Public defence: Lotte Schack

About the thesis

In the face of catastrophic climate change, how do those who will have to live with its consequences fight against it?

This thesis examines how climate activists construct and negotiate ideas of political subjectivity, responsibility, and justice, and what this means for climate action. In particular, the studies in the thesis focus on young climate activists and how they make sense of their generational position in the social relations of the climate crisis. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with the Swedish climate movement between 2020 and 2024, a period marked by rapidly rising temperatures along with a disruptive pandemic, the studies explore how activists navigate crises, and the roles assigned to children and youths in them, how they construct ideas about climate justice and translate such ideas into action.

The thesis shows that ideas about justice are not abstract theories but grow out of everyday practices, conflicts and negotiations both within social movements, and between movements and their surroundings. It argues that activists contest dominant understandings of justice, and in doing so, conjures new ways of thinking about and acting on the climate crisis.