ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how movements’ recruitment strategies and resulting composition are dependent on, and consequential for, the goals they pursue. It draws on an ethnographic study of two Sustainable Community Movement Organizations (SCMOs) in Manchester (UK). Both organisations aim to advance climate justice through practical projects relating to food and energy. Given the escalating climate change crisis, a relevant question for both organisations is whether focus should be on the continued mitigation of climate change through the promotion of low-carbon lifestyles, or on adapting to the consequences of climate change. Traditionally, focus has been on the former which, given limited resources. has driven the mobilisation of ‘low-hanging fruit’: individuals with higher socio-economic status who have the greatest responsibility, opportunity and ability to reduce their carbon footprint, and who likely share environmental concerns. Adaptation is only contemplated implicitly, as a by-product of mitigation efforts. It does not prompt a shift in recruitment strategies. Consequently, it is the same advantaged constituencies whose resilience is advanced, whereas climate justice would demand a focus on adaptation of vulnerable communities. Yet the pathways of both organisations are clearly distinct, showing (partial) solutions to resulting mismatches between their justice goals and recruitment strategies.
