Fighting Global Neo-Extractivism: Fossil-Free Social Movements in South Africa analyzes social struggles over damaging new fossil fuel projects in the Global South with a focus on South Africa, Africa’s biggest fossil fuel emitter.
Fossil fuel extraction in South Africa has reached a new accelerated phase in which the fossil fuel frontier is moving beyond historical ‘sacrifice zones’ into non-traditional spaces, such as conservation parks and middle-class neighbourhoods, and provoking fervent opposition from grassroots activists. This book examines campaigns such as Frack Free South Africa and Save our iMfolozi Wilderness, viewing them as struggles against neo-extractivism driven by the state and industry. Through a series of detailed case studies, it highlights the shaping of mobilisation patterns by prior land use practices and the capacity to mobilize different social groups across race and class. Developing the notion of the fossil fuel frontier as the material and political boundary that activists in South Africa and elsewhere in the world render visible, this volume provides a theoretical framework to understanding global mobilization patterns.
This timely and impassioned book will appeal to students and researchers interested in a range of subjects, including environmentalism, social movements, political ecology, and development studies.
Author(s): Jasper Finkeldey
Series: The Mobilization Series on Social Movements, Protest, and Culture
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 161
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction
Neo-Extractivism, Fossil Fuels, and the Climate Crisis in South Africa
Post-Apartheid State and Social Movements
Structure of the Book
Part I Theory and Practice of Resource Extractivism
2 Resource Frontiers and Hegemony
Resource Frontiers
Organising Hegemony
3 Fossil Fuel Dependency in South Africa
Emergence and Consolidation of the Historical Bloc Around Fossil Fuels
Post-Apartheid Fossil-Fuel Politics
Regulatory Framework
Conclusion
Part II Social Movements Fighting Fossil Fuels
4 Counter-Hegemonic Social Movements
Spaces of Social Movement Struggles
Leadership in Social Movement Action
An Ethnographic Approach to Social Movements
Reflexivity and Participant Research Practices
Interviews
Observation and Participant Observation
Data Analysis and Triangulation
5 Leadership and Framing in Fuleni’s Anti-Coal Movement
Place History and Land Use in Fuleni
A Moral Shock: Proposed Mining in Fuleni
The Save Our iMfolozi Wilderness Leadership Group
Frame Setting: Starting a Conservation Campaign
Limits of the Conservation Frame and Frame-Shifting
Frame Shifting: Listening to the Frontline Community
Limits of the Community Frame
Frame Extension: Anti-Mining, Fossil Fuels, and Climate Change
Conclusion and Discussion: Frame Processes in the iMfolozi Wilderness Campaign
6 Movement Tactics for a Frack Free South Africa
A Moral Shock: Potential Fracking in KwaZulu-Natal
The Frack Free Leadership Group
Four Tactics Against Fracking
Blocking and Delaying
Educating
Connecting
Prefiguring
Discussion and Conclusion: How to Fight Fracking and Coal?
7 Fighting Fossil Fuels Around the World
Germany: ‘Coal Exit Is a Handicraft’
The German State(s) and Coal Mining
Ende Gelände and the Fossil-Fuel Frontier
Blocking and Delaying
Educating
Connecting
Prefiguring
Conclusion: Germany’s fossil-fuel frontier
Common Frontlines: Fossil-Free Struggles in South Africa and Germany
Global Struggles at the Fossil-Fuel Frontier
Global Social Movement Framing
Green New Deal
De-Growth
Environmental Justice
Global Social Movements Tactics
Appendix: Demographics of Population in Field Sites
Index
