Climate Activism

What is activism? The answer is, typically, that it is a form of opposition, often expressed on the streets. Skoglund and Böhm argue differently. They identify forms of ‘insider activism’ within corporations, state agencies and villages, showing how people seek to transform society by working within the system, rather than outright opposing it. Using extensive empirical data, Skoglund and Böhm analyze the transformation of climate activism in a rapidly changing political landscape, arguing that it is time to think beyond the tensions between activism and enterprise. They trace the everyday renewable energy actions of a growing ‘epistemic community’ of climate activists who are dispersed across organizational boundaries and domains. This book is testament to a new way of understanding activism as an organizational force that brings about the transition towards sustainability across business and society and is of interest to social science scholars of business, renewable energy and sustainable development.

Author Biography

Annika Skoglund is Associate Professor at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research interests and teaching experience is closely linked to interdisciplinary approaches within climate social science and alternative entrepreneurship. She has published in journals such as Renewable Energy, Sustainable Development, Human Relations, and Organization Studies. Steffen Böhm is Professor in Organisation & Sustainability at University of Exeter Business School, UK, where he teaches a large Business & Climate Change module. His research focuses on the political economy & ecology of the sustainability transition. He has published widely in international journals such as Organization Studies, Business Ethics Quarterly and Academy of Management Perspectives. He is the Environment Section Editor at the Journal of Business Ethics and has recently co-edited the book Negotiating Climate Change in Crisis (Open Book Publishers, 2021).