Image courtesy of Filmbetrachter/Pixabay
We are pleased to announce that the Society will be collaborating on a new project, led by Royal Holloway, University of London, to document the history of environmental activism.
The project, titled Oral History of the Environmental Movement in the UK: 1970-2020, is led by Dr Toby Butler, and will run for the next three years. Project partners alongside the Society include the British Library and Friends of the Earth.
The project is a unique effort to record 100 interviews with people involved in environmental protests, policies, and practical action over the last 50 years. A key output will be an accessible and high-quality national archive of environmental activism, documenting the history of environmental campaigns through the words of those most intimately involved, including those whose contributions have been overlooked. The interviewees will include environmental campaigners – from grassroots activists and social entrepreneurs to radical campaigners and pioneers of major environmental groups – forgotten voices, and leading lights in environmental activism.
Beyond the oral archive, the project’s outputs will include a freely-available book, events and teaching resources that will contribute to greater understanding and wider public awareness of how people engage with environmental issues across the generations. We will be working with the research team to develop an integrated set of educational resources to contribute to teaching and learning about environmental citizenship.
The Society regularly partners with geographers who are leading funded research projects to advance geographical science and further our understanding of the world, its people, places and environments. If you are interested in finding out more, contact us at rhed@rgs.org.