An intersectional approach to climate activism—Fridays For Future in the pursuit of inclusivity

Abstract In August 2018, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg began protesting for climate justice in front of the Swedish parliament. This protest developed into the global movement Fridays For Future, which encompassed 163 countries and over four million people in September 2019. In Austria a new climate movement has also emerged, which will be analysed in this article from an intersectional perspective and by using a mixed-methods approach: First, the analytical lens of structural intersectionality investigates which social categories shape Fridays For Future to understand which activists are part of the social movement. Second, the intersectional collective action framework is used to analyse the extent to which social categories, such as gender and age, underpin activists’ framing of the climate crisis and their motivation. Third, the lens of intersectional activism addresses to what extent diversity and inclusion are part of the self-image and strategy of Fridays For Future, and to what extent social inequalities along social categories (re)create power and exclusion. Such an intersectional analysis is a young field of social movement studies, although the concept of intersectionality emerged from political activism. Thus, the article makes a significant contribution to the intersectional analysis of the climate justice movement.