An album of protest: assembling narratives from the Hambacher Forst squat

Metzler, Hannah Lina (2019) An album of protest: assembling narratives from the Hambacher Forst squat. Masters dissertation, University of Cumbria. Item availability may be restricted.

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Abstract

An Album of protest: The assemblage of narratives derived from the squat occupying the Hambacher Forst tells stories of the life within a squatted forest in Germany. The album illustrates a collection of various individual perspectives presented via artworks including paintings, photographs and poems; as well as by gaining insights in the process of transformative learning and the ‘decolonisation of the mind’ of individuals and the collective expressed in notes and interviews of and with the activists. The Hambacher Forst community empowers its members. The profoundness of this impact on the activist’s biographies is unpredictable at this stage. The data gathered in the forest is incorporated and analysed according to existing literature in the fields of political ecology, protest culture and theory about the biographical impact of activism, social movement learning and transformative learning. Different forms of resistance as civil disobedience, temporary autonomous zones, violence/destruction, mummery and humour are portrayed in the paper. Moreover, the album elaborates the overvalued status of the concept of nature in ecology, its incoherence and its vulnerability of being misused for ideological justifications. People engaged in social movements require a critical examination of political ethics and philosophies. Further research about activist’s concepts and philosophies of nature are of interest. The methodological approach applied in this research intends to be radical and aims for creating a temporary autonomous zone to challenge the dominant hegemony of academic writing. The dissertation is submitted as a Prezi Presentation to allow the exploration via a multiplicity of pathways.

Item Type: Thesis/Dissertation (Masters)
Departments: Academic Departments > Science, Natural Resources & Outdoor Studies (SNROS) > Outdoor Studies
Additional Information: Dissertation presented in part fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Transcultural European Outdoor Studies, University of Cumbria, UK, 2019.
Depositing User: Anna Lupton
Date Deposited: 03 Oct 2019 09:54
Last Modified: 13 Jan 2024 08:35
URI: https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5111
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