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Leeds Thesis Template - 1 - ‘Religion and Spirituality within Environmental Communities: place and significance in the UK context’ Jeffrey Kirby Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The University of Leeds Department of Theology and Religious Studies. February, 2014 - 2 - I, Jeffrey Kirby, declare that the thesis entitled ‘Religion and Spirituality within Environmental Communities: place and significance in the UK context’ and the work presented in this study are both my own, and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: - This work was done wholly while in candidature for a research degree at this University. - Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated. - Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. - With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work. - I have acknowledged all main sources of help. - None of this work has been published before submission. Date: February 2014 This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. The right of Jeffrey Kirby to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. © 2014 The University of Leeds and Jeffrey Kirby - 3 - Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking my supervisors Dr Emma Tomalin and Dr Rachel Muers who provided me with sustained support throughout this research project. I am extremely grateful for their encouragement and patience. I also wish to thank the entire Theology and Religious Studies department at the University of Leeds for providing an extremely supportive learning environment. Next I would like to voice my appreciation for the three communities that form the major part of this research, Raven Hill, Yosemite and Brecon. Thank you for your kind cooperation and your generosity in receiving me into your communities and homes. Finally I would like to acknowledge the support of my immediate family, wife Vanessa, children Benjamin and Jessica Alice, my parents Eric and Margaret Kirby who all gratuitously allowed me the time and space to complete this study. Without such support this research would not have been submitted. - 4 - Abstract This study examines religion and spirituality within environmental communities in the UK. Through the detailed study of three communities, 35 in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations, the substantive forms of religion and spirituality present are for the first time comprehensively documented. Individual beliefs and practices are examined alongside shared religious traditions, collective rituals and shrines within communal spaces. The place of religion and spirituality is mapped within communities using the concept of four realms (Inner, Personal, Social and Public). A comparative approach is employed to explore the differences between urban and rural contexts. Two strong community discourses involving religion and spirituality within the rural context, hitherto not commented upon, are examined in detail. The first relates to differences in strategic tendency (spiky-fluffy), these are in fact found to emanate from the previous Environmental Direct Action (EDA) movement. The second centres upon the Art of Mentoring Movement in which a number of community members had participated. Through detailed analysis the study describes how this organisation differed from the other spiritual traditions being practiced within the rural environmental communities. Throughout the study I suggest that many of the prominent features of environmental communities are similar to those identified in the EDA movement UK and Western countercultural movements of the 1960s. It is in regard to these social movements that I posit New Social Movement theories in particular help explain the presence of multiple ideologies within all three communities. Towards the end of the study I analyse the functional traits of religion and spirituality. All aspects of community bonding are considered including ideology, cultural practices, normative practices and body experiences. It is within the latter category that I suggest a type of ‘organic embodied solidarity’ exists within the rural context. - 5 - Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... 3 Abstract ........................................................................................................ 4 Table of Contents ........................................................................................ 5 List of Tables ............................................................................................... 9 List of Figures ........................................................................................... 10 ~ Chapter 1 ~ Introduction ....................................................................... 11 1.1 Methods ........................................................................................ 14 1.2 Key Concepts and Terminology .................................................... 17 1.3 Chapter Synopsis .......................................................................... 24 ~ Chapter 2 ~ Social Movements, Environmental Movements ............. 28 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 28 2.2 New Social Movement Theories .................................................... 28 2.2.1 Collective Identity and Cognitive Practice .......................... 30 2.3 Environmental Movements ............................................................ 34 2.3.1 Rachael Carson ................................................................. 34 2.3.2 Challenges to Economic and Industrial Growth .................. 35 2.3.3 Organisation, Mass Movement and Institutionalisation. ..... 37 2.3.4 The Ecocentric Approach and Deep Ecology ..................... 39 2.3.5 Spirituality and Deep Ecology ............................................ 42 2.4 Conclusions ................................................................................... 44 ~ Chapter 3 ~ Environmental Communities ........................................... 45 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 45 3.2 Alternative Communities in the 19th Century ................................ 45 3.3 1960s Communes Movement ....................................................... 47 3.4 Environmental Communities UK ................................................... 51 3.4.1 Characteristics of Environmental Communities .................. 52 3.4.2 Low-Impact Development ................................................... 56 3.4.3 Permaculture ...................................................................... 58 3.4.4 Interactions Beyond the Environmental Community ........... 59 3.5 Sociological Theories Relating to Alternative Communities and Communes. ................................................................................. 61 3.5.1 Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft ......................................... 61 3.5.2 Typologies and Categorisation ........................................... 64 - 6 - 3.6 Conclusions ................................................................................... 72 ~ Chapter 4 ~ Religion and Spirituality within the Environmental Direct Action Movement (UK) ........................................................... 73 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 73 4.2 1990s Road Protest Camps and Culture ....................................... 73 4.3 Alternative Spiritualities ................................................................. 79 4.4 Contemporary Paganism ............................................................... 83 4.5 Eco-Paganism ............................................................................... 84 4.6 Tribal Metaphor and Indigenous Peoples ...................................... 90 4.7 Shamanism, Neo-Shamanism ....................................................... 94 4.8 Social Ecology ............................................................................... 95 4.9 Conclusions ................................................................................... 98 ~ Chapter 5 ~ Environmental Community: Rural Context .................... 99 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 99 5.2 Method .......................................................................................... 99 5.3 Raven Hill and Yosemite ............................................................. 100 5.3.1 Architecture ...................................................................... 100 5.3.2 Local Towns and Economy, Work Arrangements ............ 102 5.3.3 Meetings and Legal Structures ......................................... 104 5.3.4 Family Structures, Children, Schooling ............................ 106 5.3.5 Socio Economic Groupings, Ethnicity, Education and Mobility .............................................................................. 107 5.3.6 Food ................................................................................. 109 5.3.7 Political Ideologies ..........................................................
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