Alice Swift
Alice Swift is undertaking a PhD in Sociology at the University of Manchester’s School of Social Sciences funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Education and experience
MSc in Sociological Research at Manchester University as part of her ESRC 1+3 funding.
MA (Distinction) in Environmental Politics and Climate Change from Keele University. She received the SPIRE Award for highest overall grade and highest dissertation mark. Her dissertation was a comparison between the climate justice social movement organisations Reclaim the Power in the UK and Ende Gelände in Germany.
BA (First Class Honours) in International Relations and Political Science from the University of Birmingham. Her dissertation analysed the reasons why Canada withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011 arguing compliance with the accord would undermine continuation of the unconventional oil tar sands industry there.
Alice worked for the cycling and environmental Non-Governmental Organisation Sustrans for over two years in the West Midlands along with other NGOs including the tree-planting organisation Treesponsibility in Yorkshire. She also launched the UK Fossil Free divestment movement in autumn 2013 and was a co-founder of the Birmingham Student Housing Co-operative.
Project
PhD title: ‘Social reproduction in the European Climate Camp Movement.’
Alice’s work uses Marxist-Feminist theories of ‘social reproduction’ to analyse the camp infrastructure and ‘movement infrastructure’ necessary for the creation of large scale temporary protest camps organised around the notion of climate justice. Questioning how these climate camp organisations sustain themselves and the activists part of them.
She is primarily focussed on the UK organisation Reclaim the Power and the German organisation Ende Gelände but to a lesser extent covers similar organisations in other European countries such as France and Italy, many of which have emerged in recent years. She is interested in how tactics, strategies and ideologies travel between national boundaries and how movements influence each other.
She is also interested in ecological political theory and the policing of protests. She is part of the ‘Criminalising Dissent’ research group on the policing of protests which has included work on the ‘Stansted 15 Trial.’
Publications
Doherty, B., Saunders, C. and Hayes, G. (2020) ‘A New Climate Movement? Extinction Rebellion’s Activists in Profile.’ CUSP Working Paper No 25. CUSP Working Paper Series, No 25, 25, pp.1-39.
(Alice worked as an assistant on this project).
Swift, A. (2019) ‘Climate strike – we've had enough of politely asking governments to save our future,’ Open Democracy. [Online] Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/climate-strike-weve-had-enough-of-politely-asking-governments-to-save-our-future/
Swift, A. (2019) ‘Thousands join sixth Ende Gelände,’ in Resurgence & The Ecologist, Issue 316 September/October 2019.
Swift, A (2019) ‘Climate justice action in Germany,’ in Resurgence & The Ecologist. 19th December 2019 [Online] Available at: https://theecologist.org/2019/dec/19/climate-justice-action-germany
Swift, A. (2020) ‘Ende Gelände 2020,’ in Resurgence & The Ecologist. 2nd October 2020 [Online] Available at: https://theecologist.org/2020/oct/02/ende-gelande-2020 (Accessed 19th October 2020).
Conference Papers
Swift, A. (2018) ‘How has the German climate justice movement organisation Ende Gelände been able to mobilise so many people?’ at the Alternative Futures and Popular Protest conference in Manchester 26th-28th March 2018.
Swift, A. (2019) ‘Freedom is an Endless Climate Camp: A Comparison between the Ideological Tenets and their Temporal Development in Reclaim the Power, Ende Gelände and Extinction Rebellion,’ 16th Annual Historical Materialism Conference 2019 7th-10th November 2019.
Discussant on a panel titled ‘Fighting in a World on Fire: Strategies for the Climate Movement’ at the 16th Annual Historical Materialism Conference 2019 7th-10th November 2019
Discussant on the book launch for ‘Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future’ by Geoff Mann & Joel Wainwright, (London/New York: Verso 2018) at the 16th Annual Historical Materialism Conference 2019 7th-10th November 2019.
Article Reviews
Alice has reviewed articles for Environmental Politics, Historical Materialism and the Interface journal.
Follow her work on Twitter: @swiftnotswallow