ABSTRACT
Radical eco-protests such as those engaged in by Earth First! (EF!) or Reclaim the Streets are significant political movements in the period of advanced capitalism. Eco-activism, as a diffuse, decentralised and non-hierarchical, mutable and diverse set of practices challenges the status quo and disrupts conventional conceptions of political engagement and thereby constitutes an important aspect of contemporary politics. In this chapter, I accept the premise that the current historical period (described as the period of ‘postmodernity’ or, less contentiously, ‘advanced capitalism’) constitutes a distinctive epoch that is evident in cultural, political and economic divergences-as well as continuities-with previous periods. I take as given that something called ‘politics’ is still relevant in this period,1 though I contend, with others in this volume, that some of the widely held conceptualisations of politics must be reconsidered. Connected to this is the need to reconsider ‘eco-identity’ as a social marker and lived experience of contingency, belonging and difference and, as such, an important cultural and political formation.
