Mounting climate emissions pose critical questions for mobility and travel practices. Particularly problematic are the emissions caused by aviation. Consequently, an emerging theme of discussion has been rail travel as a more sustainable practice. This has coincided with the discourse of “flight shame” and the recent emergence of the youth climate movement. The article studies the travel practices of young climate activists in relation to the large-scale changes in mobility that they argue for and envision, and how the two are interconnected. Analysis is based on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork and interviews (n = 18) conducted with young climate activists in Finland in 2020. The results reveal that the interviewees avoid flight travel and instead prefer travelling by ground. This has become a norm among climate activists, and they argue that it is not just a more sustainable form of travel but can be more meaningful, too. Furthermore, young climate activists argue for societal and cultural changes in mobility and travel and demand action from decision-makers. Mobility and travel are inseparable features of everyday life in the contemporary world. Thus, overland travel, and especially train travel, constitutes an “everyday utopia” – a shared transformative practice and an act of activism in itself.
Travelling by ground – young climate activists and the everyday utopia of sustainable travel
Applied Mobilities ; 8 , 1 ; 81-96
2023-01-02
16 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
Unknown
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