Thore Keitum Fisker: “Hvis vi kan få 24.000 mennesker til at sætte sig på en vej” – Non-persuasive kroppe i den danske klimaaktivistgruppe Nødbremsen

Thore Keitum Fisker är doktorand i retorik vid Köpenhamns universitet
och för närvarande gästdoktorand vid institutionen.

Presentationen hålls på engelska, men diskussionen kan även föras på svenska och danska. Text kan rekvireras genom att kontakta Thore på mail: tkf@hum.ku.dk

Abstract

This paper draws upon the author’s fieldwork in the climate activist group Nødbremsen, (En. The Emergency Brake) which carries out roadblocks in Copenhagen (Denmark) in opposition to the government’s infrastructure plan and its climate related impacts. The paper initially situates Nødbremsen’s work in a civil disobedience framework, asserting the function of their work as extra-persuasive, before conducting an analysis of the organization’s bodily training and protest practices. The paper finally argues Nødbremsen trains its participants to be material obstructions of the status quo and how to bodily handle the affect directed at such obstructions, such as aggression from drivers and police officers. As participants in Nødbremsen often argue climate activists “need to do something that cannot be ignored” by media and policy makers, they simultaneously provide bodily tools to cope with the unignorable consequences of transforming one’s body into a vilified obstacle for the status quo.