![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.sps.ed.ac.uk\/global-environment-society-academy\/files\/2018\/10\/image001.jpg\")
<\/a>Thanks to a collaboration fund between the Universities of Sydney and Edinburgh, sponsored by the Partnership Collaboration Awards Programme, our two associated institutes (Sydney Environment Institute<\/a> and Edinburgh\u2019s Global Environment and Society Academy<\/a>) were able to host an excellent workshop<\/a> this summer on \u2018Sustainable Materialism<\/a>.\u2019 Our focus was on flows of materials (including food, energy, clothing), through our everyday lives and if\/how these flows and practices represent a new type of environmentalism. \u00a0The delegates gathered at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation<\/a> (ECCI) in Edinburgh were amazingly diverse, representing disciplines of politics, environmental science, ecology, law, arts, architecture, literature, music, economics, sociology and more.\u00a0 Eleven papers analysed the people and groups engaged in environmental practices \u2013 food movements, community energy, sustainable crafting and fashion \u2013 and explored their motivations, forms, diversity and impact on social change.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After co-organiser David Schlosberg<\/a> introduced the main theme of sustainable materialism, \u00a0Gordon Walker<\/a> examined social practice theory, suggesting how a focus on practice<\/em> as a unit of analysis (cycling, gardening, etc.)\u00a0 provides a nice antidote to the more traditional \u00a0individualist, behavioural framings of action. His paper successfully applied the approach to understanding the shared commitment to sustainable practices, and he made a very good case for its use. However, the ensuing discussion probed the role of agency, motivations and identity, all of which remain somewhat ambiguous in social practice applications.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next up was a\u00a0 series of super case studies: Sherilyn MacGregor<\/a> on \u2018urban commoning\u2019 in Moss Side, Manchester, and Lisa Heinz<\/a> on sustainable fashion.\u00a0 The main discussion questions here concerned neoliberalism: what shapes \u2018sustainable\u2019 fashion choices; do they really challenge consumerism? \u00a0Similarly, to what extent do local initiatives simply compel overburdened communities to take on work that the state used to provide (clearing up alleys)?\u00a0 Do such practices represent a \u2018slippery slope\u2019towards the commodification of sustainable activities?\u00a0 , MacGregor recognised the danger, but her robust response also outlined the empowering character of the alley greening as a counter to paternal council approach to behaviour change.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n An architectural dimension featured next with Lee Stickells<\/a> on green buildings in the 1970s counterculture in Australia, and Tahl Kaminer<\/a> on collective ownership of Israeli kibbutzim.\u00a0 Amazing visuals in both cases. \u00a0These presentations promoted fascinating discussion about: land ownership (relevant also to the Scottish case) how to define \u2018the collective\u2019 as well as tricky questions of coloniser and colonised land and how\/whether we could think of these examples in a decolonised perspective.\u00a0 Another foundational question (did design affect collective practice or vice versa?) prompted broader discussions of the relationship between space and time, and structure and agency.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Session 4 explored micro-practices. These included community sustainability projects and the economic localisation of product and consumption they bring (presented by Wouter Spekkink<\/a>);\u00a0 an in-depth study of radically de-centralised, small-scale egg initiatives (Arunima Malik<\/a>) and a study of community energy and its putative links to energy justice by Annalisa Savaresi<\/a>.\u00a0 The discussion included eggcellent questions and egg puns galore (Walker was the main culprit) but also a serious discussion of the key role of intermediators (in local markets and energy especially) and a critique of the \u2018romantisation of the local\u2019 (that is, the tendency to conflate \u2018local\u2019 with \u2018sustainable\u2019).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The last session stepped back again and allowed us to compare practice-based environmentalism with a more traditional type of environmental action (Joost de Moor<\/a>). That in turn led us to explore the challenges for social movement scholars and how they might better understand relations between everyday life and social change (Luke Yates<\/a>).\u00a0 A rich discussion followed, including fundamental questions such as what is \u2018political\u2019 (both \u2018troublemaking\u2019 and \u2018service provision\u2019?), the processes of disengagement from national (or global) to the local, and a tendency to view \u2018political\u2019 narrowly. David labelled the latter as pure hogwash (delicately put), bemoaning the perception that \u2018if you\u2019re not protesting you\u2019re not doing politics\u2019. In short, media and researchers\u2019 focus on \u2018protest events\u2019 and social movement organisations misses huge swathe of political activity, yet that neglect may in part be down to participants themselves: \u00a0people\u2019s own political activity is invisible to them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was amazing how much was packed into one day. Moving forward, the group would like to synthesise the cases and findings discussed then take these further, exploring in more depth what are the implications for taking the material as a starting point of social change. An edited volume of papers is planned, along with a follow-up roundtable at an upcoming conference.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elizabeth Bomberg \u00a0wishes to thank MSc student and workshop participant Laura Berry for notes on the workshop.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Note: this blog appears courtesy of Sydney Environment Institute<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Elizabeth Bomberg<\/a> is Professor of Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh, Deputy Director of the Global Environment & Society Academy, and Co-Director of the MSc programme in Global Environment Politics and Society. \u00a0Her primary teaching and research activity falls into the broad area of comparative environmental politics, with particular substantive emphasis on climate change, faith-based activism, shale politics and community energy. \u00a0Elizabeth\u2019s recent publications have appeared in Environmental Politics<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0 Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning<\/a><\/u><\/em>, Local Environment<\/a><\/em> and Science of the Total Environment<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elizabeth Bomberg reflects on the \u2018Sustainable Materialism Workshop\u2019, which examined emerging social movements in sustainability and the shifting nature of environmental practices and advocacy. By Professor Elizabeth Bomberg, Deputy Director of GESA and Professor of Environmental Politics, School of Social … Continue reading