What forests do to energy counter-mobilizations
Ce que les forêts font aux (contre-)mobilisations énergétiques
Modes of action, politicization, alliances
Modes d’action, politisation et alliances
Published on Thursday, October 30, 2025
Abstract
Durant le prochain congrès de l’Association française de science politique (SFSP), la section thématique 30 (ST30) questionnera ce que les forêts font aux conditions d’émergence et d’action de formes protestataires visant à porter la critique à l’égard d’infrastructures et scenarii qui, au nom de la « transition énergétique » ou de la « décarbonation », procèdent à une exploitation intensive des ressources ligneuses ou foncières des zones forestières. La ST sera soucieuse de faire dialoguer des travaux sur les Nords, comme sur les Suds, et entend privilégier les propositions qui inscriraient leur démarche dans une appréhension soit comparative, soit globale - par les jeux d’échelle ou les circulations - sur cette thématique.
Announcement
Argument
Forest ecosystems, particularly subject to anthropogenic stress and increasingly extreme climatic hazards (heat waves, epidemics, fires and mega-fires, overexploitation, etc.), are occupying an increasingly significant place in protest agendas. Forests are even considered, by some, as "fronts" (Vidalou, 2017), because they are the first to be affected by large-scale industrial infrastructure projects. A trend towards the "politicization of forests" by certain social movements or activist fringes is increasingly observed in the context of struggles against various infrastructure or land development projects. Moreover, "anti-extractivist" counter-mobilizations against equipment aimed at producing energy from the resources provided by forest areas are multiplying on a global scale (Kaufer, 2023). Studies have analyzed the conflicts of use which, since the Middle Ages, marked the privatization and then the commodification of forest areas, in particular through enclosures (Graber and Locher, 2018; Fressoz, 2023) and conflicts between rural and urban areas around their uses (Larrère and Nougarède, 1993; Léger and Hervieu, 1979). More recently, the enlistment of forests in the process of air conditioning public action and its consequences on the management methods of these ecosystems have been studied (Glinel, 2025). On the other hand, the effects of a "forestization" of social movements or, at least, of a growing presence of forest life in collective action, in particular around energy issues, seem to have received relatively little attention.
The TS will therefore question what forests do to the conditions of emergence and action of forms of protest aimed at criticizing infrastructures and scenarios which, in the name of the "energy transition" or "decarbonization", carry out intensive exploitation of wood or land resources in forest areas in order to produce biochar, hydrogen by electrolysis, e-kerosene, pellets, etc. It is important to jointly understand the conditions of possibility and felicity of counter-mobilizations in this area. The ST will be keen to bring together work on the North, as well as on the South, and intends to favor proposals that would place their approach in a comparative or global understanding - through the play of scale or circulations - on this theme (defense of primary forests from the North, local mobilizations in the South inscribed in dynamics of transnationalization, etc.).
Proposed papers may, without limitation, fall within one or both of the following themes:
1/ We will examine the protest movements and innovations of energy counter-mobilizations in defense of forests. From chaining to trunks to international events inviting representatives of communities living in the heart of what remains of primary forests (e.g., the World Rainforest Movement), to collectives purchasing wooded plots aimed at (re)communalizing these spaces (e.g., the Network for Forest Alternatives or Canopée), there are numerous ways in which forests are erected as objects or subjects of collective action. Actions are increasingly taking place from the treetops, requiring specific protest appetites and skills, as well as a distribution of activist labor and the logic of politicizing the local community that must be accounted for.
Emotional links to forests as an integral part of "awareness-raising mechanisms" will be questioned, particularly in their forms of articulation with counter-expertise or prospective studies, skills essential for giving credibility to arguments and accrediting protesters (Dassié, 2014; Traïni, 2015).
2/ Coalitions of actors forming around the defense of forests can lead to original configurations, as in the case of mobilizations against “green hydrogen” production sites, where local forest owners’ unions and environmentalist associations can form a common opposition front, while they usually oppose each other regarding the financial exploitation of forest areas (Chailleux, Smith, Compagnon, 2022). The TS will pay attention to the various effects that the “forestization” process has on local configurations of actors and the modalities of politicization, “from above” and “from below. The political asymmetries and ideological gaps that this collective action of forests can generate, depending on the ideological, religious, and moral tools that the actors project onto trees/forests will also be studied.
Bibliographic references
Chailleux Sébastien, Smith Andy, Compagnon Daniel, « Projets d’énergie renouvelables : à quoi servent vraiment les débats publics ? », The Conversation, 04.112022 : https://theconversation.com/projets-denergies-renouvelables-a-quoi-servent-vraiment-les-debats-publics-179213
Dassié Véronique, Des arbres au cœur d’une émotion. La fabrique d’un consensus patrimonial : le parc du château de Versailles après la tempête. Paris, CNRS & ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, 2014
Dechézelles Stéphanie, Olive Maurice, « Les mondes familiers comme espaces de critique sociale et de revendication politique », dans Politisation du proche. Les lieux familiers comme espaces de mobilisation, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2019
Kaufer Ricardo, Forest from below: social movements, indigenous communities, forest occupations and eco-solidarism, Springer, 2023
Fressoz Jean-Baptiste, Sans transition. Une nouvelle histoire de l’énergie, Paris, Seuil, 2024
Graber Frédéric, Locher Fabien (dir.), Posséder la nature. Environnement et propriété dans l’histoire, Paris, Amsterdam Editions, 2018
Glinel Charlotte, Mobiliser les forêts françaises face au réchauffement climatique : une sociologie politique du travail écologique, thèse de Sociologie, IEP Paris, 2025
Larrère Raphael, Nougarède Olivier, Des hommes et des forêts, Paris, Gallimard, 1993
Léger Danièle, Hervieu Bertrand, Le retour à la nature. « Au fond de la forêt… l’Etat », Paris, Seuil 1979
Thompson Edward P., La guerre des forêts. Luttes sociales dans l’Angleterre du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, La Découverte, 2014
Traïni Christophe (dir.), Émotions et expertises. Les modes de coordination des actions collectives, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2015
Vidalou Jean-Baptiste, Être forêts. Habiter des territoires en lutte, Paris, La Découverte, 2017
Subjects
Places
- Lyon, France (69)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Date(s)
- Sunday, December 07, 2025
Keywords
- action collective, mouvement social, forêt, énergie, politisation, transition
Contact(s)
- Stéphanie Dechézelles
courriel : stephanie [dot] dechezelles [at] univ-pau [dot] fr - Antoine Dolez
courriel : antoine [dot] dolez [at] uclouvain [dot] be
Information source
- Antoine Dolez
courriel : antoine [dot] dolez [at] uclouvain [dot] be
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« What forests do to energy counter-mobilizations », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Thursday, October 30, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/152az
