1st Edition

An Ethnography of Global Environmentalism Becoming Friends of the Earth

By Caroline Gatt Copyright 2018
268 Pages
by Routledge

268 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

268 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Based on nine years of research, this is the first book to offer an in-depth ethnographic study of a transnational environmentalist federation and of activists themselves. The book presents an account of the daily life and the ethical strivings of environmental activist members of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), exploring how a transnational federation is constituted and maintained,... Read more

1. Introduction: Environmentalism, globality and anthropology in the common world  2. Proposing an Imaginary: Fields of Forces, Vectors and Direction of Attention  3. Field Methods, Emplacement and Scale: Where is Friends of the Earth International?  4. Chronological history and organic time: Being Introduced to FoEI  5. Striving for an exemplary life :Becoming an Environmentalist  6. Rhythms of globality: Developing a sense of belonging to FoEI  7. Communication Technologies and Presence: Being in touch in FoEI  8. The effectiveness of structure: Vectors at work in a transnational federation  9. Experiments with political form and process  10. Epilogue: An Experiment  Appendix

Biography

Caroline Gatt is a Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. Her research interests include environmentalism, post-relativist approaches to human diversity, laboratory theatre and design anthropology.

"In this meticulously written book, crafted from nine years of ethnographic work, Caroline Gatt provides a highly original account of an activist NGO that not only tells us about what its members and supporters believe and do, but also how their actions, decisions and priorities are embedded in wider practices, processes and imaginaries. This volume is an important and timely addition to the small but growing field of anthropological studies of activism and NGOs worlds, and should be read by activists and researchers alike."

- David Lewis, London School of Economics & Political Science