The nowtopia of the riverbank: Elder environmental activism

Abstract

Degrowth imaginaries offer alternative ways of envisioning future societies. Those, predominantly working age and working class people, seeking to purposefully enact degrowth in the here and now are termed ‘nowtopians’. Based on empirical work undertaken along the River Adur valley in West Sussex, UK, this paper argues that dynamic examples of nowtopian initiatives can develop from alternative and overlooked demographics, such as rural community elders. Explored through a series of interlinking activist narratives, orientated around collective responses to changing riverbank environments, this paper argues that the genesis of this elder activism is a desire to re-assert agency in older age that can be linked to degrowth sensibilities. Contending with the new realities of living under ‘austerity localism’, many of these elders have undergone a personal, if not political, epiphany and have turned to forms of environmental activism to articulate their agency and demonstrate solidarity with fellow humans across generations. This paper argues that these elder nowtopians champion direct action, conviviality and living well. Ageing and place connectivity are the motivators which underpin one of the key nowtopian concepts: ‘redefining life's purpose’. Reflecting back, projecting forward, but operating in the ‘now’, these elders help us to consider a ‘politics’ of degrowth through grassroots activism along a rural river catchment.

(Re)configuring moral boundaries of intergenerational justice: the UK parent-led climate movement

“…Empirical studies have shown that older people can be politicised for the first time in later life, debunking assumptions of their frailty (Guillemot and Price 2017). Other work has found that environmental activism in older age groups enabled an intergenerational community cohesion and provided older people a new sense of meaning in a post-work life (Gearey and Ravenscroft 2019). Moreover, dealing with the threat of climate change will require a greater number of people to engage civically and politically, and older people have been deemed an underutilised resource to benefit national mitigation efforts and contribute to community resilience (Cohen et al 2016;Pillemer et al 2021).…”

Nuancing Holistic Simplicity in Sweden: A Statistical Exploration of Consumption, Age and Gender

“…Most of them were public sector professionals or males working within arts and crafts [5]. In another example, retirees' spontaneous activism for the protection and reclamation of a riverbank in West Sussex (UK) was studied in the context of "nowtopias" [56]. These are territorial processes of regeneration that involve non-wage labour and are motivated by a desire to produce alternative local futures here and now, e.g., through the everyday experimentation of other worlds [57,58].…”

“…This is a relevant policy area for Swedish and similar municipalities with relatively many second home residents. Their contributions to transformative capacity building [56] through social and human capital (e.g., skills, work engagement, networks [37]) is relevant for right-sizing strategies in rural municipalities' planning of housing and infrastructure for (electric) cars and other means of transport [8].…”

Place-Keeping for Health? Charting the Challenges for Urban Park Management in Practice

“…De Magalhães and Trigo pointed out that different governance processes can lead to a reallocation of rights, which prioritises the attributes they (e.g., community group/private sector contractor) have because of their direct involvement in the decision-making [53]. Pillemer et al (2010) highlighted that many older people who volunteer do it for the well-being benefits gained through positive social interaction [51], while others do it to address pressing environmental issues that affect public health [51,59].…”

“…Some green space community groups get involved in maintenance tasks in their local park such as litter picking, which is closely associated with the perceived quality of public spaces [60]. Others get involved in physically demanding activities such as tree planting and riverside vegetation management [59]. Maintenance tasks are related to changes over time, reflecting seasonal use, vegetation growth and user requirement; for example, European parks are more heavily used in the summer than winter months.…”