Interruptive Imaginaries: Crises, Care, and Communication in South Africa's Climate Movement

Abstract

This dissertation weaves together insights from degrowth theory, feminist political ecology, and ubuntu scholarship, and puts them into conversation with South African climate activists. First, I situate South Africa’s climate movement within its historical context, and examine the ways in which compounding crises – the climate, the pandemic, and broader neoliberal constraints complicate climate activism, particularly that which challenges hegemonic development paradigms. I then highlight the centrality of caring labours and affects as not only shaping but sustaining South Africa’s climate movement, noting in particular the emancipatory power of caring relations as strengthening struggles for climate justice. Next, I theorize that direct climate actions – particularly, food sovereignty movements – are a creative form of communication which not only inform public concerns about the climate crisis, but offer tangible windows into alternative ways of being in the world. Finally, I deviate from traditional academic structure, to explore the emotional sides of climate activism, reflecting on the role of art as climate communication strategy, and offering my own speculative imaginaries. Throughout all these discussions, I attend in detail not only to South Africa’s uniquely situated climate movement, but look beyond it to stress the applicability of these climate strategies to other contexts as well. Taken together, this dissertation critically engages the complexities of climate activism by unpacking the stranglehold of the “unlimited growth” paradigm over everyday life including climate movements; troubling assumptions about who “de-grows” and how; and amplifying the strategies we can engage to rethink “development” and reimagine the future.