Resistance and Recognition of (Non)Violence: How Climate Justice Resisters in Portugal Make Sense of Intersectional (Non)Violence

I would like to present my PhD research. I am still in the 1st year of my doctoral program, but I believe that sharing my research proposal and discussing it with others can help me orient my research and support others in considered discussions about (non)violence in their Resistance Studies research and activism. I depart from the recognition that, despite growing literature on resistance and (non)violence, few studies have looked at how activists recognise and discuss the definitions and roles of violence and nonviolence. Looking at Climáximo, a Portuguese grassroots climate justice collective that embraces a narrative of war and life, I aim to understand how people in intersectional resistance movements perceive and discuss the roles and definitions of violence and nonviolence, and the impacts of these discussions on their actions and identities. For data collection and analysis, a situational analysis will be used, through in-person and online ethnography, active participant observation, and social media analysis. My expected argument is that, within Climáximo, the narratives of war and life used imply a differentiated and incomplete recognition of the entanglements of intersectional (non)violence. This conflicted recognition (re)produces a resistant regime of (non)violence that, in the groups’ actions and identities, organises, mobilises, and institutionalises alternative, counter-hegemonic, and intersectional understandings of violence and nonviolence that challenge the state-centred regime of (non)violence. Once again, this is still a very initial presentation given my early stage of research. However, presenting my research proposal could bring discussions of violence and nonviolence into the conference debates on resistance.