Protecting Mother Earth:Nature and Environmental Materiality in Anti-Nuclear Peace Camps (1981–1985)

In response to nuclear proliferation following NATO's 1979 Double-Track Decision, several women-only peace camps emerged next to nuclear installations. Two of these camps were the Danish Ravnstrup (1984-1985) and the British Greenham Common peace camp (1980-2000). Research shows how the material environment and physical location influenced daily life at the camps (Christensen 1989; Krasniewicz 1992; Cresswell 1994; Navickas 2023; Eschle 2016). However, there is a lack of work focusing on environmental materiality as a fundamental factor in shaping the anti-nuclear protests at peace camps.<br/>Drawing on archival material from the camps and utilizing a transnational approach, this paper will demonstrate that the embodied, material reality of everyday life such as the weather, mud, and sleeping in benders became essential parts of daily life and had a profound impact on the anti-nuclear protest. Using the concept of socio-technological imaginaries (Jasanoff and Kim 2015), I will show how the women involved connected imaginaries related to nuclear technology, gender, and nature. Through this intraaction, nature shifted from being a backdrop for protests to becoming an active actant in shaping ecofeminist identities and approaches to peace in the shadow of nuclear annihilation.<br/>