is added in the appendices to let the reader see if the researcher of this thesis stays objective (Drisko & Maschi, 2015).
7. Interpretation and presentation of findings When conducting the qualitative text analysis together with the theoretical framework, we can establish that six elements of green populism were visible in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse on Instagram. Most of the sentences (units) corresponded with only one category, but some units corresponded with multiple elements. However, some elements were more frequently visible than others. “Ecological crisis of cosmic proportion” and “identifying and/or blaming
21 the antagonist” were visible nine and twelve times, while “scientific evidencing” was only used two times. When analyzing the discourse we could also find some characteristics of a new social movement such as examples of unconventional means of political participation and collective action.
7.1 Ecological crisis of cosmic proportions The first category stems from the Manichean vision of the world. Signs of the ecological crisis of cosmic proportions were visible in six out of eight posts, where post 6 was the post with the most references to the ecological crisis of cosmic proportions. One clear example of the ecological crisis of cosmic proportions is from post 6, where Extinction Rebellion states: “This will result in societal collapse and billions of deaths” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021f). In other words, Extinction Rebellion uses claims like this to put emphasis on the immediate climate emergency.
Post Coded units Post 1 “Solutions like C02-offsetting and green capitalism will not save life on this planet.”
Post 2 “At a higher level, given that India’s agrarian culture and varied regional climate have significantly contributed to the global food basket, the laws, exacerbated by the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, will compound global economic insecurity, threaten global food production and overall livability (higher food prices, food security and shortages).”
Post 4 “Climate chaos is killing us. Texas freezing below zero is only the latest, after floods, fires, mudslides, superstorms and more.”
Post 6 “As the people who will inherit an uninhabitable planet, we the youth have been abandoned to death.” Post 6 “This will result in societal collapse and billions of deaths.”
Post 6 “We are trying to save our own lives and those of future generations.”
22 Post 7 “All free trade deals speed up the destruction of our Mother Earth by making extractivism cheaper and less regulated.” Post 7 “We must remain vigilant to ensure that the survival and flourishing of communities and ecosystems are always placed above profit.” Post 8 “Declare Climate & Ecological Emergency.” Table 3 – Table of findings for category “ecological crisis of cosmic proportion”.
As seen in the table above, other claims about the ecological crisis of cosmic proportions were made, but some less direct than others. For example, “We must remain vigilant to ensure that the survival and flourishing of communities and ecosystems are always placed above profit” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021g), does not show an immediate danger, but that people must be aware of the crisis. The findings in this category are mostly directed towards human suffering, but also towards the loss of flora and fauna. In post 7 they are also calling the Earth “Mother Earth” which is a personification of nature, maybe to get the compassion of the reader. When Extinction Rebellion uses words like “Mother Nature”, it implicitly tells the reader we are destroying and killing a person rather than the environment. This category also contains pieces of evidence of other categories, such as “intergenerational justice” in units like “we are trying to save our own lives and those of future generations” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021f).
7.2 Victimizing “the People” This is the first of the two categories that divide society into two antagonistic groups. In other words, we need to analyze this to see if a Manichean vision (Mudde, 2004) is visible in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse to determine how the discourse is constructed in relation to green populism. Victimizing the People is when one of the antagonistic groups, the “morally right” group, are portrayed as victims and are suffering from the ecological crisis. Examples of this in the analyzed materials is “Climate chaos is killing us” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021d) and “Free trade deals throw small farmers into full competition with agro-industry, destroying their livelihoods” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021g)”, suggesting that governments and corporations exploit the people. There are also less obvious signs of victimizing the People in the analyzed material. In many instances, the word “we” is used, suggesting that Extinction Rebellion speaks for themselves as a movement, but maybe even for everyone, even you and me. Two examples of this are “Climate chaos is killing us” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021d) and “We refuse to be the last generation” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021f). In the first example,
23 Extinction Rebellion does not make clear who “us” are, suggesting that it is the People. The second example is more directed to the younger generation.
Post Coded units Post 1 “In national parks, for example, one sees that without justice in conservation Indigenous people are banished from their lands or even killed.” Post 2 “Not only do the laws, which are basically bulldozed through the parliament with no proper deliberation or discussion with the stakeholders, take into consideration any of the farmer’s concerns…” Post 2 “India’s farmers and citizens need the global community to pay attention – the world needs to know that India is retreating from a democracy, regressing at an alarming pace and rushing headlong into fascism.” Post 3 “I’ve grown up believing that governments are in place to protect me, but they have continually let us down and I’m scared and tired of waiting for them to take significant action on the climate and ecological crisis.” Post 4 “Climate chaos is killing us.” Post 5 “Together we can change international crime law to protect ecosystems.” Post 6 “As the people who will inherit an uninhabitable planet, we the youth have been abandoned to death.” Post 6 “We refuse to be the last generation.” Post 7 “Free trade deals throw small farmers into full competition with agro-industry, destroying their livelihoods.” Post 7 “We must remain vigilant to ensure that the survival and flourishing of communities and ecosystems are always placed above profit!”
Table 4 – Table of findings for category “victimizing the people”.
Other examples of when the People are victimized are “I’ve grown up believing that governments are in place to protect me, but they have continually let us down and I’m scared and tired of waiting for them to take significant action on the climate and ecological crisis” and “As the people who will inherit an uninhabitable planet, we the youth have been abandoned to death”, suggesting that we, the People, have been abandoned by the institutions of power, i.e. the antagonist.
24 7.3 Identifying and/or blaming the antagonist This is the third category that stems from the Manichean vision of the world, dividing two antagonistic groups of society. In all eight posts, we can see examples of when Extinction Rebellion is trying to identify and sometimes blame the antagonist, and it was also the category with the most findings. This is the second category trying to analyze the division of two groups of society. According to the Manichean vision of the world, “the Elite” is the morally wrong (Mudde, 2004). To understand why and how they are seen as morally wrong, we must understand who “the Elite” actually is. In the theory section of this thesis, we established that populist actors often refer to the Elite as the institutions of powers such as politicians and government, or in other words, the political establishment (Mudde, 2004). The definition of “the Elite” is rather vague. When analyzing the material we can see that Extinction Rebellion is pointing finger at mostly governments, politicians, and corporations. For example, when saying “Not only do the laws, which are basically bulldozed through the parliament with no proper deliberation or discussion with the stakeholders…” Extinction Rebellion is suggesting that the government and politicians in question are making decisions without even considering the consequences for “the People”. Another example of an antagonist is “Recently, Chase and BlackRock have attempted to appease the public with climate announcements, but their plans are vague and dangerously inadequate”, blaming two actual corporations, even saying that they are just trying to appease the public, but does not actually do anything. The mentioned examples from the material show that Extinction Rebellion actually points at, and even mention, specific antagonists. The definition of “the Elite” is generalizing and doesn’t point at a specific person or group. Therefore, we will not use “the Elite” as the antagonist in this thesis. Instead, a new typification was developed through the analysis, where the category “Identifying and/or blaming the antagonist” emerged from analyzing the selected material.
Post Coded units Post 1 “Solutions like C02-offsetting and green capitalism will not save life on this planet.” Post 1 “Even more so if nothing is done about the consumption of people in Global North and the industries and governments responsible for biodiversity loss.” Post 2 “On January 26th, the government will be celebrating the adoption of its Constitution with a military parade, while continuing to perpetuate harmful policies that violate their one Constitution.”
25 Post 2 “Not only do the laws, which are basically bulldozed through the parliament with no proper deliberation or discussion with the stakeholders…” Post 3 “I’ve grown up believing that governments are in place to protect me, but they have continually let us down and I’m scared and tired of waiting for them to take significant action on the climate and ecological crisis.” Post 4 “They are the world’s largest funders of climate chaos, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in fossil fuels that pollute the air, cook the planet, and displace indigenous communities.” Post 4 “Recently, Chase and BlackRock have attempted to appease the public with climate announcements, but their plans are vague and dangerously inadequate.” Post 5 “The destruction of our natural world continues. Because governments and profit- driven companies face no real legal consequences for destroying nature.” Post 6 “The magnitude of the climate and ecological crisis demands immediate action, which the government has failed, on numerous counts, to address.” Post 6 “The extent to which the Morrison Government can ignore this and disregard so many lives and biodiversity is painfully ludicrous.” Post 7 “They give corporations even further rights to exploit people and ecosystems, without governments being able to protect them: companies can sue governments under the deal whenever their environmental, labour and health regulations interfere with their profits.” Post 8 “This action was in protest of the network’s failure to adequately report on the climate and ecological emergency.”
Table 5 – Table of findings for category “identifying and/or blaming the antagonist”.
Other actors that can be seen as the antagonist according to the analyzed material is the media. The example “This action was in protest of the network’s failure to adequately report on the climate and ecological emergency” points at NBC in particular, saying that they are not reporting enough about the ecological crisis. There is also one example of another actor as the antagonist, namely people in the Global North. In the example “Even more so if nothing is
26 done about the consumption of people in Global North and the industries and governments responsible for biodiversity loss” Extinction Rebellion is pointing out that the people in the Global North consume too much.
7.4 Green action This is the first of three categories which stems from Mudde’s core aspect of populism – expression of the general will. This category is a combination of expression of the general will as well as Dobson’s approach to green populism and was therefore labeled “green action”. As mentioned in the theory chapter about green ideology, actions are needed to change society towards a more green and sustainable society (Dobson, 2000). This is also seen and encouraged in the analyzed material, both in actual examples of change in society but also encouragement for the people to take power into their own hands. An example of when actions are encouraged is “Join us and sign the petition” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021g) where Extinction Rebellion urges the reader to join them. Another example is “Rebels locked themselves onto temporary fencing on the motorway off-ramp” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021b). By posting about actions like these, Extinction Rebellion encourages people to take more unconventional actions to make their voices heard and to take power into their own hands. The material also shows examples of concrete actions and change such as “A systemic change in conservation is needed” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021a) and “Make ecocide an international crime” (Extinction Rebellion 2021e). These examples might be more directed to the antagonist within the political establishment, but nevertheless, they show concrete examples of changes in society that Extinction Rebellion think is needed to reach a more green society.
Post Coded units Post 1 “A systemic change in conservation is needed.” Post 3 “Rebels locked themselves onto temporary fencing on the motorway off-ramp.” Post 5 “Make ecocide an international crime.” Post 6 “We are choosing to be arrested because we know what we’re doing is right.” Post 7 “Join us and sign the petition.” Post 7 • “The creation of a coalition of European parliamentarians. • The cancellation of the EU- Mercosur free trade agreement. • The immediate freeze of imports linked to deforestation”
27 Post 8 “Extinction Rebellion women glue themselves to NBC’s Today Show windows and demand the media to ‘Free the Truth’.”
Table 6 – Table of findings for category “green action”.
Another interesting finding in the material is “We are choosing to be arrested because we know what we’re doing is right”. First of all, this displays an unconventional action. But mostly, it shows that the people does not trust the antagonist to make the changes needed, but they have to take matters into their own hands to actually reach change, even if it means they are getting arrested. It doesn’t matter what the antagonist says, because the people in question know what they are doing is right and the antagonist is wrong. In most of the findings the actions are encouraged against a specific antagonist, often governments or corporations. All of the findings within this category also show examples of collective action which is an important feature of social movements through time. It is also noteworthy that the findings are often examples of symbolic actions which has little or no practical effect.
7.5 Scientific evidencing Scientific evidencing is used to give scientific facts which give legitimacy to the cause, i.e. the expression of the general will, and are therefore a crucial element of green populism. However, in this case, the use of scientific facts could only be identified in two of the analyzed posts. In Extinction Rebellion’s case, it could be beneficial for them to use scientific evidencing more frequently in order to create more loyalty to the general will and to create collective action. As mentioned in the research review, Extinction Rebellion also has a strong support from scientists and scholars which we are not finding any examples of in the analyzed material. The two times scientific evidencing was used, it was used to back up statements with well-grounded facts.
Post Coded units Post 1 “80% of all the world’s biodiversity is currently found on the lands of Indigenous people, because they generally maintain very regenerative lifestyles that place little stress on ecosystems.” Post 6 “On our current trajectory, we are heading for 4°C of warming by the end of the century, maybe sooner.”
Table 7 – Table of findings for category “scientific evidencing”.
28 Although the findings of scientific evidencing were few, we must also acknowledge the fact that the material was gathered from Extinction Rebellion’s Instagram account. Social media is often used to gain quick and easy information and might not be the movement’s preferred output for complex scientific information.
7.6 Intergenerational justice This is the third and last category based on the expression of the general will. Intergenerational justice is based on the presumption that all generations are of equal importance and that the survival of current and future generations should be in focus. In other words, the general will expresses that all generations are of equal importance.
In this case, it is interesting to see that Extinction Rebellion quotes younger members of their movement to really voice and emphasize their concerns for their generation as well as generations to come. A good example of this is “We are trying to save our own lives and those of future generations” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021f) where a young protester is concerned for her own life.
Post Coded units Post 1 “…and to identify for just conservation that protects human rights and biodiversity at the same time.” Post 4 “We demand Chase and BlackRock to stop financing fossil fuels and human rights violations.” Post 6 “As the people who will inherit an uninhabitable planet, we the youth have been abandoned to death.” Post 6 “We are trying to save our own lives and those of future generations.” Post 8 “The women acted knowing a growing number of women worldwide are becoming increasingly frustrated and fearful for the future of the planet, their own lives and their children.”
Table 8 – Table of findings for category “intergenerational justice”.
A notable finding in this category is how they are building loyalty towards generations that does not even exist yet. As we established earlier, green populism is based on an antagonism between the morally wrong and the morally right and a “we against them”-mentality. It is therefore noteworthy that they are on one hand strengthening the schism with an antagonist,
29 but on the other hand building strong bonds and solidarity with a group that does not even exist yet. Other than this, we can also identify references to human rights within this category. “…and to identify for just conservation that protects human rights and biodiversity at the same time” is a good example of when human rights and justice for future generations are in focus.
8. Summary and conclusions To answer the research question “What characterizes Extinction Rebellion as a new social movement we need to look at the theoretical framework to understand what a new social movement is. Laclau and Mouffe (2001) claim that new social movements rather focus on non-material issues such as human rights and animal rights, while the traditional older movements focus mainly on resources and economic concerns. Extinction Rebellion has made clear in their list of three demands that they are not interested in any type of economic profit. Instead, they focus on changing the society at its core and to influence global politics (Extinction Rebellion, 2020). However, we can still find some examples of when Extinction Rebellion does mention actual resources in the material. For example, in post 1, Extinction Rebellion is talking about when indigenous people are banished from their land. It is also clear in the category of intergenerational justice that Extinction Rebellion indeed focuses on resources since they demand a fair distribution of resources over generations. With this in mind, we can still conclude that Extinction Rebellion tends to focus more on non-material issues, but with a few exceptions. We should also keep in mind that their focus on resources is often linked to non-material concerns regarding human rights and natural preservation.
Scholar Alberto Melucci (1980) claims that new social movements put the needs for survival and reproduction in focus. Extinction Rebellion, in their own words, aims to “stop mass extinction and avoid social and ecological collapse” which is in line with Melucci’s (1980) approach to new social movements. Further, Extinction Rebellion is a decentralized movement (Kobie, 2019) with a horizontal organization, meaning they don’t have an obvious leader or a chain of command and rely on collective action. We can see examples of this collective action in post 2 when they urge people to join the largest protest in human history, no matter who or where they are.
The last two characteristics of a new social movement are that they tend to emphasize different protest tactics and unconventional means of action, as well as the use of symbolic
30 action. We can see an example of both characteristics in post 8 where women from Extinction Rebellion glued themselves to the windows of NBC’s studio and demanded NBC to “free the truth”. It is symbolic since they are glued to the windows and cannot move, or in other words, they are not free. The glued hands are a symbol of being captive, the opposite of free. It can also be seen as symbolic since it for them represent an important change, but in reality has little political effect. Instead of political action they use this symbolic action to make their statements and it is also a rather unconventional action.
So, in summary: What characterizes Extinction Rebellion as a new social movement is that they tend to focus on non-material issues with a few exceptions, but these exceptions are linked to non-material issues. They also rely on collective action and have a horizontal organization. Thirdly, they tend to focus on symbolic action rather than political action. And lastly, they encourage unconventional means of protests such as gluing themselves to windows and lock themselves to fences. So based on previous research on Extinction Rebellion and this analysis of their Instagram account, we can conclude that they can be seen as a new social movement.
The second research question of this thesis is “How is the environmental discourse constructed in relation to green populism?”. To answer this question, we first had to clarify what green populism is since it is a new phenomenon with big research gaps. This thesis concludes that green populism should be defined as a new phenomenon or concept, based on a combination between Cas Mudde’s approach to populism (2004) and Andrew Dobson’s approach to green ideology (2000). This thesis defined six elements that characterize green populism. These categories are Ecological Crisis of Cosmic Proportions, Victimizing “the People”, Identifying and/or Blaming the Antagonist, Green Action, Scientific Evidencing, and Intergenerational Justice.
When analyzing the material, examples of all six characteristics could be found in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse on Instagram. Some characteristics were more conspicuous and prominent than others. However, this thesis follows a qualitative method rather than frequency. Does the findings mean Extinction Rebellion should be considered a populist actor? No. Extinction Rebellion’s environmental discourse on Instagram is constructed in a way that makes it possible to find indicators that they might use a populistic language, whether it is intentionally or not. Instagram only shows one side of the movement. However,
31 we should be careful to label social movements and Extinction Rebellion as populists, since their goal is not to gain political power. To have a populistic discourse does not equal being a populist actor. A populistic discourse can be used for making their voices heard, gain members, or create change, while a populist actor uses populistic discourse to gain political power. One does not exclude the other, but we can’t say a person or a group is a populist actor for only using a populistic language.
But as we know by now, populism is simply put a way of giving simple solutions to complex issues. What happens if a global social movement such as Extinction Rebellion uses a populistic language to convey their message? What are the consequences of that? The aim of this thesis is not to answer these questions, but it is important to keep in mind when we consume content on social media. It might be dangerous to talk about complex issues regarding the climate in a simplified way. But, on the other hand, maybe that is what is needed? Maybe the global climate-conscious actors need to use a simplified language to make people understand the severity of the crisis. There are some positive aspects of using an easy and clear language. For example, it is clear in Extinction Rebellion’s discourse on Instagram that they are raising awareness of the climate crisis. Not only do they raise awareness of the crisis, but they are also talking about the severity of the crisis when referring to people’s suffering and even death. They are also emphasizing the antagonism between two groups of society, although in a different way than Cas Mudde (2004) talks about when he talks about this antagonism. Mudde claims that the antagonism is between the morally right people and the morally wrong elite. Mudde (2004) has a generalized and vague definition of who the elite actually is, mostly referring to them as “the political establishment”. Extinction Rebellion on the other hand, does actually conceptualize who their antagonist actually is. The antagonist varies in the different posts depending on the subject and context, but in most cases they point at a specific actor.
The characteristic least prominent was scientific evidencing. It might be easy to argue that Extinction Rebellion should use more scientific facts to give legitimacy to their cause, but before we draw too big conclusions from this, we should remember that we analyzed their Instagram account which only shows one side of the movement. Social media is often used to convey messages quickly and short, so the receiver can digest the information easily. This might be an explanation to why scientific evidencing was used so scarcely. Extinction Rebellion might have contemplated the idea of having more scientific facts on their
32 Instagram, but concluded that it would not be effective. Extinction Rebellion has other outputs such as websites and articles where more scientific evidencing might be more prominent.
In conclusion, there are some things we need to clarify before we start labeling actors as “green populists”. There are a few issues with the term “green populism” that can be seen as problematic, and it should not be seen as a label. First of all, can you be populistic in a matter so important and urgent as the climate? Some people might argue that we should fight the climate crisis by all means necessary. That might be true, but it is not up to this thesis to decide. However, we still need to understand the underlying causes of why and how things are the way they are and how we communicate them. Therefore, this thesis argues that green populism should not be seen as a value-loaded term or a label. It should only be seen as a theoretical and analytical tool when analyzing the communication of environmental actors.
8.1 Theory contribution From examining previous research we can establish that research on populism is extensive. However, there is a research gap on the combination between populism and green ideology. This thesis has tested, and hopefully developed Cas Mudde’s ideational approach to populism since we have proceeded from Mudde’s theory and developed his categorization of populist elements to green populist elements. Since this thesis has tested the applicability of a new type of populism it has contributed to contemporary research on populism. We hope that in the future the concept of green populism can be used as a theoretical and analytical tool rather than a label of populistic environmental actors.
8.2 Suggestions for future research In regards to new social movement theories, more studies on Extinction Rebellion’s content on the internet would be interesting to analyze. This can, together with this study, contribute to the understanding of Extinction Rebellion’s organizational construction as well as their discourse. It is important to continue to study new social movements since we are living in a constantly changing society, and movements change with the society.
As mentioned earlier, there is a research gap on green populism. This thesis has established an analytical framework for this type of populism and has exhibited the combination of populism and green ideology as an applicable theory. However, this study is a master thesis, so further
33 research on the area should be conducted. Since there is a research gap, the potential for future research seems endless. More in-depth studies on Extinction Rebellion and on their other outlets could be conducted to see if they can be considered a populist actor, and most important, what effects that could have. It would also be interesting to analyze other climate- conscious actors in the environmental arena to see if and how widespread green populism is.
From a communication perspective, it would be interesting and highly important to use green populism as an analytical concept on more material and other actors to understand how emerging environmental actors communicate. It would also be beneficial to further study new social movement’s environmental discourse in relation to green populism on social media. Is it even possible to have an objective and nuanced debate on climate and environment on social media? How can new social movements benefit from using social media? Maybe there are other outlets that are more effective for environmental actors to make their voices heard and to convey their messages.
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Appendices Appendix 1 – Post 1 “NATURE NEEDS JUSTICE. Just as the climate movement demands justice, justice is needed in nature conservation! In national parks, for example, one sees that without justice in conservation Indigenous people are banished from their lands or even killed. Here should be noted: 80% of all the world’s biodiversity is currently found on the lands of Indigenous peoples, because they generally maintain very regenerative lifestyles that place little stress on eco systems.
A systemic change in conservation is needed. Solutions like C02-offsetting and green capitalism will not save life on this planet. Even more so if nothing is done about the consumption of people in Global North and the industries and governments responsible for biodiversity loss.
Therefore, @extincionrebelliondeutschland are launching the #NatureNeedsJustice campaign from the Global North to reflect on our responsibility and how we think and act.
The campaign aims to raise awareness that conservation in the past and today is often linked to racism, and to identify solutions for just conservation that protects human rights and biodiversity at the same time.” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021a).
Appendix 2 – Post 2 “Will you be part of the largest protest in human history? Share Photo/Video Message preferably by 23rd Jan (solidarity messages for farmers at Delhi’s border). Join the tweet storm this Saturday (23rd January) at 11.30 pm UTC / 5 pm IST. Link in bio with comprehensive toolkit to learn how you can be a part of this action. Why?
Over 1.3 billion Indians depend on the agricultural sector and have dealt with numerous crises for decades. On January 26th, the government will be celebrating the adoption of its
Constitution with a military parade, while continuing to perpetuate harmful policies that violate their one Consistution.
On the other hand over 250 million farmers have been protesting all over, in an effort to convince the union government to repeal the new farm bills. Not only do the laws, which are basically bulldozed through the parliament with no proper deliberation or discussion whith the stakeholders, take into consideration any of the farmers’ concerns, it also threatens to do away with systems like APMC mandis and the MSP, thereby crippling a group of people already plagued by debt and suicide.
At a higher level, given that India’s agrarian culture and varied regional climate have significantly contributed to the global food basket, tha laws, exacerbated by the devastating impacts of the climate crisis, will compound global economic insecurity, threaten global food production and overall livability (higher food prices, food security and shortages).
These protests impact us all.
India’s farmers and citizens need the global community to pay attention – the world needs to know that India is retreating from a democracy, regressing at an alarming pace and rushing headlong into fascism. International focus on these protests may be the only thing preventing state-sponsored violence and another massacre in India.” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021b).
Appendix 3 – Post 3 “We’re cooked with gas. We’re sorry for the inconvenience but it pales in comparison to the inconvenience of climate chaos! @Santos_ltd’s office on Turbot Street, Brisbane, had a visit from @XR_Bris_Meanjin at 8am this morning.
Rebels locked themselves onto temporary fencing on the motorway off-ramp. The blockade was in protest against the gas-fired recovery pushed by the Coalition government.
From extinction rebel Jupiter: “We block traffic to disrupt the profit and order of ecocidal functioning, and in numbers we can force the change we need. I've grown up believing that governments are in place to protect me, but they have continually let us down and I'm scared and tired of waiting for them to take significant action on the climate and ecological crisis."
Extinction Rebellion stands with Gomeroi protecting their sacred land by calling for an immediate stop to the Santos gas project in the Pilliga. This project will cause irreversible damage to country, water, community and climate.
If the Santos gas project goes ahead then it will reinforce the fossil fuel industry's footing in Australia beyond coal, making a just transition to a green future more difficult.
This @XR_Bris_Meanjin action took place on the unceded lands of the Yuggera and Turrbal peoples.” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021c).
Appendix 4 – Post 4 “Climate chaos is killing us. Texas freezing below zero is only the latest, after floods, fires, mudslides, superstorms and more.
On Wednesday, March 3, 2021 Extinction Rebellion, with New York Communities for Change, Sunrise Movement, 360.org, Rise and Resist and the Rainforest Action Network, protested JP Morgan Chase and BlackRock.
Why JP Morgan Chase and Blackrock? They are the world's largest funders of climate chaos, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in fossil fuels that pollute the air, cook the planet, and displace indigenous communities. We urge them to #StopTheMoneyPipeline.
Recently, Chase and BlackRock have attempted to appease the public with climate announcements, but their plans are vague and dangerously inadequate. Ultimately, their actions continue to fuel climate destruction.
We demand Chase and BlackRock stop financing fossil fuels and human rights violations. In particular, we demand the immediate halt to financial support for all companies in coal, in tar sands oil, and that fuel Amazon fires and violate indigenous sovereignty, including the Line 3 Pipeline.
Send a direct email to CEOs now to demand that they stop funding the toxic Line 3 pipeline: https://stopthemoneypipeline.com/defund-line-3.” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021d).
Appendix 5 – Post 5 “Make ecocide an international crime. The burning of the Amazon forest should be a crime. So should be the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill, destructive industrial fishing or plastic pollution. But they are not.
The destruction of our natural world continues. Because governments and profit- driven companies face no real legal consequences for destroying nature.
This is due to a huge gap in international law. The destruction of ecosystems- called ecocide- is not listed as a crime. It's time to change the rules.
Together we can change international criminal law to protectour ecosystems. Let’s make ecocide an international crime! For that we need your voice and your support. Sign the international petition (link in bio) and become an Earth Protector.” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021e).
Appendix 6 – Post 6 “We refuse to be the last generation. @xr_youth_aus setup a road block on an exit to the West Gate Freeway, Melbourne. Akira, from XR Youth Sydney and XR Youth VIC, sat at the top of a 6 meter high steel tripod.
Akira, a 17 year old Cyber Security student: "As the people who will inherit an uninhabitable planet, we the youth have been
abandoned to death. The magnitude of the climate and ecological crisis demands immediate action, which the government has failed, on numerous counts, to address. On our current trajectory, we are heading for 4°C of warming by the end of the century, maybe sooner. This will result in societal collapse and billions of deaths. The ecosystems that we depend on for our survival are already starting to fall apart. The extent to which the Morrison Government can ignore this and disregard so many lives and biodiversity is painfully ludicrous." "The system relies on the fear of the people to maintain the status quo. We are choosing to be arrested because we know what we are doing is right. By disrupting business-as-usual we are bringing attention back to the harmful impacts of fossil fuel corporations on our future. We are trying to save our own lives and those of future generations."
This action took place in Naarm/Melbourne on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation.” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021f).
Appendix 7 – Post 7 “Solidarity with Amazonia and its guardians. The fate of Amazonia and its guardians is linked to our own future: Europe must stop its double dealing and act immediately!
Join us and sign the petition - link in bio.
To address the absolute emergency in which Amazonia finds itself, indigenous leaders from Brazil, young people mobilized for the climate and more than 70 associations from Europe and the American continent are joining forces to call for, among other things:
1. The creation of a coalition of European parliamentarians 2. The cancellation of the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement 3. The immediate freeze of imports linked to deforestation
All free trade deals speed up the destruction of our Mother Earth by making extractivism cheaper and less regulated. They give corporations even further rights to exploit people and ecosystems, without governments being able to protect them: companies can sue
governments under the deal whenever their environmental, labour and health regulations interfere with their profits
Free trade deals throw small farmers into full competition with agro-industry, destroying their livelihoods. They break local and regional markets and ship products around the globe following profit, when they could be made locally. They expand industrial activity and in doing so dispossess local communities of their lands, furthering the historical process of colonization. This trade deal is one of many we must stand against.
The UK government is also negotiating a free trade deal with Bolsonaro https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-brexit-trade-deal-brazil-amazon- labour-a9077926.html
We must remain vigilant to ensure that the survival and flourishing of communities and ecosystems are always placed above profit!” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021g).
Appendix 8 – Post 8 “Extinction Rebellion women glue themselves to NBC’s Today Show windows and demand the media ‘Free the Truth’.
Wednesday 21st April 2021, three women from Extinction Rebellion glued themselves to the glass windows of NBC’s @TodayShow while live on air. The protestors placed signs on the windows of the show reading “Declare Climate & Ecological Emergency” and “Dear Media, Tell the Truth About The Crisis.”
This action was in protest of the network’s failure to adequately report on the climate and ecological emergency.
Although NBC’s Today Show outperforms it’s morning news program counterparts, climate coverage as a whole made up only 0.4% of overall coverage on corporate broadcast morning, nightly and Sunday morning news shows in 2020.
The women acted knowing a growing number of women worldwide are becoming increasingly frustrated and fearful for the future of the planet, their own lives and their children. DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY AND REPORT ACCORDINGLY!” (Extinction Rebellion, 2021h).