Faith-Based Climate Activism Lecture

SJC hosts lecture on role of religious actors in activism related to climate change

10 September 2019

Cosmopolitics of Faith-Based Climate Justice Activism

When: Thursday, September 26, 2019 at 3:30 pm

Where: St. Joseph's College boardroom

Who: Dr. Randy Haluza-DeLay, Associate Professor of Sociology at The King's University in Edmonton and author of numerous works on environmental justice, as well as religion and climate change

What: Please join us for a talk by Dr. Haluza-DeLay on The Cosmopolitics of Faith-Based Climate Justice Activism at the UNFCCC

Religious actors play an increasing role in transnational civil society activism on environmental governance. Ethnographic research at the United Nations' climate negotiations in Morocco (COP22, 2016) shows how religious activism contributes to climate justice and a cosmo-politics that extends beyond the human sphere.

And for those who want to know more...

Religious actors have played an increasing role in transnational civil society activism on environmental governance and climate concerns. Preliminary ethnographic research was conducted at the United Nations' climate negotiations in Morocco (COP22, 2016) to elaborate how the practices of religious faith and action manifest and how they contribute to discourses of climate justice.

As can be expected, faith-based actors do not attend to climate-related inequities in the same ways, nor do they uniformly enact "faith" or "spirituality." Religious organizations at COP 22 perceived themselves as part of transnational activist networks that are bi-directional - towards the non faith-based civil society organizations, but also as internal activists within their own religious traditions.

Faith-based actors and organizations also position themselves in a cosmopolitics that extends beyond the human sphere. A future goal is to develop a "collaborative event ethnography" of FBOs at future UNFCCC meetings using a larger team of researchers.