Organisational forms in the climate justice movement

An analysis of the structures and processes of different groups within the climate justice movement in Germany and their potential and obstacles

Abstract

All social movement groups face the question of how to organise themselves internally in order to achieve their goals. This also applies to the various groups within the climate justice movement in Germany. This working paper aims to understand the differences between the various forms of organisation and to identify their potential and obstacles.

The aim of the working paper is to answer the question of how four groups within the climate justice movement in Germany (Ende Gelände, Extinction Rebellion, Fridays for Future, Letzte Generation) organise themselves and what potential and obstacles are associated with their forms of organisation. To answer the research question, a qualitative study is conducted using guided individual interviews with four activists from the four groups under investigation. The interview data and other relevant online sources are evaluated using the grounded theory methodology to generate theoretical insights into the research question.

The qualitative evaluation shows that the four groups examined have different forms of organisation. The greatest differences exist between the groups ‘Ende Gelände’ and ‘Letzte Generation’. The decisive factor here is primarily the different degrees of hierarchical structuring. The model derived from the data and the hypotheses established show that the degree of hierarchical structuring of a group plays a decisive role in determining the potential and obstacles experienced by the group. The different structural characteristics have either a facilitating or inhibiting effect on the processes within the groups. This involves slowness versus speed, instrumentality versus prefiguration, effectiveness versus participation/legitimacy, unity/uniformity versus diversity, and resilience versus vulnerability.

Based on the results, it seems sensible to conduct a further quantitative investigation of the hypotheses established in this study and to include other, possibly even more formal groups.