‘Lived’ Environmentalism

In this article, I synthesise three literatures that—whilst having significant overlap, are largely not in conversation with one another: social movement theory on the ‘religion-like’ characteristics of social movements (particularly environmentalism); work by scholars in religious studies tracing the religious roots and contemporary spiritual aspects of environmental movements; and the emerging literature on the contours of nonreligious belief and practice in contemporary societies—especially as they relate to nature. Using these literatures, I show how environmentalisms articulate a ‘cosmology’ or worldview that gives meaning to the world, imbues ethical meaning to material objects like single-use plastics and their reusable alternatives, and is translated into everyday practices that attempt to remoralise activists’ relationship with the natural world. The article responds to a call by scholars of nonreligion to pay greater attention to ‘lived’ nonreligion, and in particular, how nonreligious worldviews translate into ‘world-repairing’ forms of social and political action. I argue that social movements are rich sites for the study of lived nonreligion, as they offer their participants space for the cultivation, expression, and embodiment of ‘moral visions’.