Understanding Sustained Action and Prefiguration in the Climate Movement through Collaborative Ethnography

Abstract (English)

In the face of escalating climate breakdown, rising inequalities, and socio-economic crises, understanding how social movements sustain collective action and envision alternative futures is crucial. The climate movement in Czechia and elsewhere, for instance, experienced a significant decline in street protests and advocacy activities following recent global crises, yet simultaneously continues to explore new practices and strategies to strengthen resilience and seek new alliances. Facing climate-denialism and dwindling public support, the movement works to preserve its mobilization potential and its members’ wellbeing. Navigating moments of loss, burnout, and existential vulnerability while confronting adversary conditions requires specific methodological approaches capable of capturing the complexity of activists' experiences and the processes through which they adapt and persist.
Drawing on perspectives that argue for placing collaborative methodologies at the centre of social movement research, this abstract proposes collaborative ethnography as a powerful approach to study these dynamics. Building on conceptualizations like the "kitchen-work" metaphor, which emphasizes the preparatory, relational, and often invisible aspects of research done with collective actors, collaborative ethnography foregrounds how knowledge is produced in partnership and by embracing care, time, engagement, and openness in bridging academic and activist spheres.
Collaborative ethnography is uniquely suited to explore how activists engage in sense-making, contextualizing, and expressing individual and collective selves when confronting disaster and adversary conditions. By focusing on collaboration, it can delve into "horizoning" – the complex process of navigating the unimaginable and unpredictable. Such research uncovers how new horizons persist and change even in moments of loss and vulnerability. It reveals how these unfolding horizons shape actions, imaginations, and actors’ knowledge, and how they are mobilized for collective action and the prefiguration of a more equitable society. By highlighting the collaborative nature of knowledge production, this methodology fosters the transformative approaches urgently needed today.