Stories of resistance and resilience: developing a community work approach to climate change and climate justice

How can a radical community work approach begin to address the climate crisis? Climate change poses an enormous threat to social justice and is already detrimentally affecting the lives of millions of the most marginalised people around the world. In this paper, I critically assess the December 2015 Paris Agreement reached at the UN climate conference using the elements of environmental justice theory: recognition, redistribution and participation. I suggest that the solutions proposed by the agreement lack ambition and equity, instead relying on technological quick-fixes and financial markets. I trace the root cause of the climate crisis in Enlightenment humanist philosophies that contribute to what bell hooks has called patriarchal, white supremacist capitalism and a mechanistic exploitation of people and the planet. Finally, drawing on my experience carrying out community work research in north-west Ireland, I explore how a popular education approach offers tools for a radical community work response to climate change that is rooted in dialogue that supports us to tell new stories and create alternative, sustainable and participatory ways of being